Chaos Cipher (78 page)

And Ripley
listened as the network streamed with different commands from
Orbital Guard pilots intercepting their predacious mechanical
foe.

‘
Snake Eyes
are moving in, ETA three
minutes.
’

‘
Seven Eleven
now taking defensive positions.’

‘
Copy Seven
Eleven.
Gold-Tail
out.’

‘
Ace Ripley,
I have an update for you’ his ship alerted, ‘it’s very
urgent.’

‘
What is
it?’

‘
Chief
Claudia Noble needs to speak with you.’

‘
Patch her
through the network.’

The three
Xenotechs broke their synchronicity, the leader still burning like
a giant magnesium flare. The four limbs started to part and those
strange ethereal appendages wormed and lashed out behind
it.

‘
Gold-Tail
,’ Ripley shouted, ‘watch
out for those things, they’re armed with a polymorphous virus.
Don’t get too close.’

The
Stymphalion ships swarmed in, garish winks of maser waves and
explosive javelin missiles slamming into the immutable Xenotech
leader as the other two raced ahead for planet Earth.

‘
Ripley this
is Chief Nobel,’ she greeted, her face appearing on a heads up
display. Ripley looked up and offered her a quick smile, keeping
occupied with his pursuit. She was a mature and very serious woman,
a styled side fringe of dark red hair that was paled with white
strips. She wore a long white coat which glowed with electronic
stripes across the opticidyne material, nodal contact lines to
which she could stick electronic devices. Several medallions and
badges glittered at her left breast, arching all the way back over
her shoulder like an epaulette of achievements. Over her right eye
she had an optical feature, detailing information, when
needed.

‘
The
Ameritropolis Atominii are demanding you destroy the machine’s
power system coolant,’ she explained. ‘By any means possible. If
the coolant is off, the reactor will overheat and the machine will
be destroyed. You must destroy one of the smaller
Spydrones.’

‘
We got an
official name for these things?’ he asked. ‘Thought we were calling
them Xenotech?’

‘
We were.
Only, guess what,’ she detailed. ‘Adamoss discovered a potential
manufacturer of these things. Ampotech have been planning designs
for a decade in the Cygnus system.’

‘
So, what are
they?’

‘
Excavation
drones for exo-planets,’ she said. ‘They’re drone explorers. We
don’t suspect Ampotech to be a rogue company; after all they’re
supplying our weapon systems and interstellar velox technologies.
We think these things have malfunctioned.’

‘
So,’ said
Ace Ripley, initiating combat sequencers as the targets finally
came within range. ‘Let’s make me an omelette then.’

‘
Take care,
Ripley,’ she said.

Suddenly to
Ripley’s surprise and horror, a javelin-missile cruised towards his
ship and exploded far too close for comfort.

‘
Jeeesus!’ He
cried. ‘
Gold-Tail
...what the fuck? Focus on where you’re shooting those
things, will ya?’

The
Deathwind
curved, looping round to find
the Stymphalion ships were now tailing him. A beam of maser fire
burned along
The Deathwind’s
shell and another missile blasted into the
underside.

‘
This isn’t
good, commander,’ said the ship ‘that last javelin-missile
unsettled my shield defences.’

‘
Seven
Eleven, what the hell is happening?’ Ripley shouted.

‘
Commander...this is
Snake
Eyes
,’ said one of the pilots, ‘our ships
are turning against us. We’re fucked! Those viruses you warned us
about...they’re too advanced for our AI software to seek out,
they’re bleeding all our firewalls.’

Ripley
switched back into his sensorium and opened a communication channel
with one of the Stymphalion commanders. As he submerged into the
virtual world sensorium,
The
Deathwind’s
avatar displayed itself as a
glowing green ball, hovering around Ripley in an orbital cloud like
an electron to its nucleus. Outside of the neurosphere, he saw the
digital translations of the war, the ripples and waves of space
contorting with each explosion, and he saw the pulsing transponder
signatures of other neurospheres, the ones occupied by infected
Stymphalion pilots. But they seemed to be very different from their
usual signature. Their spheres were wrapped with esoteric symbols,
of X’s and zeros and the signs of some ancient cuneiforms. He could
almost hear the whispers of the surreal digital language imposed
upon the pilots, sounds of vibrations and a kind of softly whistled
tone like static.

