Privateer's Commission 2 - ch8-

Chapter 8

Ralph checked his personal hold-out blaster and found it was ready. There were several energy cells he’d packed along with it just in case it needed to be reloaded. Then he lifted his sword from the scabbard and let it fall back in with a clack.

He would never go into known combat without checking his weapons to make sure they would clear holsters, sheathes, had the safety off, and were ready for use.

“Your sword looks like it could use a good scrub,” Rhea remarked, looming over him from the left side. She was taller than Delilah was. “I feel like you could probably get it out with a good scrub with a steel wool pad.”

“I… what?” Ralph mumbled and then unsheathed the sword and looked it over.

It seemed perfectly fine to him.

Until he turned it partially in the light and he saw that there was indeed a light speckling of grit lodged into small pits in the material. As if it’d been improperly stored for a time and then never maintained after that.

“Well damn,” Ralph grumped, laughed, and sheathed it. He adjusted the cinch on the belt that held it, then looked to Delilah. She was holding the other two hold-out blasters he’d brought along. One in each hand. The reserve cells were somewhere on her person. “Plan is simple. Let the operator handle the doors as we go, open and close only as needed, use them to herd people out of our way or lock’em down. Ready then?”

With Xas having full control of the prison, and locking everyone else at the same time, they’d taken absolute control over the doors and security systems.

Right now, every single door was closed. Rhea had warned her own gang to get into place and hunker down.

“Very much. I’m absolutely ready. Xas won’t stop being a shit and honestly… I hate… places like this,” hissed Delilah, a frown writ large on her face. She glanced at Rhea. “Think they’ll fight us and want to cause an issue?”

Ah, yeah, I get it.

She’s probably put a number of people here. The chances of her running across someone she’s met and put behind bars isn’t zero and it’s actually quite possible. These are people that’d have bounties on their head.

“Obviously! They went and ruined all the facilities they had on their side of the barrier as well. They haven’t had fresh clothes, fresh food, or even fresh water since this all started,” said the tall woman with a small nod of her head. “They probably stink, haven’t brushed their teeth, or had a good meal in a while. It’s their own fault of course, but… what can you do. People make their own choices, don’t you know.”

“Yes. People do make their own choices,” remarked Liseth. She was armed with a military club and one low-grade holdout pistol. She held it in a way that somehow made her look refined while doing it, yet also lethal. “Though sometimes, we don’t get to make choices. Like being grabbed about on one’s person by a rather dashing man who didn’t seem to mind where his hands went.”

I did kinda grab at her when I was moving her.

“Nope, didn’t mind at all,” Ralph said and lifted up his left hand. His very much not biological left hand.

He looked at it, wondering how it would hold up. This would be the first use in an actual battle. The first time he’d be depending on it to keep him alive and to unalive everyone who stood in his way.

“I suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t mind either,” Liseth replied and her ever present small smile grew as she stared at him. “Now, we can enjoy some more flirty banter later, but for the moment, we’re on a literal clock. Rhea has been a gracious host, but we should endeavor to leave her home as soon as possible.”

“Oh you’re so sweet! I didn’t do anything at all to earn that though,” countered Rhea with a sigh. “If this had been when I still had a stove, I’d have made a lovely quiche.

“The last time I had a stove though was a while ago. I lost it because I pulled all the teeth out of this nasty little prison-guard’s head that said I was too tall for an apron. That and that my nails and hair was disgusting.

“The guards that collected him two days later from me didn’t even let me keep the necklace I made out of the teeth.”

Okay then.

The tall house wife is crazy.

Not wanting to linger here any longer, Ralph moved forward. Leaving Rhea behind in the admissions office. The headset on his head made a single popping noise.

“Ah… Ralph?” Xas asked in the headset.

“Yeah,” he replied, looking ahead. He saw Liseth and Delilah both glance at him. He tapped the headset with a finger and mimed a talking mouth with his left hand.

As he did it, he realized that the prosthetic moved as if it were truly his hand. It didn’t delayed, off, or wrong at all. At some point, he’d been using it without thinking of it as anything other than his hand.

“Good! You can hear me. Great, that’s perfect. I wanted to make sure before we started moving in,” Xas relayed followed by an odd sound. “Ooops, anyways. Haha, here we go. Let me get my door nice and wide for you, Ralphy.”

