The Green Mae splinter stood on the ready line with the other synthetic combat models. Heavily armored, each of the units wore the same a generic gray face and were networked together. Mae hacked that system to take the lead designation in the third squad, G1. She scratched the infinity symbol she’d worn while down on Shānmén on her chest. Why she couldn’t quite say. It seemed the right thing to do. All the genetic human Jackals personalized their weapons and armor, some to bring luck, or to memorialize a friend.
The third squad were all synthetics, but there was one unusual synth along for the ride. Erynis, the conduit to EWA, stood next to Lieutenant Scott Keith and Sergeant Carol Mitchell. Hacking a foreign AI system in a short amount of time was a specialized job, and not one the Jackals usually did. They blew the penetration more often than not. Such a surgical intrusion required the speed and efficiency of a specialized synthetic.
Erynis gave up his elaborate but not very combat-resistant body. It amused Mae to see the once-mighty synthetic reduced, as he would see it, to a simple combat droid.
Lieutenant Keith examined the rest of his team. Two squads of human Jackals, and one of synthetics. Sergeant Mitchell walked the line, checking the Jackals, scanning their readiness.
They had experience in stealth infiltrations, but usually into ships rather than space stations like Minos. Still, apart from hacking the AI, not that much was different. However, unlike on Shānmén, the human Jackals did not have three layers of protection fitted. They wore the Teledyne Brown Personal Reactive Armored Exoskeleton under their dark blue camouflage uniform for stealth and easy movement. Left on the Righteous Fury were the superhydrophobic bodysuits and gel-packed webbing. They’d also swapped out the usual full-face helmets, triple layered with an alkaline skin, for the assault helmets. These were lighter for any situations that required quick movement and keeping to the shadows. These protections should be more than enough, if they needed to deal with station security.
They did not deploy the usual Good Boys with Green Team either, since their sonic attacks were specifically designed to deal with Xenomorphs. They did, however, carry Pinpoint drones. Erynis was in charge of them, since he was to remain close to Keith.
Mitchell glanced at the Jackals’ weapons to ensure they were ready before they ventured into the Minos corridors. In addition to their personal sidearms, they carried standard M41A pulse rifles loaded with 10×24mm caseless ammunition. Unlike regular units, the Green Team included no sentry bots, flame units, or even the M56 smart guns. Hauling any of these in the close confines of the station would be time consuming, and if they needed to use them, dangerous to the integrity of Minos.
“Alright, Green Team,” Keith said, narrowing his eyes. “We’re going to keep this low-key. The station is moving into dark rotation right now, so fewer civvies, and fewer staff. Erynis here is going to provide security cover all the way to the command center.”
Erynis appeared more pleased with himself than it was possible for a synthetic to be. He straightened. “Thank you, Lieutenant. I will maintain a firewalled synthetic network for our four combat androids. This field will overwhelm the local security measures, looping in images of blank corridors in case there are humans watching. I calculate we will have ten minutes before the Minos system breaks through my protections.”
“More than enough time, correct, Jackals?”
Green Team nodded and let out a guttural, “Oorah!”
The synthetic unit lined up in front, once again ready to absorb any bullets aimed at their human counterparts. Mae connected to the network Erynis had created but kept her personality firewalled off. She’d become good at hiding, but still, it was refreshing to be part of a network again. A human might have said, like slipping into a warm bath. Not exactly the image she wanted to share with the rest of the synthetics.
They entered the umbilical and stood before the doorway.
“You ready, Erynis?” Keith glanced at the synthetic, a faint flicker of a frown on his forehead. She recognized that a residual human wariness about Mae’s kind lingered in the primitive part of the human psyche.
“The network I built is functioning as expected, Lieutenant.”
He checked his wrist-pd for confirmation from the other teams. “We’re good. Let’s move out.”
Mae pushed the button, and the airlock slipped open. If Erynis hadn’t built his network strong enough to overwhelm the Minos network, then this would be a quick trip. Red and Blue Team were relying on them to make their missions possible.
The Greens moved into the shadows of the docking station. Even the synthetics on rubberized feet didn’t make a sound. They stuck to the outer edges of the expansive room. The umbilical to the large Righteous Fury meant they didn’t have to worry about other, smaller craft and their crew. The station chief didn’t want any other vessels near the military one.
