Unipsi, lovely entity

chapter 29: echo

Idra’s NDU was still accelerating the Xoraxta defeated ship toward the gas giant. All communication failed to reach it so the Sheridan crew could only watch as Idra’s ruthless unfolded. Fortunately for them, they had no idea of what was really going on. In their mind the surrendered Xoraxtas were going to be killed by the gas giant pressure upon entering its atmosphere. Definitely not an honourable death but far better than what Idra had in mind.

“can you feed upon the survivors without damaging my ship?”

|/yes|/

“then go. Kill them all, feed yourselves, eat everybody and everything that gets in our way. I have no needs for survivors”

|/Kill. Enemy. Feed. Grow. Rest. Evolve|/

Whispers started echoing around Idra’s body as the small light coming from the cockpit screens and instrumentation was bending around her. They were pleased by Idra’s choice. They could finally unleash their illusory thirst for blood and physical pain. It was the first step forward in their journey. They were amazed by Idra’s endless and rooted hatred toward everything that could feel pain. Such ominous and grotesque way of thinking felt so... nostalgic. So much room for mutual growth. Soon from Idra’s back a grey tentacle formed inside the cockpit and expanded. It moved through the ship and then it seeped in the NDU landing gear, squeezing between atoms and passing untouched and invisible. The tentacle was moving fast, running and scanning each corner of the wreckage, looking for it’s prey and everything it could consume. It started consuming corpses floating around in the damaged areas of the ship. Then a distant weak pulse, a second one and then more and more. The survivors had retreated to a safe room that was built to protect them after the defeat but the whispers were not going to stop.

The tentacle burst through it effortlessly. The survivors started firing their small weapons but it was totally unfazed by any of their bullets. Hell had come for them. The machine tentacle started expanding, dividing itself in smaller tentacles, grabbing people, impaling them, eating them. It was a massacre without any regards. The tentacles was toying with the survivors. Cutting their arms, crushing their bones, cutting their tendons to then grab and squeeze them as a toothpaste container. But some had it worst. Those that weren’t killed “immediately” were tortured to death. Each tentacle grab pealed their skin to the bones, it was eating them slowly and painfully. Others felt as the machine penetrated their flesh corroding their bones. 102 survivors were brutally and painfully killed in just a few minutes. Idra being the sender and having total control over the tentacle saw all, felt all and pushed the Whispers to generate even more pain. More misery. She wanted them to suffer as much as she could achieve with her new powers. It was unclear even to the Whispers why she wanted so, but they liked it. It felt like home, a lost in time place were they were built. Couldn't remember their creator, maybe they never knew it from the beginning, yet they knew such scorn. At the end of such nauseating show the tentacle vanished leaving an empty ship behind. They went back to their owner and friend, where they felt mutual happiness and satisfaction. They were growing closer and with time their bond will be deep enough to fuse them. To become what they should always have been.

|/Back. Recharge. Rest.|/

“We are not that different. You should have come out of the artefact sooner”

|/Unripe. Time. Needed.|/

“You are the unripe one, lean to talk normally”

Soon after the NDU detached from the ship, leaving it to its destiny. Idra opened back her communications, it was time to move on the next step.

“Scilla, I’m sending you the landing location. Let’s get moving, don’t bring any tank or shit like that. We can’t use them inside the structure. At best we could fit a large Lean android.”

“understood, but was it…”

“We must move, time is not our friend. Prepare your troops and descent on the target location.”

Idra closed her communications again and proceed to the rally point as well.

“your orders Commander” said Morea, breaking the silence that had settled in the main deck.

“well, we are not here on vacation. Get on moving, I want 3 troop transporter ready to go down. Meanwhile prepare the medical room in case of combat injuries and unload more carriers to get down and pick up all we can as fast as possible.”

I have really mixed feeling about what I just saw, but I suppose work is work.

In contrast to their predictions the Sheridan crew initiated the descent before Idra. For some reason she moved really slowly toward the floating rock and initiated her descent once Scilla and her crew had already landed on the moon. Their rally point was set on a small grass field near a lake with crystalline water. The moon displaced a primordial ecosystem flooded with primitive lifeforms. Nothing to really care about yet unusual for a moon with 0,72 gravity acceleration. The dark red flora surrounded the plain, but even among the trees there was no alien structure to be seen.

Idra landed not too far from them right beside the lake shore. She stormed out of her ship in a completely different setup than usual, plus her robots. Her suit had the same usual dark substrate but on her back she had 2 additional mechanical limbs folded on themselves. Around her, androids were walking in a defensive formation carrying: unknown canisters, machines and pipes. Few of them had a backpack composed by a black goo canister for Idra’s suit.

“are your troops ready Scilla?”

“yes but the fuck is the ruin?”

“below us. 10 minutes and we will be going in.”

Idra’s robots were already building a small structure on the plain. It was basically a metallic frame with stabilizers and a drill in the middle that was going to be pushed into the ground. As the machines were doing their job Idra started sensing all her data to Scilla’s helmet. A multi level structure, bigger than the plain itself, was just below their feet. The underground compound highlighted by the helmet had several dark zones but a clearly defined path to reach a room similar to a fusion reactor.