“Ralphy?” repeated Ralph, sounding very nonplussed by the sudden nickname.

“Oh yeah, Ralphy. Anyways, door ahead is open,” Xas reported. “You’ll have a long hallway to go through, then an elevator. I’ve already rerouted it so it’ll work. I even managed to get the doors to the elevator bay you’ll be exiting into locked shut! No surprise ambushes here.”

“Thanks, Xas. How far off are we from Rhea’s ‘barricade’ as she called it once we exit the elevator,” Ralph inquired.

“Pretty far realistically, but it shouldn’t be that bad. I’m already working at the plan,” Xas answered. “Though there’s also some interesting side areas along the way that I can access. Strange corridors that aren’t really on the original blueprints, but are receiving power, have doors, and are part of the security system!

“I think it’s an illegal extension or something. Think there’s prisoners back there? Some hidden extremely beautiful sexy-hot women who can’t be jailed, but need to be stuck behind bars?

“That could be a lot of fun, haha! Or maybe it’s a secret and illegal server network that’s been working on highly illegal and secret plans. Or an AI! That’d be fascinating.”

“You sound like Rio,” accused Ralph.

“Probably. I talk to her a lot. She’s a lot of fun,” Xas admitted immediately. “She’s almost certainly rubbing off on me. I think it’s a good thing.”

Ralph didn’t respond to that as the doors slowly opened in front of them, then closed behind them. Moving forward along and through corridors and shut cell doors.

The changeover from admissions to prison cells had been almost immediate.

From what he could tell, what Xas told him previously, and what he had heard, places like this were almost entirely electronic. That there just wasn’t much human interaction and it was by design. The less human interaction the better, because it meant less possibilities of problems happening.

Door after door opened ahead of them and closed behind them. A long line of airlock like systems that if properly controlled would almost certainly keep prisoners from doing exactly what they did.

Guess my attack really fucked things over.

Shit.

This is technically my fault isn’t it.

Well fuck.

I didn’t think a whole prison riot would happen.

God damnit.

I’ll need to… to… pay some coin to the families of the dead. As if they died in an accident.

Or something.

This sucks.

“The barrier that Rhea described is up ahead. The fire suppression system kicked in once I took control so the fire should be out but… it’s probably smoky and nasty,” warned Xas.

“Barrier ahead,” Ralph stated.

“This is a very well constructed prison,” Liseth mused as the next door opened and they saw the ‘barrier’. It was a mass of furniture that looked as if it’d been ripped out o fa lunch room, thrown into a pile and crudely shoved around until it formed a barrier. Right in the middle of a large four-way hallway. It was partially melted in some places. “I do think that it’s odd that the prisoners escaped. I’m not entirely sold on the idea that our attack is the root of this issue.

“In fact, I suspect… that there was already a prison breakout in progress in some fashion, or some way. We only presented them with an opportunity to leverage whatever they were doing, earlier.”

“Maybe,” Delilah mumbled. “Fucking stinks.”

Ralph couldn’t disagree, the burning materials of the semi-melted barrier stunk terribly. He couldn’t identify it, but he was sure he’d need Liseth to check him out later after they got back aboard the Toll.

Reaching out with his prosthetic hand, Ralph shoved a hunk of what looked like a one-time table to the side and made a narrow path. Glancing at his gloved hand, he saw there was something stuck to the material.

He tended to wear a glove on his prosthetic as would probably engender a lot fewer questions.

Moving to the next door it didn’t open immediately.

“There’s three inside the room. They won’t leave no matter which door I open for them,” Xas explained. “Are you ready?”

“Three inside,” Ralph explained and unsheathed his sword in his right hand. He drew his hold-out blaster in his left hand. Taking up a sideways stance he held up the pistol in front of himself.

Delilah lifted both weapons and Liseth drifted up to Ralph’s side and held her pistol up in one hand, and put her left hand behind her back. It was a very strange way to hold a pistol but he wasn’t about to question her.

She was standing at his side with a weapon and ready to fight prisoners.

“Here it comes,” Xas warned and then the doors swung open.

“Put your shit on the ground and lay down!” Ralph shouted, his pistol snapping to the closest prisoner.

