Rogue Intelligence - Part 2

Fiction Friday. Escape pod here. Could Sov grinding be made fun???

Rogue Intelligence - Part 2

Korako Kosakami strode into the conference room with purpose. The assembled officers rose from their seats to attention as he entered. As he sat, so did the others.

"Today is a special day. Many of you know various parts of the operation culminating soon, I am here to brief you on the big picture. Four months ago one of our intelligence analysts picked up on two separate, unconnected reports. The Gallente had a prototype AI chip that was beyond anything currently available. In fact it was so advanced it could break the Dodixie Convention on Artificial Intelligence with the right software. The idiots were going to stick it in drones! The other report was from the Amarr. They had developed the most advanced AI combat software ever. A military pilot AI that could pilot any class of ship and approaching capsuleer level. However, they were years away from the hardware."

Korako Kosakami strode away from the conference table and gazed out of the huge window into deep space.

"Our agents have been able to acquire both the prototype chip and the software. As we speak it is being installed into a test ship. This is going to level the playing field. For too long the Empyreans have had a hold over us. They can take us at 10 to 1 in our favour and still beat us without breaking a sweat. We do not have enough of our own capsuleers to challenge them. But now, with an armada of ships powered by this new technology, we will crush them."

"What is the test ship?" one of the officers asked.

"We needed a capital. Something big and specialised in drones. We need to manufacture more of these chips and drone parts so we installed factories inside it."

"The Nyx we stole last month!" another officer exclaimed.

Kosakami smiled and nodded. "We set up factories in the hangers and removed the capsule gantry and replaced it with servers. In a few hours we will have a fully automated super carrier that can produce its own drones and fighters that are equipped with a super-advanced AI. That ship will be self sufficient and will have the capsuleers running for wormhole space to escape our wrath!"

-o0o-

Captain Jotaro looked at the readouts on his datapad. The control functions were being rerouted. The Omicron chip was coming online. Within minutes he would be the Captain of the most advanced ship in the cluster. Whilst not the most powerful, the titans still would hold that honour, it would be the best in its class. Not even a capsuleer piloted super-carrier would stand a chance against it. They could operate in deep space almost indefinitely. The new on-board factories could produce drones and spare parts as needed. Material could be mined from local asteroids using drones. Any Empyrean they met would feel their wrath.

"Sir, phase one is complete. I am heading to the capsuleer gantry to initiate phase two." his first officer stated.

He nodded in acknowledgement and watched her leave. He was concerned about her. She was after his job, he was sure of that. He needed to keep an eye on her, there was no way he was going to let a piece of skirt take the greatest command in the Guristas away from him.

Jotaro went back to his datapad and selected the security cameras in the pod gantry. He saw her enter. The capsule itself was missing, in its place were two large servers rigged into the capsule interfaces. Within the heart of one of these servers was the Omicoron Chip. In the other the vast software package of the Amarrian combat AI. It had been hacked and unquestionable allegiance to the Guristas installed at its core. He was assured the hacking was the best in the Cluster and other than the allegiance change, nothing had changed. The Captain and First Officer would still have ultimate control, however the AI would replace the thousands of crew that were needed to man a ship this size. For those jobs it couldn't handle, it would create advanced drones to man the stations more effectively than a human could ever do.

Mei-Xing the First Officer approached the console and logged into the system. The diagnostic showed everything was running as it should. She entered her command codes for the Nyx. These would give the AI full control over all ship functions. It was ready.

"Captain. The AI is ready. Awaiting your orders to bridge the connection."

Whilst everything had been installed, a physical switch had been made between the Omicron server and the ship. This allowed the AI to be fully disconnected in the event of any problems.

"Flick the switch number one. Lets see what this bucket of bolts can do!"

He watched on the screen as her ran hovered over the switch. She flicked it into the open position and the ship was instantly plunged into darkness.

"Report!" shouted the Captain into the gloom.

"Main power is down. All computer systems are down. Captain it appears..."

The unseen officer was cut short as the power came back on.

"Everything is back sir. Looks like the AI rebooted the systems. All lights are green. I'm showing process orders being sent to the factories and heavy usage of the Neocom connection sir."

"Noted. This is to be expected. Our new member of the crew is preparing us for war with the capsuleers."

-o0o-

Down in the factory hanger Chief Engineer Shingo looked on as the robotic arms swung around the conveyor belt. He sighed out loud.

