Life2.0 - An "Of Unity" Narrative (Completed)

[HistoryDude]

Who is this admiral "that saw [Appia's] unique potential"?

Is Septima going to be crucified?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Who is this admiral "that saw [Appia's] unique potential"?

The one who promoted a much younger Appia to Subcommander.

Is Septima going to be crucified?

Depends on who wins that choice between MSI and the Kyaese.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Wreck Of The Strix, Part 4"
28th Daas, 10 (2189)
Juno Laronius​

Rivkah has us all putting together this skiff.

I'm leading the assembly team who are fabricating the passenger section. We've ripped the canteen apart - tables have become hand-hold bars, chairs bodged to have seat belts, all welded by laser weapons on the lowest settings. All encased behind an improvised navigational deflector.

Other teams are bringing in their bits - a propellant tank team are putting on the tanks.

Which are mounted on reworked grenades so that we can eject empty tanks. We don't have the right explosive detachers, but that doesn't stop Rivkah.

The RCS team have started bringing in the thrusters.

This is all the easy stuff though.

Rivkah walks in, with Statia. We all look at them. Statia looks half the size of Rivkah.

Rivkah looks at us. "Stop putting the RCS on."

I look at her. "What's wrong now?"

Statia frowns. "Containment failed on the antimatter reserve we should have, and the automated system has ejected to avoid an explosion."

Rivkah leans on the wall. "And without the antimatter, the RCS is basically a cold gas thruster. Useless."

I stand. "So we do what?"

Statia sighs. "Well, we have no propulsion system we can use."

I lean on the skiff. "Well... We tried." I look at my laser weapon. "Could take the quick way out."

Rivkah looks at me. Takes my hand. "Juno, we aren't defeated yet."

I try to stop the tears. I can't. "I just... It's hopeless. We're hopeless. We're adrift, running out of oxygen, limited supplies, on a hunk of scrap that is barely salvageable..."

She hugs me. "Pull yourself together. We're not dead yet, and we're not going down without a fight."

I pull away. "You just said we have no way out now."

She smiles. "We still have missiles, yes?"

"Yeah."

"So, we'll do explosive pulsed propulsion."

I stare blankly. "Rivkah, those are Marauder warheads. Those are designed to have blasts so powerful they can break neutronium armour."

"Are they variable yield?"

I laugh. "Not that variable."

She smiles. "We can just make them detonate further away. It would still work."

Statia sucks in air. "There's just one problem Rivkah."

Rivkah turns. "What is it?"

Statia answers slowly. "Command codes for the missiles are authenticated by a check against the fleet database. Prevents unauthorised access."

I sigh. "It's hopeless."

 

[HistoryDude]

I really hope someone gets around to rescuing Rivkah and co.

Could Appia change the fleet database to authorize their access?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Wreck Of The Strix, Part 5"
28th Daas, 10 (2189)
Rivkah Of Unity​

I relive her of her laser weapon. "Juno, it is not hopeless."

She crumples onto the skiff. "It is."

I look at Statia. "What exactly is the detonation method?"

Juno looks at her too. "Don't answer Statia."

Statia looks at me. "Marauder warheads are conversion monopole weapons that have a fusion primary to explosively implode the hyper-dense monopoles to create an artificial singularity. As you would expect, the system is designed to fail-safe, with each monopole package having triple redundancy on the retention mechanisms as well as required authorisation to begin the detonation sequence."

I sit down. "What happens if you try to hack the control system?"

Statia frowns. "Then it reports the attempt and the sensor logs back to central command for review."

Bingo! "Perfect! What knd of sensors are they using? Could we use them to send a message?"

Statia lights up. "Audio, full electromagnetic spectrum, psionic. It's a substantial set as we assumed there would be actionable intel to be gained in the scenario where a warhead was captured."

Suddenly I see why Mum never once ordered an attempt to reverse engineer MSI's weaponry. "How soon can you do it?"