As one, all three prisoners, two rather light skinned and the third darker, rushed him. He couldn’t see their faces or hair colors, as they all wore cloth masks with holes cut out for the eyes.

Ralph fired twice at the one moving toward him and shifted his fire to the next closest as the one in the lead fell flat on their face.

Liseth had fired at the individual thrice in a short period. All three laser shots struck center mass, though whatever it hit, wasn’t enough to drop the individual immediately. They blew onward and Liseth stepped to the side, crouched low, and put her foot out.

Unbelievably comical looking, it worked.

The woman she’d shot three times hit her ankle and went flying into the melted barrier. Except they didn’t get up, they laid there atop the debris, struggling against it, but not able to stand up.

As Ralph turned to look at the third, he saw that Delilah had put them down and turned to look at Ralph and Liseth.

“Well, that was unpleasant,” Ralph muttered. “New plan. If we encounter anyone further, we’re doing it with distance. That was pretty fucking stupid.”

“To be fair,” Liseth said while standing up. “It seemed reasonable to expect them to not… charge us. It was rather foolish.

“Although it seems my aim is good, but my placement is bad. They just kept going.”

“She had breast implants,” Delilah offered up with a chuckle. “It can scatter a laser sometimes or just… stop. Depends on the strength.”

“Oh? Oh. I can see how that might happen. Fascinating,” Liseth remarked, put on her small smile she often wore, and stared at him.

“Xas, how’s the next corridor looking?” Ralph asked.

“Full of prisoners who are now very curious about room you’re sectioned in, haha,” answered Xas. “I want to try something. Stay where you are, okay? Don’t fire either.”

“Xas is going to try something, prepare for the next group though,” Ralph ordered and lifted his pistol up again. A second afterward and Delilah as well as Liseth were ready as well. All weapons pointed at the door.

And then the door slid open. Each airlock door sliding into the recesses on each side.

Immediately six prisoners turned, spotted Ralph and the others, and sprinted at them.

Only for the door to shut on the lead prisoner and cut them in half at the waist.

“Ha, gott’em,” Xas crowed brightly as the upper half of the prisoner squirmed around on the ground. They grasped about the cold floor for several seconds, then looked down at themselves as if they weren’t sure of what was going on. Then rolled onto their back and went to grab at their missing lower half.

Only to pause in the motion, their arms shuddering, then dropping down to their sides. Then their head hit the ground and they went still.

The door opened once again, though only partially. Then it shuddered between opening and closing.

Like a hungry set of maws.

“Come on in, said the spider to the fly,” Xas hissed eagerly. “Come, come. I’ve got the timing perfect now.”

Four prisoners stood in the other room, though now standing in the middle of the room. The lower half of the dead prisoner was right up against the door.

Somehow part of it got caught in the door and Xas pulled them open a bit quicker, causing the waist to move between the doors. Then she slid it shut and cut the lower half, in half, at the crotch.

“Bonus,” Xas deadpanned and opened the doors again.

On either side of the prisoners the cell doors all slammed open, even as the now blood smeared door jiggled open and closed.

“Enter the cells,” Ralph ordered and pointed his laser pistol at the closest. “Or you can get shot, or eaten by the door. Take your pick.”

Ralph only now realized that all of the prisoners had bags over their heads. It was a strange thing to do, but he also wasn’t going to question it.

Looking at each other, the doors, and the three people armed with pistols, the prisoners entered the cells.

The door behind them opened and another set of prisoners saw the situation. Even as the first group was entering cells, the second group moved to rush Ralph.

Then came to a stop as the hungry doors shuddered, the chopped bits of the woman laid about on the ground. Not to mention the considerable distance they’d have to clear to get to Ralph.

Getting the hint, they all started filing into the jail cells as well.

“Move ahead, then take the left intersection. We’ll check out that alcove area. It’ll also take us around a major portion of prisoners and into the area where Janey’s cell is,” Xas ordered.

Ralph only stood there, waiting with his pistol up, until every prisoner had entered a cell.

None of them did it willingly or quickly, many lingered. As if weighing their odds of rushing Ralph anyways.

When they were done, Ralph moved forward. Quickly moving to the intersection Xas had ordered them. The doors ahead of them were open for a significant ways as well.

