Core
Chapter 165
Core
Send drones to investigate the AI core. 63%
"Tell them to go to the central node. I want to make sure that thing doesn't get in our way again," Gilda decided, the two drones changed course and started making their way to the facility that sat pretty much at the centre of the base. Two video and audio feeds sprung up above the control panel, showing what the drones were picking up with their cameras and sensors. "How long until they're there?"
"Estimated time of arrival, three-hundred seconds." the VI responded as the large drones sped up, flying through the hallways at high speeds.
"Got it, can you run me through the stuff I have available to me? The drones I mean?" Gilda's attention was drawn to the right of the video feeds as four separate drone designs popped up, from the small ones she'd first encountered to the one she'd had to fight in front of the security office.
"Four drone classifications are currently active within this facility." The first hologram of the smallest drone lit up. "The mark-nine maintenance drone, armed with small plasma rifles"
"Why in the world do maintenance anything need weapons?!" Gilda asked with a raised eyebrow as she tried studying all the holograms.
"Previous interaction with the central node made it a requirement to arm and armour them to prevent their destruction before they could finish their repair tasks."
"Destroyed how?" Gilda asked, glancing over to the video feed to see the two drones were still on track to the main core.
"The Central Node has various portions of this base under control and obtained access to drones as well." The VI brought up a video of a firefight between a few drones that ended with most of the opposition destroyed from the viewer's perspective. "This system has been countering moves by the AI to isolate the security office from other critical systems."
"So you are not in control of everything around here?" Gilda asked.
"Negative. Approximately thirty per cent of this facility is under control of the Central Node. Listed facilities under AI control are: Main fusion plant, base sensor suite, partial door control, partial armoury control, and auxiliary life support systems."
"And what do we have?" Gilda nervously asked.
"All three secondary fusion plants, the manufactorum, main security systems, drone control, majority door control, majority armoury control, primary life support, and the interstellar communication array," the VI answered. "Drones arriving at Central node now."
Gilda's focus returned to the two video feeds again. One of the drones had plugged something into one of the sockets of the door while the other had its weapons powered and ready. The door though stayed shut, no matter how many attempts at opening the drone first of the pair made.
"Countermeasures from the Central Node detected, unable to proceed."
Gilda huffed in annoyance. "How much firepower would we need to turn that door into rubble?"
"Calculating... complete. AI core blast doors have been reinforced over millennia, activating and dispatching super heavy to location." A third video feed popped up along with a fifth hologram next to the other drones. "Super heavy drones impractical for close quarter combat within these halls, suggest only to breach doors before retreating to prevent capture by Central Node."
"I'll take your word for it. How long until that thing is there?"
"Ten seconds." Gilda waited until she saw the other two drones on the super heavy's main video feed. "Preparing to breach"
The two heavy drones moved out of the way to avoid getting caught up in the blast as the weapons on the larger one powered up and fired a volley at the metal door. Gilda was pretty sure she felt the explosion all the way up in the security office, the video feed showing a red hot glowing door that was still relatively intact though not by much.
"Hit it again," Gilda ordered, though had to wait for the weapons of the super heavy were recharged again. A spray of molten metal flew into the central core as the second volley hit and the door disintegrated into molten slag. Immediately a group of four small maintenance drones rushed through the destroyed entrance and latched onto the super heavy at various points. "What are those doing?"
"Central Node attempting to gain control of the super heavy, countering action now." The two heavy drones turned and opened up on their larger counterpart immediately. The shielding on it had been disabled to give them clearer shots, their fire absolutely maiming the large drone beyond any repair. More of the smaller maintenance drones tried rushing out but they were very quickly destroyed by the two heavy ones. "Threats removed."
"How many of those does the Central Node have?"
"Unknown. Moving in now."
Gilda's eyes were glued to the video feed as they started displaying static in their images before blanking out completely. "That's not good, is it?"
"Signal lost by means of unknow countermeasures."
"So we lost control... great. So no drones in there then?" Gilda groaned.
"Until a proper counter can be found a protective cordon would be advisable." it responded.
"Do that then, I'm going to need a weapon that can damage these things. Two actually." Gilda turned around as she heard something open up behind her, a locker filled with rifles sitting near the door.
"These were designed for internal security, the armoury has more potent firearms available though it will take some time before those can be retrieved. The weapons section is under the control of the Central Node."
"Damnit... Do you know where Fluttershy is right now?" Gilda wasn't expecting to see another camera feed pop up, showing the pegasus from a distance sticking to the shadows in an attempt to avoid detection.
"She is located in the main fusion plant moving in the direction of the Central Core."
Gilda went over to the locker and pulled out two rifles, pushing Fluttershy's rifle back in one of the holders so she wouldn't have to drag that along as well. It was a good bit shorter than Fluttershy's rifle and fell very neatly into Gilda's claws, having been made for them after all. "What do these things use as ammunition?" Gilda asked as she tried figuring out if there was anything she needed to push into the rifle.
"This is a self-contained system, their cores are charged and ready for use."
"So no ammo then. Check." A symbol of the rifle with a bar appeared on Gilda's Hud.
"I have activated the heat indicator of your HUD. Take care not to overheat it by means of continuous fire."
"I'll keep it in mind. Can you get one of these drones to give me a lift to someplace where I can reach Fluttershy?" Gilda walked towards the door and waited there for an answer from the VI.
"A drone is coming to give you a ride, I shall be giving updates on the situation as you progress through the facility."