She leans on the wall. "Well... I'll have to improvise a few things, as all the main tools I'd use for this were in engineering. But we can do it."

Juno looks at her. "Is there a risk you could accidentally blow it up?"

Statia shrugs. "Almost none. The risk is if they don't review the sensor logs and simply detonate the warhead first."

Juno shrugs. "Well, we are dead anyway, I suppose... At least getting sucked into a black hole is a quick way out."

I look at her. "That better be black humour, or I'll send you to the ship's counsellor."

Juno stares back at me.

Statia looks at her feet. "Rivkah... Technically Juno is the ship's counsellor."

I look at Statia. "Really?"

Statia nods. "Or at least the equivalent."

I look back at Juno. I smile. "Physician, heal yourself."

Juno stares at me, then sighs. "May I have permission to speak frankly?"

"Granted."

She scowls. "I'll use a Human phrase Rivkah: fuck you."

A man laughs as she shakes her head. "Hey, that's my job."

I turn to the doorway, where my husband is standing. "Scipio!"

 

[CBR JGWRR]

I really hope someone gets around to rescuing Rivkah and co.

Could Appia change the fleet database to authorize their access?

Once Appia knows, yes.

But Appia is... Just a bit busy right now.

 

[HistoryDude]

Juno and Rivkah's dynamic is amazing here. Juno is the pessimist who has given up hope but will try to escape anyway, and Rivkah is the one who comes up with the plans and provides hope.

That ending was priceless.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Decapitation Strike"
28th Daas, 10 (2189)
Naomi Of Unity​

I look at Buri as Appia sets the door breach explosives for the antechamber to the command centre of Gateway Control. It's odd how few Praetorians we've fought yet.

He looks at the door. I have a feeling they are all on the other side.

Maybe. I look at Appia. "Where are they?"

Appia looks at us. "I think they've decided to stay here and wait." She cycles her HUD. "Of the 4600 Praetorians of Legio XXII, we've dealt with 10, and the others have reported several hundred contacts."

I frown. "Septima must have withdrawn some of them. There's no way to have four thousand Praetorians on the remainder of the station."

Appia nods. "There's still room for quite a few in the next chamber. This chamber is an observation and VIP lounge for entertaining dignitaries. It's big." She stiffens her back. Looks past us to our troops. "You guys know our engineering, on the other side is a killzone chamber. Us three will lead the breach, you follow us in, spread out and provide covering fire."

We turn to the breaching charges.

Wait for the countdown.

Then sprint in.

And stop.

One Praetorian stands in the middle of a vast hall shrouded in darkness, all light focused on him.

Appia steps ahead of us. "Legate Varius, I order you to stand down."

The Legate retracts his helmet, revealing a scarred face, expression looked in a leer. "Really Appia, you know how this ends." He stretches out his arms to the sides. New lights shine on two more Pretorians. One is a woman. She's dressed in something only Buri would see me in, with a spiked chain, dripping poison. The other is a huge giant of an Olinbar, his arms bulging and veins popping.

I look at Buri. No imagination there.

Buri yawns his agreement.

Legate Varius claps his hands. "Ah Appia, I am so glad you could be here for the festivities! I was afraid you'd send someone else to do your dirty work. But no, you are here, in the exquisite flesh." Lights pour onto the steps down to him. "Please, I'm dying to make our last dance." He bows to his left. "This is Verania." Her bow leaves nothing to Appia's imagination as he turns right. "And this is Nero."

Lartius joins us. "When do we slot this lunatic?"

I look at him. "Weapons free."

Appia barks. "Belay that order. He's mine." She steps forward. "Look, you rapist cur, we came here to kill. Not dance."

Varius smiles. "Very well, I'll dance with your corpse."

He leaps into the air, dodging a shower of bullets as Lartius and team open fire.

Buri, they are gene-modded, expect them to do anything we can do.

Noted.

Nero charges at Buri, his spiked knuckle-dusters sparkling in the lights as the room floods with lights like a dance club.

Buri pairs off with their beast of a man.