‘
The virus
has infected the neurospheres,’ said his AI, ‘the influence has
even invaded the neuromissions. Those pilots are no longer
conscious.’

‘
How can this
be?’ Ripley wondered aloud, staring at the transponders. He moved
the strike-ship through space, increasing its
acceleration.

‘
You better
get out of here, Ripley,’ said D.W. ‘I don’t think I will be able
to defend another viral attack like the last one, especially if
they recalibrate to my defence capabilities. Without an upgrade,
I’m defenceless.’

‘
Download an
upgrade!’ He ordered. ‘We’re in orbit, get hold of
Adamoss.’

‘
That could
take some time.’

He dropped
out of the neurosphere and returned to pilot settings, oculars now
focussed on forward targets only. Crosshairs were still locked onto
the distant Xenotech.

‘
Where’s it
headed?’

‘
Unknown,
northern quarter, approaching the thermosphere, five hundred
clicks.’

Ripley
patched a signal through to the Orbital Guard as the Stymphalion
ships clashed with each other, those infected with chaos cipher
viruses pitched evenly against Titans. Blinding flashes and
explosions ripped through local space in the distance and
The Deathwind
accelerated to thirty gees. Earth was soon a large globular
body taking up the majority of Ripley’s view, its atmospheric
column cutting the dark of space with a beautiful blue line and
white spiral cloud formations foaming above the wispy pine blots of
earth.

‘
Chief…I got
a problem.’

‘
Go ahead,
Ripley.’ Chief Noble answered.

‘
One of the
Xenotech is headed for the North Ameritropolis, I’ve no doubt in my
mind, it’s going to launch an attack on the Ameritropolis Atominii.
But the bastards knocked out my weapons unit. There’s not much I
can do on an all-out assault.’

‘
Right,’ she
said, ‘what’s the position of the Xenotech? I’ve got clear tracking
on the other two, but I can’t get a lock on your
position.’

‘
I’m
neuromitting the coordinates now, ma’am.’

‘
Got
it...wait...that’s in the thermosphere.’

‘
Yeah.’

‘
Well we
can’t make a hit at that close range,’ she sighed. ‘Is there no way
you can engage the target?’

‘
Ma’am?’
Ripley was open to suggestions.

‘
Ripley...you
know what I’m asking you to do. If that thing gets through,
millions will die. We’re sending tactical STA missiles as we speak.
But according to our data so far its effects will be unsuccessful.
We need you on this.’

‘
Yes,
ma’am.’

When the
transmission ended,
The Deathwind
had already reserved fifty milligrams of
antimatter fuel and loaded it through the injection coils into
storage.

‘
How are you
going to strike this thing with fifty milligrams of
anti-material?’

‘
I hadn’t
figured,’ Ripley confessed, ‘thought I’d just kamikaze the son of a
bitch and eject in the last moment.’

‘
That is an
option,’ the computer said ‘or we could eject now and I hand over
the neurophase controls to
The
Deathwind’s
body. We fall safely to Earth
and you can smash that metal bastard right in the gonads still
neurophased with the flight controls. You won’t have to worry about
being blown up, either, just fly remotely.’

‘
Can you keep
the neuro-ligature on remote?’

‘
For a short
distance, but with good timing, it should be enough. Once the
antimatter engine kicks in, then we can hop-scorch crash right into
its reactor core.’

‘
Good plan,’
said Ripley. ‘But I can’t afford to miss. I’m going to have to do
this manually.’