“let me guess, the reactor room is the AI head. We cut the head and the rest will die soon after?”

“a love when people can use their brain. So yeah. Cutting down power isn’t an option. They usually have battery or secondary power supplies. Its not going to be an easy task but if you follow my lead you should get back home intact or almost intact”

“you seem to know a lot about this kind of ruins. Are you …”

“this is not the time. Get ready!”

Idra rushed toward the machine, when she was half way in an explosion shook the ground. Small debris were sent flying all around the excavation point. Idra, connect via Scilla, yelled her orders to everybody.

“Get to the rope! We are rushing in!”

Idra was the first to enter follower by her 6 flying drones and 8 androids. When Scilla got in, Idra and her army were already shooting at the welcome committee from the AI. Inside they found themselves in a series of low illuminated rooms and corridors. The ruin was clearly different from the one where they met Idra. Apparently Morfian like well decorated and clean structures.

“HEY! The fuck are you doing?! We have to move fast, follow me!”

“got it Idra. Squad 1 and 2 lets push with her. Try to stay back and shoot from as much distance as you can get”

Idra had already destroyed 5 robots and had forced open a door leading toward the lower levels. She and her robots were fighting like total maniac cleaning the path without much problems. Scilla’s crew was little by little left behind to provide cover and stop the enemy from pushing and flanking them. After the first pair of stairs the purpose of the structure become clear. It was once a prison or something built for similar purposes. Big copy and paste rooms were scattered around. Maybe they had few prisoners or few criminals. That was definitely not the time to ask questions.

Running from corridor to corridor they found themselves in a small room. Only one corridor to move forward but the AI was shooting hell from the other side.

“what now Idra?”

“now I go in and have some real fun. Scilla you have a simple task. Follow me, stop new bots from coming in and keep safe that droid”

Idra pointed and one of her android that was carrying a series of canisters.

“got it. So what are you going to…”

As Idra heard the “got it” she rushed toward the door throwing in a grenade. As soon as the small tube left her hand it started to emit a high pitch sound growing both in pitch and intensity. A screaming grenade, the same that Scilla saw in one of her dreams. The grenade attached everything magnetic around it with brutal force, so brutal that even the bots bullet were completely deviated. Then it eclosed in a burning fog of fused metal particles.

I guess she knew they used electromagnetic ammunitions or maybe it was just a bit of luck.

Idra just ran into it leaving a hole from where they saw as her goo remodelled into an arm that impaled the first robot shooting from the other side. Then using the machine as shield, Idra started shooting as the others in the room.

“room clear, get in here, I’m moving forward!”

They didn’t even have time to get in the new room that Idra was already rushing down a new corridor reaping war bots as if they were nothing. Idra fury stopped upon reaching a spacious rectangular room with 4 doors, 3 open and one closed. On the other side the AI core but the massive door needed some extra “care” to be opened.

Fuck, it’s too heavy to be forced open. Well too bad I have explosives. “hey are you there? Do you feel the enemy coming in?”

|/Enemy. Surround.|/

“I know they are around. Can you fight them?”

|/Yes. Power. Limited|/

“do what you can, it won’t take long”

The Whispers tentacle formed once again from Idra’s back and split immediately to cover both entrances of the room, leaving space for future allies to come in. Being seen was not an option but the Lean crew was so far behind that they posed no threat. In Instant the tentacle reached the incoming robots that were no match for it. Meanwhile Idra placed a series of small cubic charges on the closed door.

|/Empty. Disperse.|/

“You did enough.”

The Whispers survived only 20 seconds but they gained enough time to open the door. It was the final corridor until the AI room. Idra’s android went in preparing for the AI removal while Idra stayed back waiting for Scilla and her crew. The Morfian AI was desperately trying to stop her, sending in the 2 corridors everything it could send. Once Scilla arrived Idra’s androids tossed their goo canister that exploded mid air. The goo blocked temporally the doors to allow Scilla’s passage.

“get fucking going! They goo won’t last long come to this side”. Scilla’s crew starter to move but when the last soldier was crossing the goo shield broke. Idra with a dash grabbed the soldier pushing her back into the AI room while exposing herself due to mass inertia. Several bullets hit her making her lose her balance but not stopping her. Once on the ground she rolled over, repositioning herself and shot back into the hallway. Several seconds later she was back. Her suit goo was visibly damaged but she was moving.

“Idra are you…”

“I’m fine. You all shoot back into the room, I need time to extract the AI core.”

“can’t we just break it?”