Poison splashes at me as Verania swings her chain; Appia and Varius are fencing now. I leap carefully towards Verania.

When fighting with melee weapons, timing is everything, and this is especially so with whips and chains. Get the timing wrong, and you are unable to defend yourself. So, make her over-extend, and capitalise. I begin by fencing my neutronium filament blade against the tip of the chain, ensuring it can't wrap around, keeping my movements flowing and ensuring she never has a stationary target to hit. No mean feat when there's a sonicboom every time she swings.

At this pace, even with all of us augmented it is tricky to keep up; my armour picks up a few scrapes, and I catch her cheek.

She hisses with frustration, and begins to lose composure.

Now I lure her in.

I slowly close in my aim as my objective switches from deflecting the chain to skewering it and forcing an opening.

It takes twenty seconds, by which time we've exchanged more than three times that in sets, before I finally take her chain out the equation - run the filament through to the hilt, then yank hard over my shoulder. Pulling her above me with my main hand, my off hand grabs her leg.

The momentum pulls her through, but she lands with it dislocated.

She screams horribly with pain, dropping her chain as her hands scrabble at her legs, and then her breath leaves her in a gasp as my blade runs through her neck.

I look for Buri among the cacophony of bullets and dazzle flares.

There's no mistaking the sound of a snapping spine, nor my husband's roar in victory - as Buri drops the two halves of his opponent, we see Appia holding her breath - he has his sword at her throat. In her rage, she forgot to reactivate her helmet.

His gloating voice echoes. "No one move, or we all find out what colour Appia's blood is." He moves in with a knife, licking his lips. "You know how much I have wanted this."

He leans in.

Appia spits at him.

He wipes it off. "Now now Appia." He purses his lips, wraps his arms around her, pulls her in. She cries out, she twists away, but she can't escape the explosion of brain and skull.

"Got 'im!"

I look for the voice behind me.

Lartius raises his rifle as his fist pumps the air.

Appia wipes the mess off her face. "Yuck."

 

[Macavity116]

It's odd how few Praetorians we've fought yet.

Now that you've considered that, you've put a hex on the whole mission!

Lartius raises his rifle as his fist pumps the air.

Appia wipes the mess off her face. "Yuck."

Shows up to the fight late and takes all the credit for the final blow. Are we sure Lartius isn't a US Army helicopter pilot?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Now that you've considered that, you've put a hex on the whole mission!

That does give an idea.

Shows up to the fight late and takes all the credit for the final blow. Are we sure Lartius isn't a US Army helicopter pilot?

If Lartius was US Army, he'd have hit Appia.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Rotary Waste Distribution, Part 1"
28th Daas, 10 (2189)
Naomi Of Unity​

Appia leads us down a flight of stairs to the final Gateway Control centre.

Lights on, no one is home.

I look at her. "It's quiet."

She nods. "Defensive positions everyone." She watches everyone dig in before calling the admiralty on the centre display. "Nymphidia to general staff, control room secured."

The admiral smiles. "Well done, now we have to lock-"

"Contact rear left!"

Lartius' voice is soon drowned out by weapons fire before I'm even turned to see.

Praetorians step out cutouts in the walls, Sirzusians drop from the roof.

Buri roars as he leaps into the fray, and I follow to support him as we break the advance of the Praetorians while Appia rallies her forces.

The glass window above us shatters as more weapons fire descends.

Our one advantage is Buri and me, and we press it hard; Appia rallies her soldiers while we give them time.

A dozen Praetorians vs us two would have been really bad before, but we've both been training to use the Mind's Eye from HK-47b.

We slip into it together.

The two beasts fight as one, the black smaller one luring her prey into the path of the golden bigger one, just like they've practiced. He wields his enemies as clubs, javelins and shields breaking the armour by smashing the softer creatures within.

The Praetorians try to focus fire, but they can't cooperate anywhere near as well as the beasts.

It's over soon.

I look at my husband. We did it.

There must be more.

