Nellie and the Nanites - Bk2 - Ch.36

Chapter 36

Everything’s just a little bit worse.

The shuttle shuddered as Nellie pulled up with everything she had, the sounds of tearing metal below her hopefully coming from the Corvette as it gave up the engine rather than from her shuttle as it came apart.

The Coral Strider leaped in to attack the moment the arrays stopped focusing on it, and Nellie pulled the shuttle back the moment the engine cleared the wreck. They were far from in the clear as the strider followed, long snakelike neck snapping its four mandibles at her shuttle, coming very close to snagging the front. There was just no way she was going to be able to get clear in time, not with the engine swinging below her.

Nellie punched the emergency release on the cables, only to see the light go red. The cable releases must have been damaged…

The creature was just pulling back to strike when fire from the Corvette hit the underbelly, making it screech.

As it swung around, Nellie saw Lucy standing next to the hole where the engine used to be, both pistols lighting up the night as Weasel fought off a swarm of its brethren trying to push out of the hole behind her.

“Lucy! What are you doing?” Nellie yelled.

“I can get a new body, Nell,” Lucy said calmly in her ear. “We need that engine.”

The Coral Strider surged toward Lucy, standing over the Corvette as it drew to its full height. Nellie could see the neck darting down and the occasional flash as Lucy fought not to lose the body she had worked so hard on.

The body Nellie was quite fond of.

“No fucking chance,” Nellie slammed the controls forward, firing wildly as she careened towards the Strider. It ignored her as she swung in a wide arc around it. “Lucy!” She called. “Watch out!”

Nellie yanked the shuttle into a hard turn. Feeling the whole shuttle pulled onto its side by the heavy engine. She flicked on the exterior speakers and pushed the volume to maximum as she doused all the lights.

The structural integrity warnings were all deep red as she reached the midpoint of the turn, and she could hear the whole ship screeching as the metal protested.

“BATTER UP YOU BIG BITCH!” Nellie’s voice roared out of the exterior speakers, and the Coral Strider raised its head just in time for the arc of the massive engine to catch it dead in the chest.

The whole strider was ripped from its feet as blood exploded out of it. The last she saw of the thing was as it was knocked flying, its body limp.

The only problem now was how to get the Shuttle back under control. Between the sharp turn, the g-forces, and the sudden impact with the Coral Strider, two of the lines had snapped, and the weight was swinging wildly and spinning as Nellie fought desperately to keep the thing in the air.

The entire shuttle swung like a carnival ride as Nellie fought the controls and the engine beneath her. The altitude readings were worryingly low, and in the end, the inevitable happened.

Nellie crashed, the shuttle shuddering with the impact as it skipped once before the engine caught, and it was yanked back with a breathtaking suddenness. It felt as if they had run into a wall as Nellie was slammed forward and back like a wrecking ball.

Internal Injuries detected!

Repairs underway…

Healing Nanites deployed….

Pain suppression is in effect. Please take care.

Nellie groaned as she pushed herself upright, pulling her helmet from the floor and locking it in place. She had to get to Lucy; she was still stuck on that ship…

“You two, with me,” Nellie said as she got a fresh pistol from the rack and a rifle to match.

The Centrum units had been gripping the walls, not that she could blame them with how she was flying, but immediately complied.

The three of them forced open the cargo bay doors and set off into the marshy darkness to get Lucy. She at least knew exactly which direction to take, given that she could sense where both Lucy and Weasel were.

“Hang on, Lucy, we're coming,” Nellie muttered quietly.

“Hurry,” Lucy replied quietly in her ear. “Things are pretty bad.”

Nellie started to run, hearing the Centrum units match her speed as she accelerated toward the Corvette.

