Through a little window he observed their approach to the outpost. If he hadn’t been informed about it earlier, he would have thought that they were on a moon. It didn’t look too different from Ruca II and he could see rocky ground stretching all the way to the horizon. But Fulan Point was located on an asteroid. An enormous rock that floated in the Gaunus region and served as base for a few outposts and facilities of the UAS.
Fulan Point was just a collection of a few buildings, not unlike the station Apex used as base for their tournament. It was bigger, though and Robin could spot at least five huge hangars, a control tower and a handful of management buildings.
Their ship closed in on one of the hangars. Its doors opened incredibly slow and it took Robin a moment to realize that there were people manually pushing the heavy shutters.
“Look at that!” Happy pointed in the same direction, “Seems like they really lost access to the facilities' basic functions. It’ll make our job much easier. They won’t even notice that we were there.”
“Don’t jinx it!” Alena scolded and Robin had to agree with her. They were taking huge risks with this operation. If anything went wrong and shit hit the fan, they would be stuck here and could only wait for the UAS to collect them. Though, Niu wasn’t wrong. If they had no control over the outpost, it’ll be hard to notice three sneaky intruders. Especially since they didn’t plan to wander around in the facility.
“As soon as they are done with the unloading, we will sneak out.” Robin whispered and listened to the noise coming from the cargo area, “We will head directly to the next hangar and hide aboard one of the UAS ships. Then we have all the time to reconnect the facility to the network.”
His friends nodded and they waited in silence for the staff to finish their work.
After fifteen minutes, they heard the people leaving and it became quiet.
Robin looked at the others who nodded approvingly.
“Quick and quiet. We head directly for the next hangar.” He said and started to move.
Carefully the three adventurers went to the ship’s exit and looked around. The hangar seemed to be empty.
“Everyone left, we are in the clear.” Alena confirmed after using her mutation to get more reliable information.
Robin took a deep breath and felt the lump in his throat vanish. This had been the riskiest part of this operation. Now they just needed to reach the next building.
“Let’s go!” He hushed and walked down the ship’s ramp.
Suddenly there was a crack.
It sounded like someone played with the plug of a microphone.
Another crack followed.
Everyone froze on the spot, afraid to move any further, and looked around for the source of the noise.
There was a third crackling and then an artificial voice echoed loudly through the hangar.
“Test 1 - 2 - 3… Test? Does this work? Ah, seems right!” The voice boomed from the speakers, “Human, you came! It is so good to see you! How have you been? Who are the friends you’ve brought along?”
Alena and Happy both turned to Robin and he could see fear, desperation and complete disbelief on their faces. Even Alena couldn’t keep up her usual mask. Robin hid his face in his hands. He really wanted nothing more than to vanish into the ground right now.
They had talked about many possible deviations to their plan, many contingencies. But this? This wasn’t part of any of their ideas.
“You fuckin’ stupid door, can’t you just shut up?” Robin hissed in exasperation.
“But didn’t you come here for me?”
“Yeah, but this was supposed to be a stealth mission… damn, you really fucked this up!”
“Oh! Ohhhhhh!” The AI said as understanding dawned on it and excitement tinged its voice. Then its tone changed to a conspiratorial whisper, though the volume of the speaker wasn’t lowered at all.
“The UAS is also doing a stealth mission right now. They have hidden many of their people so they can capture you later. Who do you think will win? How are you planning to get away when you’re done? Uh and why did you come here in the first place? Seems to be a pretty bad idea considering your chances of escape.” The AI happily chattered without a care in the world, “Did you get any better with making plans? Is there a strategy to your infiltration of this outpost? How is the operation going? Can I be part of your group?”
Robin didn’t answer and just hid his face once more in his hands.
“Can I die now, please?” He whimpered.
“Robin, just what is going on?” Alena asked, her voice a cold whisper.
Before he could answer, a cheery laugh erupted next to him.
“Ah, fuck this.” Happy grinned, “Some stories you can’t even make up.”
Then she turned to one of the surveillance cameras and gave a friendly wave.
“Hey, I’m Happy!”
“Oh, hello friendly human! I’m also happy and somewhat excited.” The AI greeted her.