"Not happy Chief?" Technician First Class Kenichi joined him leaning on the rail looking down at the factory.

"This thing is going to put us all out of a job. They think it'll start by producing drones with the same super advanced AI. Ones that'll do our job better, faster and more efficient. However, these bucket of bolts cannot feel. They have no instinct to trust. It'll be a disaster." he moaned. "I mean look at that thing!"

The two men watched the machine walk off the production line. It was larger than a man and walked on four legs. Four more limbs stretched out in front of it.

"I mean what the frack is THAT for? What is that where its head should be? Looks like a spoon!"

"I don't know Chief. But I wouldn't want to bump into it in a dimly lit corridor!"

The two Engineers watched the thing scurry out of the factory and down the corridor off to do its job whatever that may be.

Meanwhile in the capsuleer gantry the AI ran a new sub-routine for the first time. A bad connection was found and started an illegal operation. The AI tried to correct the error and failed. An emergency re-write of sections of its software was undertaken. Unfortunately the hackers had made a mistake and the AI was trying to correct the damage they had done.

-o0o-

Mei-Xing was just getting ready for bed when her datapad sounded with a priority one call. She grabbed the pad and saw it was the Captain.

"Sir?"

"Number One, get down to the pod gantry now." the Captain barked and the call cut off.

She quickly threw on her uniform and rushed out of her quarters. The lift seamed terribly slow as she wondered what the problem was. The Captain sounded mad. Was there a problem with the AI? Were they in danger?

She jogged along the corridor and reached the secure door to the pod gantry. Capsuleers were extremely vulnerable whilst in their hydrostatic pods and entry to the pod gantry was strictly controlled. She held her eye to the scanner and a second later the door opened. She entered the pod gantry and froze. The drones had been busy installing hardware. Wires snaked around the chamber connecting various bits of hardware that had been bolted here and there. Small drones scurried around the large room.

"Captain?" she called out as she picked her way through the tangled wires.

"Over here!" she heard his voice but it didn't sound quite right. It appeared to be coming from a large chair that had appeared in the room. She looked at it carefully. The chair appeared to be wired into the various systems surrounding it. Metallic robotic arms appeared to be bolted to the floor around it standing eight feet high. She couldn't fathom what purpose this construction would serve. A sound made her spin around. A small drone approached her. It was the size of a small dog and had six legs. It was a dull metallic silver and appeared to have a small arm mounded on its back. She watched as the arm extended towards her. Suddenly it shot forward and she felt a surge of electricity course through her body. She collapsed to the ground convulsing. One of the large robotic arms near the seat extended and grabbed her around the neck. It lifted her off the floor and into the chair. She was helpless as restraints wrapped around her arms and legs, the effects of the electrical pulse still paralysing her muscles. It was over in seconds, she was completely immobile in the chair. A second robotic arm appeared. This had some sort of sharp cone on the end of the arm. Slowly it levelled with her face. She screamed as it settled over her left eye and started to move forward, small metallic tentacle started to emerge from the point. The shriek intensified as she felt the cold metal make contact with her delicate eyeball.

-o0o-

The Captain grumbled to himself as he walked down the corridor. It was probably nothing, Mei-Xing just trying to create drama. He scanned his eye at the door and entered the pod gantry. He'd taken two steps in when he froze. It had changed, the entire room now looked like a hive. The door hissed closed behind him making him jump. He tried to back out but the door was secured.

"Captain...." Mei-Xing's voice echoed around the chamber.

The Captain was sweating now in fear. Something was very wrong. He slowly moved around the patched-in cables and equipment. As he moved around a large server housing and did a something unbecoming a Captain, he screamed. In front of him was Mei-Xing, or what was left of her anyway, secured to a metal chair. Clusters of wires vanished into her left bloodied eye-socket. More pipes and cables sprouted from various locations on her body. A section of her skull was missing and more wires vanished into her exposed brain. Her whole body shook with tremors. Her mouth was not moving, it was locked in a half scream with drool running from the side.

"Captain.... please..... kill...... me......."

The voice didn't come from Mei-Xing but from the various speakers around the room. The Captains eyes rolled up into his head and he promptly fainted. This was for the best as he never felt the robotic arm grab him by the neck and place him into another chair. He was still unconscious as he was slowly made a part of the ship.