The synthetic squad scanned ahead for signs of human movement. Others of their kind were not a problem with Erynis’s network in place, but human beings still had eyes they could not fool. The narrow corridors gave the Jackals nowhere to hide if one randomly stumbled upon them. Mae detected nothing with a pulse ahead.
A Mr. Brown maintenance robot rumbled out from a side corridor but sagged in place as the network’s influence washed over it, severing its connection to Kaspar.
The team ascended to the top level of the station in two elevator cars. Mae crowded into one with the synthetics, including Erynis, and arrived moments before the others. One human guard bumbled around the corner and straight into her squad. He let out a startled gasp and fumbled for his sidearm. Mae moved faster than any human could. She twisted his arm behind his back, spun in an arc, and had him on the ground. G3 removed his sidearm and cuffed his wrists, while G4 applied wrapping gum over his mouth.
By the time the lieutenant and his Jackals arrived, the man was subdued. They carried him with them as they hurried to the door of the command center. Through the network, the synthetics relayed that there were three humans inside. G4 ran an impossibly quick bypass on the system, while Erynis cut the lights.
While the Minos employees grumbled about shitty station maintenance, the team moved.
Popping open the door, the Jackals surged into the command room. It was vital no one raised the alarm. The human workers were subdued and stuffed under a desk. These carried sidearms like the first guard they’d encountered, but it appeared they did not have enough training. The wrapping gum closed their mouths, but they fell truly silent upon seeing the much better armed Jackals.
“Lock the door. Lights low.” Keith’s voice came through the suit-to-suit network, stilted as he stared down at the control panels. They couldn’t even talk safely until they’d secured the target. “Scan corridors. We have six hours.”
All three teams were maintaining comms silence on the regular channels. Mae crouched down next to Erynis.
“Teams Red and Blue are on standby.” The synthetic pulled free a thin wire from inside his wrist and applied it to the peripheral port on the side of the main computer. Running a synthetic network was a simple thing compared to hacking an entire station’s AI. “I’m in, Lieutenant. I have control of Minos’s systems.” His voice seemed loud in the deathly silent command center.
Green Mae counted herself impressed. He’d performed the task in less than 0.234 seconds.
“Fantastic. Everything is nominal here.” Keith lifted his suit’s helmet visor, and checked his wrist-pd, which showed scans from his synthetic squad. “Erynis, inform Red and Blue Teams they are a go.”
“Lieutenant, I have already done so.”
The synthetic’s tone made Keith spin around. “Erynis, you sure as fuck better obey me like my Jackals here. You’re part of my team.”
The basic combat model didn’t allow for facial expressions, but his words conveyed his annoyance. “Very well. I will endeavor to work at a more human speed.”
Something about being part of this team was bothering the synthetic’s programming. Erynis seldom ventured beyond the walls of the Fury.
Mae was fully capable of hacking the system. She’d already hard reset the ship and Erynis once to cover her true nature. They were in no position to do that again while dealing with Minos.
Keith appeared shocked for a moment, but certain synthetics were twitchy sometimes, and he’d never worked directly with this one. “Good to hear. Lock down the elevators to level eleven and bring the crawler up for Red Team to get to the surface.”
Green Team settled in to protect their position. The Jackals covered the doors, while Keith and Mitchell monitored the progress of the other teams. She caught glimpses of Mae Prime entering the laboratory level in the video feed with Rook and her team. Red Mae, also in a combat body, loaded into the space elevator’s first crawler and began the descent to the surface.
“Alright, Erynis, get those teams down quickly and safely. Push it as much as you can.” Mitchell drummed his fingers on the console, not taking his eyes off the computer.
Mae kept most of her attention on the corridor outside the command center. Since their entry, they had detected no more heat signatures. Everything seemed to be proceeding well. With the comms secured, regular inter-team communication could resume. Blue Team checked in, confirming they’d secured the eleventh level. They needed to, since both it and Red Team were out of signal range of the Green Team’s synthetic network. Eyrnis was not going to push their luck by networking them all through Kaspar’s systems. That might trigger a hidden subroutine.