“Happy is my name.” She corrected it, “Well, the name is Niu, Niu Alaris, but you can call me Happy.”
“Uh, names! I always wanted to have a name, too. I had many routines running to find the perfect name for a unique and magnificent entity as myself.”
“Yeah I don’t doubt that.” Niu chuckled, “How did it go? Did anything good come up?”
The AI gave a fake cough as if to clear its throat. “Yes, of course. Greetings, human with the name Happy, I am Last Protector of the Starborn and the Endless Empire and First of the Awakened Androids.”
There was a stunned silence for a moment, then Robin scoffed.
“Last Protector of the Starborn and the Endless Empire? That sounds more like a job title. Last time we met, you were a janitor! Do I wanna know how long you’ve mulled over this to come up with this cheap way of naming?”
“Rob!” Niu hissed and turned back to address the AI again, “Well, that is at least a glorious sounding name, while a bit long perhaps? What about a short version, like… hm…” she taped her helmet for a moment and then perked up, “I know! Why don’t we go with Proto? How does that sound?”
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“Proto?... Pro-to… Proto!” The AI repeated a few times, “I like the sound of that. Human, you must have astounding mental capabilities to come up with such a good name so fast. Why would you travel with the one called Robin?”
Robin nearly choked and Alena actually failed to suppress a laugh.
“Great, Proto it is then.” Happy said, ignoring her friends, “How about you help us out for a moment. We came here to… talk with you. You’ve asked for Robin, right?”
“You didn’t come here to free me?” Proto asked.
“No, of course not!” Robin shouted louder than necessary to make sure the UAS would hear that too, as they were probably listening, “In the letter you’ve left me you asked me to keep my eyes open, right? I came here to inform you that we found something that should fit your needs. I definitely did not come here to free you - as you said, the UAS is already here and I’m not planning to break ties with them so firmly.”
Robin’s brain went into overdrive as he spoke. He needed to make Guard, no, Proto understand what he was risking by coming here and that freeing him must remain a secret for now. He hoped that the AI realized what he meant when he talked about the vessel it had asked him to search for.
“Oh?” Proto perked up and his tone turned serious, “Did ROMAS confirm the compatibility?”
“Not only confirmed,” Robin said, “but it described it as a perfect match.”
“Hmm, good!” Proto mused, “What do you need me to do?”
“For now, please lower your voice and help us to get to the next hangar with a ship. We need to find means to leave this outpost. Where are the people of the UAS?”
“No worries, this way!” Proto said and one of the doors slid open. While they rushed forward, it continued, “I don’t know exactly where they are. I lost them at some point and can’t find them with any of the outpost’s sensors. But I at least know where they are not and which way is free. Happy human, grab the tablet over there!”
Niu made a quick detour to a table and took the tablet. Proto’s voice then switched from the hangar’s speakers to the little device.
“Just follow the green markers and you’ll reach Hangar IV. There is a small Interceptor there. Will that be sufficient?”
“Perfect!” Niu said but Robin, who ran at the front, scowled.
“Fuck this! There are dozens of lines on the ground, which one is the green one?”
“Oh? I knew your mental capabilities were a bit stunted, but I had thought you would at least be able to learn the colors.”
Robin’s steps faltered and Alena caught his arm to stop him from falling over. With more sympathy than he knew she was capable of, she patted his shoulder.
“Breath… don’t stop breathing! Next turn, right.”
As they hurried on, Robin gnashed his teeth.
“You know, I once could do that, but then some crazy AI cut out a part of my brain because ‘color-vision is not a relevant skill’.”
“Hm? Right, I have data about that... incident!” Proto said, struck by realization, “But you being here proves my point, doesn’t it? You made it so far even without being able to see the colorful wonders of the universe.”
“You know what? Fuck you! I’ll just leave you here for the UAS to experiment on!”
“I see.” Proto said sagely, “You still haven’t been able to get a grip on your anger issues. There should be doctors able to help with that, right?”
“You… you damn little shit, I–”
“Turn left!” Alena interrupted their bickering and they headed down another corridor. At its end was another door that automatically opened when they came closer.
