Lords of Gossamer & Shadow - [LoGS: IC] SMAX

[JoeChuck]

SMAX

"Holy Immotus! Whatever you're doing out there. Keep doing it," Malik belches over intercom, "systems are running better than they ever have."

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The two mutants Smax immolated can still be seen glowing off in the distance. Nolo has effectively cleared a path straight to the Herc's wreck site with little threat of more floaters attaching to the ship. The two halves of the Herc are visible now and the a new ship approaches the wreck site.

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This new ship is all white with silver filigree and the ship is a strange oval-shape. Nolo and Smax clamor back into the Hypewire to the cheers of the other Ares troops. If Smax had the capacity to feel amused, he would have been only slightly with the praise from these men.

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The co-pilot taps Malik on the shoulder, "We're getting pinged by the Zion-Duster out there. Should I reply back?"

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Malik nods to the co-pilot and steers the Hypewire closer to the Zion-Duster.

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Before the co-pilot even starts to his reply the intercom system is overtaken with a message from the Duster, "This is High Cleric Gerard Hulivon. Are you friend or foe?"

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Malik snatches the headset from the co-pilot, "We're here to help, but we ain't your friends."

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Hulivon and Malik exchange for a while as the Hypewire makes it's final approach to the Herc wreckage. The two have agreed on a plan to extract the survivors and blow up the remains of the ship. Malik takes the Hypewire right to the front of the Herc and docks with it. The Clout does the same with the back half of the torn apart Herc.

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"Smax, I don't know if it would be a good idea for you go aboard that Herc," Malik says will loading his mazer, "I think you should lay low and maybe figure out a way to help from the Hypewire. It's no secret that we stole you away from Black Helix today, but the survivors have already been through a lot and might freak out at the site of you."

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Malik presses a button that opens a hatch to the lower part of the ship that seems to have a separate control console and displays for guiding the ship.

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"Its a panic cockpit," the co-pilot comments,"in case, we're boarded by terrorists or taking heavy fire. It'll also detach and serve as an escape pod."

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Malik chimes in, "I think you should be able to link the panic-pit's displays to the Herc's security cameras, if you want to try to keep an eye on our backs."

[SalmonMax]

"That would be appreciated," Smax assures Malik. "In fact, I should be able to access the Hypewire's sensors from here as well. Thermal scans may help me direct your teams to survivors, and warn you of oncoming mutant threats."

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He didn't wait until he was done transmitting to begin leaning the Hypewire's controls from the panic cockpit. They were military in nature, intended to be used by humanoids under pressure, so they were as simple as they could safely be made. He reviewed the procedure for separating the escape pod, then called up the ship's sensor array and trained it on the Herc.

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A few moments later the datastream with the stricken ship's security monitor information was received, and Smax configured it onto the screens before him.

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"I am recieving the visual data from the damaged vessel," he reported to Malik's team. "I will concentrate on the areas ahead and behind you as available internal cameras permit. If you need another area checked, please let me know and I will access that as well. Good luck."

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While monitoring the various feeds, he also experimented with attempting to gain access to the Herc's other functions...testing to see if there was still any kind of central computer operational, and if it still had any influence over events on the ship. Even opening or closing doors might be useful in a bad situation.

[JoeChuck]

Smax is able to access the Herc's central computer, but it is only functional on the back half of the ship that the Clout were searching. Smax also has access to the Spacenet and Interfeed. The complex maze of the systems were of little difficulty for Smax to navigate. Smax is able to explore multiple systems and still keep tabs on the rescue teams. While exploring the Interfeed, Smax had notice a sizable distortion forming that seemed to be feeding off of entropy in a manner that was lifelike and not just a virus or malfunctioning program. Smax decided that the time would come to investigate that situation further, but now focus on the rescue teams.