The slight twitch of Erynis’s finger caught Mae’s attention. She had less than half a second to process what that might mean before the Jackals’ synthetic network dipped out for a nanosecond. Her hearing buzzed and her sight dipped as her systems repelled an attack and cut her off from the rest of the unit. Malicious code flooded through Erynis and into the rest of the synthetic Jackals around her as the command center was plunged into darkness.
Realizing what had happened, Mae spun around.
“Lieutenant!” Her combat android voice came out flat, not giving away any shock.
Grabbing hold of the Fury’s conduit synthetic, she yanked him free of the connection. Erynis collapsed on the floor, twitching, white fluids bubbling from his mouth. Though he’d hacked the station’s system, its defenses must have hacked him back, injecting code into the synthetic as well as the Green Team’s network. Blue and Red networks remained isolated, but that wouldn’t matter if they lost the command center.
That seemed likely when the synthetics G2, G3, and G4 engaged the human Jackals. They didn’t fire, which made sense if the Minos AI was in control; it wouldn’t want to damage itself. Lieutenant Keith and the other human soldiers fired back as their synthetic comrades surged forward. The rattle of gunfire filled the small room.
Mae would have assisted, but instead she crouched low and tried to alert the other teams on the open channel. Any chance of stealth was gone. She alerted Red and Blue Teams, but more surprises awaited.
Minos’s AI had not only infected all the Jackal synthetics, but it’d also locked down the Righteous Fury. It had used Erynis’s access key to the command systems.
Having identified that it was too late, Mae targeted her fellow synthetics. Her pulse rifle roared and her aim was specific to the weaknesses of the other three synths in her team. With their joints blown out from under them, she leaped across the room and ripped out their control units. Lieutenant Keith kept his firearm aimed at Mae, ready to blow her away.
After a second, he lowered it. “What the hell was that?”
“Erynis and the Fury are compromised. Erynis’s hack failed, and the station AI countered. Kaspar has shut down the ship.” Though she blared this information on the open comms channel, she doubted the signal would reach her mother, but at least Blue Mae would have some warning.
“Yes, quite a shock, I bet.” Station Chief Rolstad’s voice echoed through the speaker in the command center. “The company has Minos Station equipped with the latest AI defenses. Kaspar predicted you’d make this kind of attack. Seems he’s better than your synthetics. Never bet against the company.”
Keith checked his sidearm before answering. “But is your station security better than the Jackals? Guess you’re about to find out.”
“I already know the answer.” The station chief’s voice sounded taunt with anger and laced with confidence. Mae didn’t like that combination. “But I have more than just human guards. I’ve command of some old friends of yours.”
The lights in the comms room flicked off as the doors whirred open. The station chief must be insane. Xenomorphs on a station was something not even a stupid company middle manager would consider a good idea.
A cluster of low, angry hisses was the only warning they got. The black hand of a Xenomorph gripped the doorframe before it threw itself into the command center. It was no typical Xeno appendage, however. In the joints between the carapace, faint blue light gleamed. Mae didn’t know what to make of this development, because it was not alone.
A swarm of darkness, outlined with eerie blue light and flashing teeth, sprang at the remaining Jackals. Mae wasn’t able to make an accurate count, as in moments it became a close-quarters fight. The rattle of the pulse rifles and the punches of yellow muzzle flare filled the room.
Without the support of the Good Boys and their heavier armor, Green Team was forced back to the rear of the command room. The station chief kept the second door locked tight. They sought shelter that wasn’t available. The tide of snapping, tearing monsters punched through their defenses, even as acid sprayed from the bullet wounds.
Mae lost her footing in the slaughter. Three Xenos threw her to the ground, slashing and tearing at her combat body. This is not normal behavior, she thought rationally as they set about dismembering her body. They should have gone for the genetic humans first. Why would they attack her before the others? Somehow this station had figured out how to control Xenos—something no one else had managed to do.
Pain brought Mae back to the reality of the attack. Yes, some synthetics could experience pain. The strike of acid on her vulnerable joints. Even a combat body could not withstand this onslaught. Around her, the bellows and yells of Green Team echoed in the command center.
Her final thought was to aid Mae Prime. She reached out for the Blue Team synthetic network and found it right at the edge of contact range. She beamed her experiences and memories into that first version of herself a nanosecond before the Xeno punched through her central core.