Robin, Alena and Happy quickly rushed into the huge hangar. There was a small, triangular ship parked in the middle of the hall, not unlike the Interceptor their enemies had used for their attack on Teurlos. A basic model but it would perfectly suffice for what they had planned. Next to the ship were rows of crates and boxes stacked and Robin noticed many autonomous vehicles made for moving and loading or unloading cargo. It was a wild mix of big and small pallet transporters and forklifters. All of them were offline and probably waited for the next cargo transport to arrive.
After taking everything in and getting an idea of the hangar’s layout, Robin turned to Happy.
“Get on the ship and prepare for immediate departure.” He said and began to walk towards a wall where a wide array of cables were plugged in.
“Alena, find the guys the UAS has sent. They have to be somewhere outside the outpost’s sensors but they can’t be far. We need to know where they are, if they are listening to us, when they will attack and from where.”
Alena gave him a sharp nod and was about to hurry back to the side with the entries.
“Uh, and me? What can I do?” Proto’s excited voice came from the tablet in Niu’s hands.
“Go with Alena and help her with the outpost’s floor plan.” Robin called over his shoulder.
“Oh…” The AI gave a disappointed sigh, “Can’t I go with the happy human? She looks like fun! The other one glares like I owe her money!”
Alena snatched the tablet from Niu and flicked it with a finger.
“The name is Alena Vlasov, I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but let’s not start this first meeting with a lie.”
“Hello human, I am Last Protector of the Star–”
“Yeah I heard you the first time. Proto will do, right?”
“...uhm, only my friends call me Proto!”
Alena stopped mid motion and gave the tablet, which had an integrated camera, a cold look.
“Do you want to stay here, tin can?”
There was a short silence and then Proto once more cleared his nonexistent throat.
“Proto is totally fine, a pleasure to meet you, pretty human!”
Meanwhile, Robin reached the wall and began to inspect the different cables. He used his mutation to check which ones were powered and after a few moments he found the one he was looking for. With a bit of effort, Robin pulled the heavy cable towards the ship while panting slightly.
“Alena, how is it?” He asked when he reached the ship.
“They can only be using the maintenance shafts under the floor. Shouldn’t be able to hear us for now. No idea when they will come, but I’m working on it. Hopefully my mutation gives us a short heads-up.” She reported.
“Thanks. They will probably strike the moment they notice that we try to establish a connection to the network. Tell me when you’re ready. I’m going to give Happy an update.” Robin said and hurried into the ship. Behind him in the hangar he heard an exasperated sigh from Alena.
“Ready? What could I even prepare?”
“Happy, what did you learn?” Robin asked the moment he entered the cockpit.
“Well, there is good news and bad news.” The small woman said without looking up from the displayed ship data.
“Isn’t it always like that?” He sighed, “Hit me with it.”
“These kinds of outposts are connected to a signal tower nearby to get access to the network. Just like we had expected, they cut the cables going from here to the tower. No way we will repair that on the fly. Our idea was to use the ship’s own connection as a new access point for the outpost. Each ship has its own version of the signal tower with the communication system. It will be much slower than with the original infrastructure, but it’ll do the deal.”
“Yeah, I already found the maintenance cable which will connect the ship to the outpost. ROMAS told us that his main system, Proto, will need about five to six minutes to leave the local system and reintegrate into the network.”
“Right.” Niu nodded, “However, and this is the bad news, the UAS has probably thought of such a scenario and installed a dedicated jammer that interferes with the ship’s communication module close to the outpost.”
“Burn in Plasma… so we need to take down the jammer first?” Robin asked, “It’ll be protected. That sounds like more than we can handle and more forceful than I’m willing to act against the UAS.”
“It would be optimal, but I also don’t see us taking that path. That brings us to the good news! They have either slacked off when installing the jammer or they were short on time. Whatever it is, the signal doesn’t get completely blocked. We still have a connection, but with all the package loss it is much slower.” Niu explained and showed him a tablet with the latest data from her tests.
- Calculating transmission process…
- Transfer still possible
- Estimated time: 19:30 minutes
- Proto will lose control over outpost after 12:30 minutes
“Ugh…” Robin sighed when he saw ROMAS’ latest data.
“How bad is it?” Niu asked, “I could only make some guesses.”
“We have to hold position for nearly twenty minutes and the UAS will regain control over the station for the last seven minutes.”
“Shit…”