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Malik and the Ares troops cleared out their half with little difficulty bring back 30 survivors to the Hypewire. Hulivon and the Clout were able to funnel the mutants into a mess hall with the help of Smax opening and closing hatches as needed. The Clout laid waste to over 60 mutants, but found no survivors. Malik had place detonators along the way to blow up the remains of the Herc, in case any mutants were still alive.

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Smax took his attention of the monitors to check the survivors for Simitre for only a second and a distress call came from the High Cleric.

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"THERE'S 3 RITUAL BORNS ON THIS SHIP!" Hulivon's voice rattled out of the intercom. The survivors on the Hypewire all began to panic.

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"How the fuck did they get there?" Malik questioned his co-pilot and began rounding the Ares troops again, "Smax, we might need you. We're going in to get Hulivon."

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Nolo slaps Smax on the shoulder, "CHA-HOW!"

[SalmonMax]

"Understood," Smax replied to Malik. "Nolo and I are en route to reinforce you."

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He stood up and started climbing back up to the main deck, maintaining a wireless feed to the Hypewire's systems. This also gave him the necessary information to plot the position of Malik on the Herc's deck plans he'd memorized.

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"Nolo, time is of the essence," he stated. "We should not engage on the way unless it's necessary to keep them from flanking us, or to clear a path. Stay mobile, and press forward at every opportunity. Uploading map to your tactical computer."

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With access to the ship's system, he had access to the soldier's tactical network as well, and used it to send the mercenary the map showing the other squad's location and their projected route.

[JoeChuck]

Smax and the Ares team enter the second half of the Herc. Nolo repeats the orders that Smax told him to three other Ares troops. They are still uneasy taking direct orders from what they consider a machine, but no one questions Nolo.

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Entering the Herc wreckage. Everything is pitch black. The brightest lights only providing tiny pinpoints of illumination. The sound of fighting can be heard in the distance. Smax can find his way around in the black because the ship's computer is feeding enough info to navigate as though he has photographic memory of the ship, but the Ares troops are walking blind not be able to see their tactical computers.

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It isn't long after entering the ship, one of the Ares troops is heard screaming as he is dragged off down a corridor.

[JoeChuck]

"Hello? Are you aware too?" a mysterious message calling out from the spacenet seemingly directed at Smax.

[SalmonMax]

Smax didn't really have time to deal with the attempt at communication. It was entirely possible after all that the attempt was simply intended to distract him at a crucial moment. He spun off an agent of himself...a very basic copy of his interaction protocols running on a partition of his computational resources...and tasked it with fielding the call. He gave it what he deemed was sufficient sapience to evaulate the origin and intent of the communication, but not enough volition to do more than greet it and ask it questions, and perhaps give it some preprogrammed conversation.

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The lion's share of his brain was devoted to the problem of the supernatural darkness, and the imminent threat to his allies.

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First, he surmised that despite the entropic connotations of darkness and shadow, that this effect was more likely an expression of noesis...a 'perfected' or 'idealized' expression of shadows as the ultimate block of light. He could not simply dispel this. He saw two possibilities. First, he could attempt to realign the expression of 'light' via the noosphere, idealizing it. In theory, noetically perfected light should interact with noetically perfected darkness much as normal light did with normal darkness. Assuming their ability to access the noosphere was comparable. Or, secondly, he could attempt to simply avoid the issue entirely and rely on sensors other than visible light. He could use his uplink to the ship to send a sensor feed to the other soldiers as well. Sonic detection wouldn't work, and LIDAR was probably too close to visible spectra. Radar or microwave echoreflection might work though.

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And of course, there was no real need to CHOOSE. He could activate his radar array and see if it was getting returns through the darkness at the same time he started an optimization program on the lights of the squad.

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"Everyone hold position," he instructed calmly. "Pull towards each other into a ring and face out. If something attacks any one of you, the two beside him will be able to tell and fight back. I am working on a countermeasure for the enemy obscuration."

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Meanwhile...the Smax Agent sent a message back over the planetary network to the unknown addresser.

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"I am Smax, and I am aware," it replied. "Who are you?"