I nod. "Appia what-"

Appia storms to the stairs. "There's Praetorians hiding everywhere, it is an ambush all over Gateway Control. We must secure the upstairs lounge and hope the other teams can hold their sections." She turns momentarily. "Demetrius, hack Gateway Control, Septima is breaking to retreat - we need to cut them off and keep them here! Everyone else, we hold this control room and the lounge at all costs!"

We follow her back up stairs, into a hail of bullets.

 

[Macavity116]

I look at my husband. We did it.

There must be more.

I nod. "Appia what-"

Appia storms to the stairs. "There's Praetorians hiding everywhere, it is an ambush all over Gateway Control. We must secure the upstairs lounge and hope the other teams can hold their sections." She turns momentarily. "Demetrius, hack Gateway Control, Septima is breaking to retreat - we need to cut them off and keep them here! Everyone else, we hold this control room and the lounge at all costs!"

See!? See!? Put a hex on the whole damn thing. XP

The two beasts fight as one, the black smaller one luring her prey into the path of the golden bigger one, just like they've practiced. He wields his enemies as clubs, javelins and shields breaking the armour by smashing the softer creatures within.

However, beating this power couple remains one of the tallest orders in the Galaxy.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

See!? See!? Put a hex on the whole damn thing. XP

And it'll get worse.

However, beating this power couple remains one of the tallest orders in the Galaxy.

Just imagine being the suicidal fool that kills Naomi in front of Buri...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Rotary Waste Distribution, Part 2"
28th Daas, 10 (2189)
Naomi Of Unity​

My filament slices at one Praetorian, I get body slammed by another. Then punched, my jaw rattles. There's too many of them.

I see an armoured leg smash the head of the Praetorian who punched me. We should get out of here, we can't hold them.

I find Appia in my peripheral vision. The Praetorians have her against the smashed window.

Phi beta?

I think about it while I stab the filament through an eyeslit. We both have mini-nukes. I don't know... We can't detonate in this side of the lounge.

I catch a glimpse of him using a Praetorian as a bowling ball. Who ever goes probably won't make it back.

I turn my head. Then lets go together.

How someone without our augmentations uses this armour to the best it can be, I don't know. Buri and I operate in a state of supra-consciousness, where we have the various Compubones handling different aspects of integration with the suit.

Appia and the Praetorians have to rely on the automated systems to cope, which is one reason we can do better than them - they are fighting on the basis of a single central node that's handling everything that isn't muscle memory from years of training. And it shows - they might be the apex of Olinbari, but they've got nothing on me and Buri, who can effectively apply the same level of consciousness to every single task simultaneously.

Us two however, are only two. Arguably four, as we can have the left arm fighting a separate battle to the right arm, but...

Even we can't hold off a human wave attack on our own.

We move to the middle, they flood the stairs either side. We cover the stairs, they go for the totally smashed window.

Buri, the nukes are our only option.

Where's Appia?

Not on sensors...

I can't see her body. "Appia?"

"Bastards knocked me out the window, there's Sirzusians pouring in down here, the Praetorians are focusing on you!"

"We have a nuke. A small one."

There's a small wait. "Use it."

Buri, on me, we do this together, just in case.

You detonate, I get us a path.

My husband storms through, his bounds knocking Praetorians aside. His helmet is charred from plasma burns. The neutronium can really take a beating... Is a nuke enough?

Carry me, turn around as soon as you think I can throw it to the back of the room, I'll throw it then.

Buri sweeps me off my feet. No time to lose, held close to my husband as he batters his way to the other side while I input access codes to the 1kt weapon - the smallest we can make, an implosion device composed of a tiny shell of milimetres thick uranium 235, with nanograms of antimatter in the core. Hopefully they'll think it's a conventional grenade, but there's no guarantee...

I throw it as soon as Buri swings me around as he makes his turn.

Buri throws us to the floor, gripping onto me so tightly he squeezes my armour, setting our displays to see each other as the Praetorians hack at us while we are down, piling on...