“you can if you want to explode with it. Now stop the bot from entering while I take this bitch down”

The AI room was peculiar. It looked like the inside of a fusion generator but it clearly was not. All around there were several rectangular structures, probably computation units. In the middle of the room a cylindrical column with several visible image sensors moving around. It was the AI core. It’s anxiety was visible as it kept moving around all it’s “eyes”, it was scared but only of Idra. The machine couldn't stop staring at her even if it knew that she was not going to stop. Idra places more metal structure all around the cylinder. She built a metallic frame that eclosed almost all the column then it cut. A coloured ray fused the metal cutting the core perfectly. As the machine got disconnected the entire structure stopped. No more light, no more killing robot. Everything died.

Idra’s ominous laugh filled the room and echoed through the entire structure. It didn’t felt right.

“commander. Are we the bad guys?” asked one of the soldiers

“we are soldiers. We do what we must do for our people. Now get moving, take everything you can and go back. Do we have any injured?”

“yes commander. 3 injured from squad 1 that stayed behind.”

“then go back to assist. Prepare a troop transport for them and sent them back. Morea do you receive me?”

“yep, you and your squad come back online 30 seconds ago”

“perfect. We have a couple of injured. They are coming up. Prepare the medical team. Send down all our carriers, the ruin is safe. The more we are the faster the work.”

While Scilla finalised her orders for her team, Idra was staring at her new conquer. While doing so the soldier she saved approached her.

“miss Weeping sky… emh.. I…”

“What do you want?”

“well. Mmh thank you, for… saving me.. you know…”

“yeah yeah, whatever get back to work.”

The soldier didn’t have to be told twice and immediately went away leaving Idra alone but only for a moment. Immediately after, Scilla approached her.

“you know you don’t have to always terrorize them right?”

“I don’t care enough, I have what I was looking for”

“you mean the AI core?”

Those words made Idra twitch with anger for a brief moment.

“don’t worry, I was not asking to have it. You did…. well all the work. I just wanted to know if it was the AI core, you know for conversation”

“and why do you want to converse now?”

“well to be blunt I wanted to know if you are ok. You got shot and I don’t think that your suit can dissipate energy so much that you don’t even feel it”

“oh… you could have just asked directly. Well I’m fine. It hurts especially from high calibre bullets but the suit worked perfectly. I just have to scoop up some left over goo from the floor to replenish the one that was broken.”

“so no broken bones or…”

“nah, at worst I got some bruisers but I tanked works in my life so I think I will be fine”

Scilla let out a relief sigh, she could stop worrying for now.

“so… I’ll go help my crew. If you need... anything to be cut, forced open or don’t know just ask me.”

“I will, but for now I will bring the core to my ship”

Over the span of several hours the crew extracted everything the thought could be valuable. The took the broken robots, machines of any kind, crates and whatever was not nailed too hard into the ground. Obviously with about 16 hours of work they couldn’t disassemble everything but with Idra’s help they definitely took a lot of things. Way more that what they ever took from previous ruins. It was the biggest scavenge they ever did and more importantly they were bringing home working technology or recently broken one. Unfortunately there were no fancy equipment such as energy guns or power armour not fused inside the machines, but still it was like winning the jackpot. Their fear and discontent for Idra’s honour-less actions faded even faster than light. From an evil demon imposing orders and brutally killing prisoners to a more reasonable creature. Her brutality become just a fluke, a moment of weakness and unrightness. She brought amazing result and more importantly saved a comrade life. She will always be the scary one but now her reputation was totally rewritten. The crew was now seeing her as a friend. The kind of friend that slaps you out of your own shit and misery. A friend that tells you what you have to hear not what you want to.

Back in space they just set the route to get back home that Idra asked Scilla to meet her at Scilla’s room. Scilla didn’t give much thought about it and let Morea in command. In the room Idra was waiting on her bed with a metal suitcase beside her.

“emh… if you are angry for something that I did without noticing I’m sorry”

“what? no... well I could get angry because you tried to impose your weak manners on my prisoners but I didn’t call you for such stupid thing. You asked me how I was after being shot… I… well… how do I say it…”

“nobody ever asked if you were alright?”

“yep exactly. So I thought that… maybe… you...you could like... aa..a gift… well a small one… you know…”

Scilla sat beside Idra that was definitely dying of embarrassment.

“you don’t have to force yourself and I don’t need a gift for something so little. I take care of my crew and my friends.”

“still take this!”

Idra pushed the box into Scillas arms and left running.

She wasn’t so shy when she revealed the spaceship scale mode. I guess this is different? Somehow...

It was indeed different. The small suitcase contained a piece of paper with a series of spirals drawn on it. Behind the paper…

Is this a portable hand lamp?? It’s a bit small for my hands… and kinds odd. I can’t really see anything that could emit light between the grip and the top.

While looking for a switch she pressed something and the lap lighted up with an intense red light

“WHAT THE FUCK! This is no fucking lamp. It’s an energy mace or something of that sort”

Scilla was astonished and definitely appreciated the gift that was far from a small token of appreciation.

She gave me a fucking working energy weapon!. Is this part of something we just extracted? Still if this is working with me does it mean that it’s now linked to me? Should I keep it? Can I even keep it? This is fucking amazing! I will have to thanks her a lot. Fucking hell how much do I love that woman.