‘
I can eject
the cockpit cabin,’ the AI offered. ‘Roll the ship, aim us down to
the ground before we hop-scorch. It’s unlikely, we’ll survive the
detonation but it might happen that luck is on our side. No
promises, I’d have to time the ejection really well. Also, if the
blast doesn’t kill you, the speed of ejection might.’

‘
Catch
twenty-two,’ Ace smiled. ‘Let’s do it. Question is, how do we
expose the core?’

‘
Those things
open up wide when they’re swallowing pray,’ said
The Deathwind
. ‘Let’s
get them closer to the Orbital Guard, maybe
Snake Eyes
can sacrifice a few
pilots.’

Ace Commander
Ripley opened up a channel to the orbital guard as
The Deathwind’s
AI
prepared the ejection process.

‘
This is
Ripley to
Snake Eyes
, Ripley to
Snake
Eyes
, listen up!’ He ordered. ‘I need
Arrowheads and Stymphalions to take a nose dive into those
tentacles. These things are interested in resources. Give them
over. I know it sounds crazy, but once they’ve swallowed a few
strike-ships, I’ll have a clear shot to their guts. I need that
shot!’

‘
Roger
Ripley!’ Said
Snake
Eyes
. ‘I’m already coming in.’

‘
Make a last
minute eject,’ he reminded. ‘Don’t let those things grab you,
slick.’

‘
Good call,
Commander.’ Said
Snake
Eyes
. ‘
Gold-Tail
,
Snake Eyes
, Para Storm, I need all
available wings for a kamikaze mission on the targeted Spydrone.
Full throttle. GO GO!’

The
Deathwind’s
canopy remained lined up with
the Xenotech as it fell through the thickening atmosphere of earth.
The sky started to pale now and the heat of the sun seemed less
benign. Explosions tore through the skies as Arrowheads soared
ahead of
The Deathwind
, crashing explosively into their enemy.

‘
On target,
on target.’ One pilot’s voice came through the network. ‘Good
job,
Gold-Tail
.’

‘
See you on
the ground!’ One of the
Gold-Tail
pilots returned.

Ripley
watched the coiling and spinning tentacles shiver and reach out to
swat away the various Arrowheads swooping down.

‘
Lost
control! LOST CONTROL!’ A voice called on the network. One of the
Stymphalions spun into a roll, the air velocity tearing up the
exposures. He watched the fuel spill and the whole thing catch
fire, and he heard the pilot’s last screams as his failed attempt
caused his ship to fulminate before the guy could eject. Soon,
another came crashing in, and the Xenotech opened up its four large
legs into a cross-section at last. The silvery tentacles reached
far out behind it, and Ripley made sure he was at a fair distance.
And between the skirts of metallic tendrils he saw his target, a
glinting cold light shining powerfully upon him.

‘
Getting some
really strange readings from that thing.’ The AI
reported.

‘
We
set?’

‘
Ready!’

And as the
antimatter slammed into the engine’s fuel stream,
The Deathwind’s
glorious
long tail burst to roaring life, its ferocity now echoing through
the sky, its light reflecting through the clouds. The scorching
engines carried the Solitaire strike-ship on a tail of fire,
driving the body up into the Xenotech’s midsection and as promised
by the AI, the cabin ejected in the last possible moment, a last
ditch effort to survive the impossible. An explosion bloated from
within and nearby pilots gasped in awe as the thick black clouds
transformed into solid foam, their state of mater changed by the
venting gaseous coolant turbulently released from the shattered
core. The Xenotech almost immediately became a falling ice
sculpture with bloated gasses growing out of the freezing zone like
black fungus, nobody had expected such a reaction from the
collision. Suddenly, huge jarring knifes of crystal burst through
the machine’s frozen shell, driving from somewhere within, large
wedges of glass punching, growing rapidly into towers, amassing to
almost the size of skyscrapers. Brilliantly, this falling sky
palace of ice began to radiate until it shone like a star and
fulminated in lustrous climax of fluxes, rippling through the vast
welkin, pushing a hole through the local clouds for a hundred
miles.