===<<<>>>===

Danforth stared at the latest supply count in horror. They had less than a week’s worth of food and ammo. They could recharge the power cells, maybe stretch it out another week, but this city did not exactly have the most efficient power station. It barely managed to supply the city. If they charged their spent ammo cells, it wouldn’t leave enough power to supply the city defenses and the city. As the temperature continued to fall, the whole city was running the heaters for the full three shifts just to keep things from freezing solid.

“How did this even happen?” Danforth asked, sweeping the tablets aside in disgust. “I sent so many supplies here!”

“They never made it, Sir,” The aide said grimly. “About a third were reassigned, and the rest vanished.”

“Where?” Danforth asked. If they were in the city somewhere…

“Between cities, Sir.” The aide replied. “Various places en route. It’s gotten so bad that we have stopped shipping supplies at all.”

“This can’t happen,” Danforth said. “Dismissed.”

“Sir,” The aide left quickly.

“Well?” Danforth asked the only other person in the room.

“That many attacks seem a little suspicious to me,” Prit-Mal said plainly. “One or two, sure. Civies get a little nuts at times like this, but all of them?”

“There is no sign of an organized group, like a resistance behind this?” Danfroth sighed.

“There are resistance groups, but hardly organized,” Prit-mal said with a smile. “I think we both know what happened to those supplies, Sir.”

“Yes, we do,” Danforth growled in frustration. The first few days here had been less than he had expected. For a start, he found his preferred second in command was no longer in the city. He had been reassigned while Danforth was in the air. That had to be Ahern again. Prit-Mal had been the natural choice, given she knew the city, and he was sure he could trust her in dire circumstances. He could still remember how her hand had gone to her gun when he was accused of sedition by Ahern.

When he arrived with a local second, it had ruffled a few feathers, but that was short-lived. Prit-Mal was a natural leader, and her absolute professionalism was a balm to even the most bruised ego. He had insisted she speak openly from now on; he wasn’t Ahern who only wanted yes-men after all. She had lived up to her promise.

“Ideas?” Danforth asked.

“I doubt there is anything out there to scavenge at this point,” Prit-Mal said. “I have a suggestion, but you won’t like it.”

“In a week, we will be out of food. I don’t like anything right now.” Danforth said bitterly.

“How much do you want to bet that Ahern is still moving supplies between his own cities?” Prit-Mal asked. “A few shadow raids, no survivors, and we can resupply.”

“I don’t want to attack our own people,” Danforth said sharply.

“An attitude that does you credit, Sir.” Prit-Mal said with a smile, “Do they feel the same way about us?”

Less than two hours later, Danforth was looking at a shipping schedule for the Hub and its neighboring city. There was a shipment in a couple of hours, a big one.

“I am ready to deploy the troops, Sir,” Prit-Mal said sternly behind him.

“You seem eager, Officer,” Danforth replied.

“Have you ever starved, Sir?” Prit-mal asked. “I have, and it is not pleasant. Besides, it would not just be us who starved. My men and women would starve. The citizens would starve. All because someone stole our supplies.”

Danforth shook his head. He was constantly surprised by Prit. She cared about her own men and women. Federation men and women. The people who invaded her planet. She cared enough about them to ignore her own principles to ensure they survived. And here he was, hesitating like a child who didn’t want to do the hard thing.

“Deploy at your command,” Danforth straightened up. “No survivors, no risks.”

“Understood, Sir,” Prit-Mal nodded, a tear in one eye as she put on her helmet and marched away.

Danforth stared after her and wished for the eighteenth time in his life that he was blessed with children. Just one would have been enough if she was a shadow of Prit-mal.

===<<<>>>===

Nellie ordered the Centrums to break left and right as she advanced straight down the middle. The damn Corvette was not a ship, it was a nest. How had they even managed to carry this many of the things on board?

“Advance and Destroy!” Nellie called as they moved forward. The Centrum’s slow steps were interspersed with rapid bursts of light from their weapons. They were slower than her, but they did manage to keep her flanks clear. It was enough to let her fight her way toward where Lucy was now fighting hand to claw with the creatures while Weasel flew back and forth behind her, trying to staunch the flow of the things from within the ship.

