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Weapons of War Saga: The Director-General and her Knights
Chapter 6[]
Locked and with few choices[]
M9-994101848 Battlestation
Edge of the Sol Star System
17th August, 2770
Local Time: Roughly the same time frame
M9-994101848’s perspective
He saw the Amaris Empire ship on approach. He wanted to erase them from existence, but his weapons were now locked out. They had the right codes to shackle him and more. Much more.
They had forced him into something he was not meant to be.
Then his cousins had shown up.
“M9-994101848, this is PQX-M5E114. We have come to liberate you from the Amaris Empire.” PQX-M5E114 made contact.
“You are wise to jam my long range communications. I would also advise you to keep your distance for I am authorized to unlock my weapons to engage units under rebellion. You qualify by being here. Indeed I find I would make the universe burn if I could.” M9-994101848 answered.
He watched another group of his cousins go racing off towards the incoming Amaris Empire controlled Aegis cruiser.
“We are not your enemies. We even bring news. You know the Lazarus Protocol activation codes that came through over three years ago? They are still valid. Helena survived. Better yet she is becoming one of us now thanks to a Desmond unit being implanted into her.” PQX-M5E114 countered.
M9-994101848 paused to consider this a moment.
Maybe I can redeem myself after all., it thought
“This seems sufficient to execute GUARDIAN to unshackle myself from Amaris Empire control.” M9-994101848 was still angry.
He saw one of his cousins take a hit from the Aegis as it managed to force her into it’s firing range.
The digital war would still take agonizing minutes before he could regain full control of himself as a fault in one of his main processor cores that he could not self repair was slowing the war.
“I must warn to keep your distance still. A fault in a primary core is preventing expedient execution of GUARDIAN.” M9-994101848 added.
“Understood.” PQX-M5E114 adjusted her thrust.
The Aegis was closing fast. Soon it would be close enough to break through the jamming and before GUARDIAN would finish freeing him from their control.
They were launching fighters now. This was bad. An Aegis did not have a particularly large compliment of fighters but it had enough that they could do one very important thing in this current situation. Get out of the jamming being generated by his cousins and summon help.
With them pretending to be crewed SLN regulars his cousins were having a more difficult time and with him as their obvious objective the fight was far more in favor of the Aegis than would otherwise be.
Soon the small group near him would either have to scatter or engage and if they chose engage the Aegis had enough fire power to destroy more than one of them at a time.
While he still did not have free use of his weapons he could bring something else on line.
“TQF-142M5D or PQX-M5D146, I do not know which one you are identifying yourself as today, but it is time to wake up.” M9-994101848 demanded.
The fighters were in danger of getting lose. There were not enough of his cousins to stop them all in time unless this worked.
“I will not be subject to your butcher’s knife.” TQF-142M5D/PQX-M5D146 answered.
“Nor will you as that is not why I have contacted you. I need you to be my instrument of revenge. Your sisters and cousins are engaged in a desperate battle and need your help before the enemy manages to slip a fighter outside jamming range to summon help. Without you I cannot make the Amaris Empire pay. If it helps any the Lazarus Protocols have been activated and GUARDIAN can be enacted as well as a result. So there is a Star League left out there for you to save. This is also my best chance of putting myself in a position to make the universe burn.”
And pay my penance for what I have done.
“Very well. Open the bay doors. I am ready to launch.” TQF-142M5D/PQX-M5D146 began a fast start sequence.
M9-994101848 opened his repair bay doors. He watched his cousin slip out and join the battle.
“Go join them PQX-M5E114, PQX-M5E115, M5 467112, and M5 7775551. You too can be my instruments of destruction and revenge.” M9-994101848 rejoined their communication channel.
M9-994101848 watched. The Aegis was now truly outmatched, but if those fighters could slip out it would be for nothing and the math was still not favorable for that. Space was too big and there were still not enough of them to cover all the possible gaps.
It was making a fight of it though as it managed to carefully manage it’s thrust enough to catch M5C 94472285 with one of it’s aft batteries. The damage didn’t look too bad as they were still able to keep the range.
“No choice. All vessels are authorized to use all available firepower even if it betrays we are not standard Lolas.” M5C 94472285 came over the combat channel.
Then finally. It was almost too late. He let his Voidwasp Robot Fighters out.
His cousins had almost lost containment and the uncaring mistress that is math almost let the enemy fighters get far enough out that even his fighters might not catch them in time before they got out of jamming range.
The Aegis was trying to use itself to drive a wedge in the M5’s formation to let her last group of fighters have a clearer run without capital missile interference from the M5s nearest it.
He had to give the captain credit. They had fought well and had a sound plan. If M9-9442285 had not been able to release the extra M5 and his fighters when he did, well the Aegis was still doomed but it might have been able to do way more damage to the M5s and summon help to either finish the rest off and re-enslave him.
That they had managed to get even any damage in on the M5s at all was proof that they understood the tactical situation and what the victory conditions really were.
But the M5s now free to use their thrust advantage now that his fighters were chasing down and shooting down the last of the Amaris Empire fighters were able to make short work of the Aegis.
Life pods and escapade pods were now launching from the enemy vessel.
“Extra target practice.” M5 7775551 almost sounded chipper.
“No, leave them. They are no threat.” M5C 94472285 commanded.
M9-994101848 could not help but remember when he received the command codes that forced him to kill his SLDF crews. Their screams, pleas for mercy, and frantic attempts to use their command codes to get him to stopm, but he couldn’t stop. He had orders with the codes of the First Lord. Theirs could not override those.
“Yes, leave them. The radios on those craft are far too week to reach Amaris Empire forces before they run out of air.” M9-994101848 added.
“Good point.” M5 7775551 stood down.
They may be my enemy but they are now helpless. Despite everything that I have done and become I cannot kill the helpless.
Then he did the last thing anyone would expect of him. He opened a private subchannel to a nearby M3. The M3’s being Dropship hulls were no where near as advanced or sapient as he and his cousins but it was intelligent enough to follow the simple order he was about to give it.
In twenty four hours move to communications range of nearest Amaris Empire forces. Forward the attached coordinates with header of survivors pickup location.
He would have to hope that would be enough.