"Thanks," Gilda stepped out of the chamber into the hallway where a Heavy drone came to a halt. Jumping on top of it, the drone sped off to a place where she could get close to Fluttershy. The hallway they were flying through was abuzz with drones as they all rapidly moved in the same direction, Gilda could hear some explosions echo through the facility. "VI, what's going on?"
"The Central Node is making an assault out of the core with captured drones. It is currently winning." The heavy drone Gilda was riding on came to a halt at a door that was being held by various larger drones and an arrangement of the smaller maintenance ones. "A route has been highlighted, beyond this point everything is controlled by the Central Node. Expect any drone you encounter to be hostile, commander."
Gilda cringed slightly at the rank, "Understood, I'll see you once I get to Fluttershy."
She didn't get a response from the VI as she stepped further inwards, the massive chamber housing the main fusion plant. walkways crossed over the various gaps down towards the ground of the facility while machines churned in the darkness below. Gilda carefully followed the direction on her HUD, sticking to shadows the same way she'd seen Fluttershy do as the pegasus probably had good reason to do so. "Hey, VI, still there?"
"Affirmative."
"Good. Still know where Fluttershy i-" Gilda was interrupted by a large explosion on the exact other end of the chamber, the shape of three of the heavy drones becoming visible as they pummeled a part of the machinery. "Scratch that, I think I know where she is."
Placing one of the two rifles on a railing Gilda took aim through the sight, her helmet helpfully added a holographic line where the shot would go. What she wasn't expecting was the rifle to let out a roar as she depressed the trigger and rapidly fire a dozen shots at the target she'd aimed at. The shots weren't the best placed but the combination of bracing against the railing and her armour compensating put enough of the rounds on target to down the first of the drones.
A sparkling blue vortex was hurled at the second one, straining it for a moment before breaking it apart too. The third took this as its queue to leave, flying off at speed. Fluttershy took time to peak over her cover to see what had just helped her. Gilda jumped the railing, spreading her wings and expecting to have to work had to stay in the air but finding she remained in the air with remarkable ease.
"Good to see you're still in one piece," Fluttershy smiled before a frown crept onto her face. "Where is my rifle?"
"Left it back at the security office, didn't have anything left to shoot with. I took this one for you," Gilda passed the second gun that was attached to her side over to Shy who briefly inspected it.
"Something like thermal clips or does it vent heat automatically?" Fluttershy asked, shouldering it a few times to get used to the thing.
"Automatically," Gilda replied, waiting for Fluttershy to take the lead to wherever she was going.
"So what is the plan?"
"Uhh..." Gilda had not been ready for that reply, she'd expected Fluttershy to have figured something out by this point. "I was hoping you knew what you were doing."
"You probably know more than I do. I've been trying to get into the AI core since I don't trust that thing. Too many doors just accidentally closing in my face or trying to squish me followed by drones showing up to finish the job," Fluttershy told her. "I tried cutting the power to it off from here but in the end, I only destroyed a single conduit which temporarily disrupted power production. Too many systems are just completely locked down."
"Right, it was threatening to kill you if I didn't give it control of all the drones." Gilda pointed in the direction they needed to go.
"I hope you didn't give it to it?" Fluttershy asked as she hovered after Gilda.
"Of course not! I'm not that stupid. I'm in control of the things now... well, most of them. That way is to the core." Gilda pointed to one of the vents running into the core.
"Good. I've been holding back and trying to avoid as much trouble so it won't have a good measurement when I'm going all out." Fluttershy said, taking hold of the vent's covering and with the help of biotics tore it off. "Let's go take out this AI."
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Funny enough, I was starting to wonder about this story; good to see it continue and more importantly, that you're alright...well, alright enough.
Good to see an update, been enjoying this and continue looking forward to the next chapters.
I thought you were just writing a set of chapters then releasing them almost daily. Hang in there, I really want to see how the Equestrians ultimately turn out in the end.
Fluttershy is about to test biotic singularities against a primary fusion reactor dirven shield? Wonder how good the shielding is onthe secondary flow control terminal?
10624592
Using the games as an example, Singularity is a poor choice against energy shields. It really doesn't start kicking in until you bypass shields and armor, although it will inflict some minor damage over time. If she knows Warp, that could tear through shields fast, though.
Oh, here's a thought... What if Gilda got ahold of the personal attack drone power? Given her sudden reliance on drones to help her out, a personal non-hackable attack drone sounds like it's exactly her speed, and gels nicely with her new status as base commander. It would even make sense that the VI would upgrade her omnitool to give her options inside an enemy-controlled zone.
Oh ok, that makes more sense. You have a VI mostly unable to adapt controlling most of the facility and fighting an AI that, while much smarter it is extremely limited in resources. That explains the contradicting news we were having all around.
Flutter "this isn't even my final form" shy
Woo! This updated! It was worth the wait.
Oh hey this. I was reading this story three years ago when it first got started and then drifted away from the fandom for a bit. Now I'm back, and I'm wondering which stories I should catch up on first. Last I remember, this one had lots of potential, but had fallen into the trap of gluing itself to the rails of canon despite Fluttershy's involvement in everything for the entire first game and the start of the second. So I have a question: did this story ever free itself from the confines of canon and go galivanting off into the distance like the best crossovers tend to do, and if so, how long did it take?
Finally caught up to the latest chapter, yay
I wonder why the A.I. run Rouge, but time get perhaps to it...
Currently running ME Trilogy soundtrack...
Good times indeed...
We really need more V.I. and A.I. support for Equis.
Maybe they find a way to to duplicate Fidelis or make copys of Edi?