Then we are flung across the room.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Safe Mode"
28th Daas, 10 (2189)
Naomi Of Unity​

I wake up next to Buri in an operating theatre.

Specifically, the one we woke in together when we were being reconstructed.

Buri wakes too. I guess we died then.

I smile. While I absolutely believe in being with you for eternity my love, we are not dead. This is the medical facility we were in when we were being reconstructed.

Oh yeah. So we survived a nuke at point blank range.

"Yes. Still got a way to go before you match Tsutomo Yamaguchi however, he did that as a baseline twice."

We turn to the Holocron. "So... Where are we? Or even who are we?"

The Holocron displays a holorepresentation that focuses on a tiny cube at the base of the spine. "You are located in your emergency backup cubes while your bodies are in emergency regeneration mode. Trust me, you do not want access to your pain senses right now."

I frown. "That bad, huh?"

He nods. "The damage is very extensive, and you both would be very dead if you were baselines. But you aren't."

"And Appia? Her team?"

"Unknown. Please understand the battle is still ongoing and our side have yet to get people down to the Gateway Control Centre, and the data from your sensory records has been left patchy from bone breakages.'

" Bone breakages?"

The Holocron looks at Buri. "The good news is that you gave your wife a softer landing by smashing into a neutronium bulkhead first. The bad news is she kind of crushed your ribcage."

Buri looks at me. "That's not very nice."

The Holocron turns to me. "But, in turn you had already been flattened by either debris or a Praetorian. You transferred to backup cube before he did."

Buri smiles. "Would I have been ok without her hitting me?"

The Holocron smiles as he shakes his head. "Then you would have been sandwiched between some Praetorian and the wall. I am fairly sure that you would prefer Naomi ending up smashing into your chest."

I laugh.

Buri doesn't dignify it with a reply.

Eventually, I stop. "So, what is happening now?"

"Our side know about the nuke, and I have informed them you are alive, but critically injured and requiring evac."

"Enemy forces?"

"Septima is in full retreat."

I take a deep breath. "And Rivkah?"

"The suit maker is a long-time friend of your father; he got me the tracking codes I asked for after her ship went down, and both Rivkah and Scipio are alive."

He let's us sigh with relief.

"No word yet though, but I expect that is a ship issue rather than them. MSI corvettes only have one power plant and emergency battery, and both are in the destroyed half. Long range visual indicates that they were attempting repairs."

I look at Buri and smile. "So... What do we do now?"

The Holocron shakes his head as he turns. "Give people the chance to see anything, become anything, explore anything, learn anything, and all they do is..."

 

[Macavity116]

Carry me, turn around as soon as you think I can throw it to the back of the room, I'll throw it then.

Buri sweeps me off my feet. No time to lose, held close to my husband he batters his way to the other side while I input access codes to the 1kt weapon - the smallest we can make, an implosion device composed of a tiny shell of milimetres thick uranium 235, with nanograms of antimatter in the core. Hopefully they'll think it's a conventional grenade, but there's no guarantee...

I throw it as soon as Buri swings me around as he makes his turn.

Buri throws us to the floor, gripping onto me so tightly he squeezes my armour, setting our displays to see each other as the Praetorians hack at us while we are down, piling on...

Then we are flung across the room.

DAMN that's hardcore!

"You are located in your emergency backup cubes while your bodies are in emergency regeneration mode. Trust me, you do not want access to your pain senses right now."

Holocron has a future career in deadpan comedy.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

DAMN that's hardcore!

Desperate times, desperate measures.

And you've managed to quote a typo... Oh well.

Holocron has a future career in deadpan comedy.

Among many things he could do.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Wreck Of The Strix, Part 6"
28th Daas, 10 (2189)
Rivkah Of Unity​

I take my husband's hands and lick his face. "I've missed you so much."

He licks me back. "Me too. So what did I miss?"

I pull him into my arms, the purr in his ear. "You could spend a little time wih me."

Juno groans. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Scipio pulls away. "When we are alone."