Her rifle clicked empty, and she dropped it without a thought, pulling her sidearm and continuing to move forward. The power indicator was dropping too fast; she wasn’t going to make it in time…

“Implant, Combat Mode, full power. Initiate.” Nellie said grimly.

Someone poured fire into her veins, and her whole body seemed to ignite as rage burst through her. Her vision wavered for a second before it stabilized, and she started to run.

Leaping and kicking one of the monsters aside, Nellie punched her blaster into the mouth of another and pulled the trigger. There were not enough things to hit and kill in the entire universe. There was not enough blood to spill, not enough enemies to kill. She roared a challenge and leaped, discarding any attempt to move as a human as she moved with perfect efficiency. The roaring rage settled into a cold, icy calm. Nellie discovered the far side of rage, the cold ice that matched the roaring fire as her movements became sharp, smooth movements where not a step or twitch of a muscle was wasted. Blood flowed around her as she reached out and simply crushed the spine of a snarling monster, only to turn and use it as a club to beat another down.

It seemed like seconds passed before she was fighting back to back with Lucy, the Centrum units moving steadily closer as they fought through the throng, their own weapons spent as they moved to melee combat.

Her Hud showed them a clear path, and Nellie tapped Lucy and pointed. Lucy nodded, and the two of them started to fight their way clear.

Almost as soon as they moved, the path was closed, leaving them both exposed as the creatures upped their attacks.

“We have to lose the Centrums,” Lucy said.

“Weasel! Heal!” Nellie yelled, grabbing the snarling Weasel as he passed and flipping him onto her back. “Run for the shuttle?” Nellie asked.

“Fast as we can,” Lucy yelled back. “Ready?”

“Centrum units, cover our retreat,” Nellie sent the command and then nodded to Lucy.

“Now!” Lucy leaped high into the air, a long arc that ended as she rolled back up into a sprint.

Nellie had crouched into a sprinter’s stance for a second before pushing off into a full sprint, her feet flying over the ground and leaving the things in her wake as she burst forward like a bullet out of a gun.

In no time, they were clear and sprinting easily through the shallow water and back toward the shuttle.

“I’ve recalled the Centrum units,” Nellie said as she followed Lucy into the shuttle.

“Those things might follow,” Lucy warned. “They are simple machines, Nell. They can be replaced.”

“True,” Nellie admitted. “But why waste resources?”

Lucy accepted that and headed into the shuttle to start getting it repaired while Nellie went to look at the engine they had salvaged. They both knew Nellie was recalling the units because they were HER units, simple machines or not. She was not leaving them behind. She had been yanked from her world, losing what meager possessions she had, only to build a ship and have that taken from her as well. She had made a promise to herself.

No one and nothing was ever going to take from her. Ever.

She was just about to deactivate combat mode on her implant when Lucy warned her not to, at least until they were safely in the shuttle. It seemed there was going to be a cost for her endless energy. Nellie shrugged. It was fair enough. At the moment, she still felt up to running a marathon, probably while carrying a car. It was a weird feeling.

Nellie kept busy, using her nanoblade to cut free the damaged lines and loading them into the cargo bay to be recycled. Next, she dug under the engine and started to slide in a set of anti-grav sleds. It would take at least five on each side to actually lift it, but she was merely trying to lessen the weight. The shuttle’s winch would handle the rest.

While she was digging out one side, she sent Weasel to dig out the other. The creature’s lithe claws dug readily enough, and he used his tail to scoop out the soil as he worked. The species seemed to be natural diggers, which she added to the information she had on them.

“The shuttle will fly, but I think we better head back and repair it properly,” Lucy said brightly. “Still, we have the engine base we need, and I have the information on Exo-Drives.”

“They had the information?” Nellie asked. She had been expected to find nothing on a ship that small.