As they entered and then turned into another hall, Ralph found the door they were passing through a door that wasn’t an airlock door, but a normal electronic door. It didn’t belong in this prison at all and was almost certainly installed considerably after the prison had been built.

No sooner than they’d crossed through the door then Ralph got his answer as to the reason this location existed. Because to the left side was a series of very small cells. No larger than three feet by three feet and fit with heavy bars, rather than walls or a door.

In every single cell was a combat android.

“Well that’s terrifying,” Liseth voiced as they walked past the unmoving military assets.

“I haven’t seen androids like these in a while,” whispered Delilah, her head turning to look at nearly every single one as they passed. “These are all androids that require an AI to function. A real AI. Not the ones that get installed everywhere. These are AI like Xas. Or… they were.

“Are they all deactivated? Decommissioned? If so, why’re they here? They’re all plugged into the back wall but that’s not a power cord.”

“They could be black-ops types. Decommissioned here where no-one will find them, but still usable if the need arises,” Ralph suggested as they continued past them all. “Or… maybe… can they be criminals? Can a military android go rogue?”

“Yes,” Xas answered in a flat voice. “They most certainly can and have. You might actually be correct, Ralph. These could very well be rogue androids. I’ll see if I can’t get any information on them. See if there’s a terminal or any type of control panel for them. There probably is since they’re all connected to cables.”

“I would imagine that if they’re ‘plugged-in’, yet their shells are unresponsivie, then they might be… ah… well… cybernetics, android construction, and AI programming isn’t my strong suit, but if they’re plugged in, are their AI’s currently in a prison all their own?” Liseth asked as they continued to walk down the hall. “Most of my work was all biological and wound treatment. My Blood didn’t much care for much in the way of bio-technology either.”

An AI prison?

I mean, huh… I suppose that’s perfectly plausible.

It also sounds kinda horrifying.

“That it?” Ralph asked after they took a ninety-degree turn. At the end of the hall was a terminal set against the wall. “And how exactly did you expect us to give you access? We didn’t really—”

“My dearest captain, Doc is ever and always on your side,” purred Liseth with a throaty and mature sounding laugh. She had moved right up to the terminal, stuck something into the side of it, and turned to look at him with the left side of her mouth fully turned upward. “I may not be much of a fighter, but I do carry my own weight.”

“Haha, yeah, in her bra. She straps them down. I hate her already and like her, too. My sex-bot is gonna need so much extras to get your attention,” Xas chortled. “Accessing… and… in. Oh… oh uh… yes. It’s an AI prison.

“Yes, they’re very much rogue AI. They’re all… very… keep moving. We never saw this.”

“Xas says we never saw this and they’re scary enough that she doesn’t want to talk about it,” Ralph said and led everyone onward. “How much further, Xas?”

“Not far. Just a single door, actually. Janey’s cell is right ahead. I also took care of the prisoners inside!” Xas cheered brightly. “Nom, nom, squish, crunch, crunch!”

No sooner than Xas finished speaking than the door in front of them swung open.

It reeked of blood inside.

There were twenty or so prisoners in various states of being cut apart by the doors all around this corridor. It was a t-intersection of three corridors. One looked like they’d had their head crushed in the door as well.

“Xas is scary,” Delilah whispered in the silence.

“Which cell, you freakin’ Rogue AI chatbot,” Ralph grumped. “You belong in that AI prison, don’t you?”

“Probably! Haha, it’s the third on the left according to the blueprints,” Xas answered immediately. “You should be proud of me. I managed to kill all those prisoners without even being able to see them! I was using the door safety sensors to do it. I’m amazing.

“I’m so amazing that I’m going to make you grovel at the feet of my sex-bot to bed me. I’ll seduce you, get you to fall for me, and then beg to bed me.”

“Har har, Xas, real… funny… shit,” Ralph finished lamely looking into the cell Xas had directed him to.

There were four dead people in it and one of them was most certainly Janey. He recognized her by the picture Delilah had shared with him.

Her throat was cut ear to ear and her hands were tied behind her back. A massive amount of blood covered the front of her chest and pooled around beneath her.

“Well fuck,” Delilah offered intelligent.

“It would seem we’ll still need a pilot,” Liseth said and turned to look at Ralph, her smile once more ever present. “As well as a rapid escape plan.