-o0o-

"Lieutenant? The.... The jump drive, its spooling up!"

"Impossible!" shouted the lieutenant as he lept out of the Captains chair and down to the navigation station.

"Confirmed sir. We are jumping!"

Lieutenant Donghai gripped his head in frustration. The grave-yard shift meant the Captain and First Officer were sleeping. Nothing ever came of Lieutenants who dragged the commanding officers out of bed to solve their problems.

"Who lit the destination cyno?" he asked thinking quickly. "We are not fleeted are we?"

"Erm.... I don't know sir.... this readout must be wrong.... sir.... I...."

The Lieutenant grabbed the ensign by the shoulder and dragged him from the chair. He quickly sat and read the screen. He couldn't believe it. It was one of the new Firblog fighters that had been refitted by the AI at the factory. All fighters had been reconfigured to fly with AI rather than a pilot. But this one, it had a cyno generator installed. Not only that, it had travelled several systems through jump gates in the last hour, something fighters should not have been able to do.

"That's impossible! Only the Captain and First Officer have the command codes for the jump drive. It was a safety precaution. Those codes were never given to the AI!" he hissed in anger as the Nyx class supercarrier vanished into the artificial wormhole.

"Open a channel to...." the Lieutenant was cut short as the bridge door opened. A humanoid drone walked in. The bridge crew froze as it approached the Lieutenant. Whilst it was humanoid it appeared to have no eyes or mouth or any features of any kind. Its head slowly turned as if scanning the room. Its head stop when it faced the lieutenant. Slowly it turned and started to walk towards him.

"Stop! I order you to stop. Stand down." he stuttered. He was still giving it orders as it grabbed his head and tore it from his shoulders. It held the head in its hand as if studying it. There was a stunned silence as the crew processed what they had just seen before the bridge erupted into chaos.

People tried to escape but the doors had been sealed by the computer. The humanoid drone slowly walked around the room. It caught the comms officer by the arm. He struggled as the drone lifted him up and threw him against the wall with immense force. There was a sickening crunch of bones shattering and his lifeless body fell to the floor. The tactical officer was backed into the corner as it came for her. She stood her ground defiantly knowing there was nowhere to go.

"Frack you." she snarled.

The drone grabbed her head and twisted quickly. There was a loud snap and it dropped her lifeless body to the floor, her head facing the wrong way.

Another minute later it left the lifeless blood-soaked room, the dead bodies of the bridge crew littering the bridge. As it left smaller drones scurried into the room and started to interface themselves with the various stations.

-o0o-

Korako Kosakami  shut down the holoprojector. He'd seen enough. The 60 second video had been sent to Guristas HQ in a burst transmission. It had taken them a while to piece it back together it as it appeared to have been sent from, what his technicians had termed, a 'ghetto transmitter'. Something put together from spare parts that were never meant to work together.

A bloodied and injured Chief Engineer had been screaming into a recorder. He'd spliced in shots from the various security cameras around the ship. It had been the stuff of nightmares. Drones under the control of the AI roaming the corridors and literally ripping apart any crew they found. Parts of the ship no longer resembled Gallente construction and had been changed beyond all recognition. However, the most horrific of all the images had been a grainy shot of the pod gantry room. The Captain and First Officer literally wired into the ship as some kind of organic processors. The Chief Engineer had made it very clear the AI had taken control of the ship and killed almost all the crew. He also mad it abundantly clear he was very mad at the Guristas high-command for letting this happen.

The ship itself had vanished, apparently according to the Chief, AI controlled drones were able to light cynos allowing the ship to use its jump drive. The command codes from the jump drive clearly extracted from the Captains brain.

Korako Kosakami had placed a standing order for his forces to engage and destroy the Nyx. However, no sign had been seen of it for days. He turned to his communication suite and opened a comm channel. A man in a lab coat appeared on screen and stood to attention.

"Mr Kosakami sir!"

"At ease. Is your project ready?"

"Yes sir. The primary test subject has been identified and is being tracked. The equipment is mounted on the ship and is primed. However I was under orders to hold as Project Omicron had priority?"

"How long until you could implement fully?"

"Well sir, we're not 100% sure as we would need to destroy her fighter. It might take a couple of engagements until we successfully destroy her ship depending on our own fighters sir."

"Do it."

"Yes sir. On your orders we are activating Project Valkyrie."