“A full database, actually.” Lucy grinned. “I think the captain was in line for a command position. They certainly had strange cargo on board,” She nodded to Weasel when its head stuck out of the hole it was digging.

“Think there is more stuff in there?” Nellie looked back in the direction of the Corvette.

“If there is, it can stay there,” Lucy said with feeling. “The only way I’m going back there is if we dump nanites on it and wait for it to turn into soup.”

===<<<>>>===

Commandant Ahern got the message from Prit-Mal at the same time as he was informed of the missing supply convoy.  The message had been sent a couple of hours ago, but it had become stuck in a relay and arrived too late for him to prevent what he was now reading had happened.

“Commandant Ahern, I regret to inform you that Danrfoth has ordered an attack on a supply convoy traveling out of the Hub. I am being sent along on the raid myself, but I might not be able to signal them in time.” Prit-Mal stood at attention as she recorded the message, despite the risk involved. Ahern could admire that.

“The details of the convoy chosen to be attacked are included in this message. I hope you can arrange for it to be diverted.” She saluted, then seemed to hesitate before going on, “Sir? If the convoy is not diverted, I will do everything I can to warn them. If I am killed, I would like you to know I did my best.” The recording ended there.

Ahern noted in the report that the convoy had radioed a warning that it was about to be attacked, so she managed something. He just had to hope she was not killed for it. Just in case, he sent an immediate recovery team to search the wreckage.

He paced in his office while he waited for their report. Minutes turned to hours, but he found himself unable to focus on anything. When the report finally came, he read it twice before he started to laugh. “Clever Prit. Very clever.”

A recording of the attack had been found on a dead trooper. One from the attacker’s ships. The convoy had been hit in the middle of nowhere by ships waiting in ambush. Their engines were targeted first, forcing them to land. A series of suppression fields were deployed, but a single ship had escaped after receiving a burst transmission warning of an attack. The convoy leader had continued on but left that single ship back, just in case.

The burst device had been discovered on the same trooper, one who died from a Fed pistol shot to the back. They were able to identify the trooper, a recent transfer to the city with no direct loyalty to Danforth. A natural traitor with a series of reprimands and leaks in their personnel file. Even the investigators at the battle sight were sure that the trooper was the hero who tried to prevent the attack and then tried to escape with a recording during the battle.

He wondered who had led the attack; given the tactical skill on show, it must have been a very senior officer.

So Prit was likely clear of suspicion and had given him absolute proof. Even a copy of the order from Danforth was included.

“When this is all over, Officer Prit-Mal,” Ahern grinned. “I will personally see to it you are a full citizen with a command of your own.” He chuckled at her picture and sat down to prepare. The next bit was easy, but he was determined to get the most out of it.

Dear Federation Citizens!

ATTENTION! ATTENTION!

We regret to inform the populace of this brave planet that a traitor has turned against us. He has struck a blow against us in the most cowardly and nefarious way. He intends to starve us of supplies while his own corrupt and bloated command feasts on your food!

Chief Security Officer Danforth has claimed to be working for us all, but with the actions of the brave and noble Transmission Officer Arthur Fick, we have learned the horrific truth! Attached to this message, which I have sent to all good and true citizens of the Federation, is a copy of the recording made by that brave young officer before he was murdered by the traitors for his honor and moral fortitude.

Also attached is a copy of the order, with Danforth’s code number clearly visible.

Following these revelations, I have begun an investigation that I have no doubt will show further atrocities against this planet and its people by the scheming Danforth.

Rest easy, fellow citizens, for this low traitor and his cronies, will pay for this with their lives!

Commandant Ahern.

He sent out the message a half hour later, pleased to see it playing on the news screens within moments. This, this, this, Ahern thought to himself. This is what makes me rise every time. I have a knack for survival, and with Prit-Mal’s help, he would come out of this smelling of roses. Danforth was his second in command; everything could be hung around his neck.