I turn back. "So we've been working on a mini-rocket, only we don't have enough fuel. But Statia pointed out we can take apart a missile and activate the hack detection systems, and we can get a message out that way."

Scipio smiles. "Perfect!" He looks at Statia. "What do we need?"

Statia claps her hands. "Juno, fetch me a writing implement. Scipio, Rivkah, bring me a Marauder missile, everyone else bring me your tools so that I can work out what we've got to work with."

Scipio and I leave. I take his hand.

We walk together to the missile storage bulkhead.

We are alone.

I look at Scipio. "You know... We could just have a few minutes."

His face lights up. Then he gets composed. "I'd love to, but we've got to focus."

Slowly, I nod. "Yeah."

We take a missile; they aren't heavy, not to people in powered armour, but they are bulky enough to need two people to carry.

Statia smiles when we get back. "I wasn't expecting you back so quickly."

I look at Scipio, before turning back to her. "We can do fun after getting the rescue plan going. Let's get this missile apart."

Statia motions us to her table. Nervous looks from the people around; after all, we are about to play with a warhead that'll be more than enough to blow the ship apart in this state of damage. "First step, removing the casing. The outer shell is titanium carbide for flash resistance, with an inner Falerianid fibre armour layer to resist laser point defence, then coated on the inside with a neutron absorbant. We have to prize it open." She points to a lever. "Rivkah, I want you to stab that lever into this gap, right here, then push with a twisting motion away from you."

The casing pops.

I look at Statia. "When will they realise someone is tampering with the missile?"

She looks at the missile's innards, and finds a cable. "As soon as this cable was disconnected. It has a switch which you activated with the twisting motion." She looks at Juno. "Write a message on a board or something, then hold it in view of this sensor here."

Statia points at a barely visible dot on the internal frame, like a grain of sand. Juno looks at me. "What exactly should I write?"

Good question. I think it over. "I think... Something like 'We're the Strix, we've taken major damage and need rescue, we have twenty seven survivors aboard.' Maybe more."

Juno is soon holding her board up.

Statia smiles. "Now we are really going to get their attention. I'm going to start disconnecting the Psionic sensor, as that will flag up a higher priority alert. To do that, we need to remove this fuel tank to get at the control circuit board."

I look at her. "How explosive?"

"It's just Helium-3."

I tsk. "Oh, that's the radioactive fusion engine."

She frowns. "Well yes, it's a missile. Deuterium-Helium-3 is the easiest fusion rocket, and that matters for a disposable missile."

She removes several fittings, and the tank comes out.

A densely packed circuit board, covered in wireless adaptors, greets us.

Statia pulls off one adaptor. She smiles. "Now, we wait for rescue. I want someone in here holding a message to the sensor until rescue comes, we've done as much as we can with this missile."

I look at Scipio. "Worth getting another?"

Scipio shrugs. "We've not got anything better to do have we?"

I smile. "Well..."

He smiles too.

Juno mimes being sick.

 

[HistoryDude]

Hopefully Rivkah's rescue is imminent.

Why wouldn't Appia's blood be red?

Naomi and Buri can take point-blank nukes now? That's awesome.

I love how the Holocron ended Safe Mode. He totally doesn't understand these human urges...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Hopefully Rivkah's rescue is imminent.

Soon.

Why wouldn't Appia's blood be red?

He's specifically threatening to kill her.

Although, he is also insane enough that he might have questions about what colour Olinbari women bleed.

Naomi and Buri can take point-blank nukes now? That's awesome.

It's only a mini-nuke - yield barely matches a pulse unit, and those are already some of the smallest nukes going. And technically it's not actually a pure-fission nuke either, it's actually an Antimatter-boosted fission device (working principle) to make it small enough to be a throwable grenade.

You can make bigger explosions with conventional munitions really, but this is hand-portable while an equivalent TNT bomb would be hundreds of tons.

I love how the Holocron ended Safe Mode. He totally doesn't understand these human urges...

He's merely teasing them a little.