The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (134 page)

  “Why do you say that?’ Taylor asked fearing the worst.

  “Sir, as you know I was once in their Special Forces. And we would called this place a death trap and from what I gather from the way that those machines are behaving they are trying to protect a ultrahigh valuable asset. What that could be, I have no idea, other than to say that it would be something that in all likelihood was never encountered before.” Ramirez responded.

  “There is no way that this part of the facility can be covered affectively without either flying around or by splitting up. Both are so impractical as to be suicidal on our part if were to attempt either one or attempt to do both.” Jaguar 42R mentioned.

  “What’s more it appears to be so large that we would have to go back to the cafeteria and take all of the supplies there. It would take several days just to explore this area. We need a quicker way or we will not get out of here alive.” Viper 33X added.

  “So does anybody have any ideas on how to do as Viper suggested?” Vaistll asked everyone.

  “Yeah, one single spider-bot is big enough to carry one of us and we could use them to move along the walls. All we need to do is to capture enough of them, reprogram them, and we would be all set to go.” Ellis responded.

  “And how do you suppose we do that sir? You see what it takes to take one down. But capturing one intact? I don’t know it seems a little suicidal to me.”  Coté mentioned. Ramirez was fixing to nix Ellis’ plan when Jaguar 42R spoke and then it changed his mind.

  “You know I noticed that enough of those dragons survived complete destruction to where we could easily repair at least two of them with the spare parts from the other ones. Then me and Viper could interface with them and be able to control them. We could then provide cover fire while the rest of you capture the ones that you need.” Jaguar 42R mentioned.

  “Sounds like a winner to me ma’am.” Ramirez said to Vaistll.

  “Alright do it.” Vaistll responded.

  Jaguar 42R plan worked like a charm. Both Jaguar and Viper put the emphasis on dragon within what they are – Dragon Clone. It did took a while for the team to get used to laying on their stomachs while riding some machine while that machine could run along the walls and ceilings. In the meantime while they learned their new skills both Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X kept the other dragons at bay. Both were heavily outnumbered. And dealing with more Goliaths and spider-bots didn’t help much either. But somehow it felt more natural for both of them to be flying around as opposed to being on the ground. The other dragons were no match for both of them. It was as if though both of them are the real thing and they are dealing with stupid machines that didn’t know how to fly but could only rely on some stupid algorithm to keep them in the air. At one point Vaistll thought that Jaguar 42R was either hit or killed because it looked like he felled out of the sky. She stood there (she, Ramirez, Martinez and Ellis was providing cover fire for the rest of team as they learn their new skills) feeling her heart sink into her stomach and was almost on the verge of tears. She then saw him use the rear legs of the dragon to grab a Goliath, he then pulled up throwing the Goliath into the air behind him just as a enemy dragon hit the Goliath killing both of them. For sixteen hours the battle kept on going until the machines back off to reform their tactics.

  “Where are both of them?” Vaistll said out loud.

  “I’m certain that they are okay ma’am.” Ellis mentioned to her.

  “Yeah well, it’s not like them to go off like that without informing us of their intentions.” Vaistll responded.

  “Hey what’s wrong with the captain? Normally she wouldn’t behave like this.” Coté asked.

  “Read the following file. Through your neural interlace.” Ellis informed her.

  “Hey I’m getting disoriented here.” Nakada mentioned.

  “You’re not the only one.” Taylor added.

  “Remember your basic training about piloting a dropship as it spins? Try that. It works for me.” Ellis informed them.

  “Okay, I think I got the hang of it now.” Taylor mentioned after a minute.

  “Same here. Thanks.” Nakada mentioned a minute later.

  “Yeah don’t mentioned it.” Ellis responded.

  “Hey everybody! What’s up with this funky Heads-Up-Display! It’s telling me that I’m right side up, but it feels like I’m on the ceiling!” Coté asked.

  “Fire a couple of rounds and I’ll come to you.” Ellis mentioned to her.

  “Yes sir.” Coté responded.

  “I’m here.” Ellis mentioned to Coté as he patted her. Coté then handed him her spare interface cord. He then ran a self-diagnostic on her spider-bot.

  “One moment Elizabeth. Listen up everyone. Elizabeth’s spider-bot HUD has a glitch. It’s inverted. I’m going to have to find a safe location and format her spider-bot drive. Then download mine into hers.” Ellis informed everyone.

  “No wonder it was easy to capture.” Wexler mentioned.

  “Okay we’re good to go.” Ellis mentioned after seven minutes.

  “Thanks sir.” Coté told him as he left.

  Coté then had the biggest break for the whole team. Perhaps it was a twist of fate that it should be her spider-bot to have that glitch, combined with the type of glitch that it was, including her desire to learn from her father. Her love for her father, combined with just recently not knowing his fate caused her to become more susceptible to his military influence. “Tragedy should neither be embraced nor feared just accepted for that is the only way to endure the pain of service. And wherever it leads you, just understand that it will always ends in honor. Be brave, be strong, and you will always carry on. If you should die then try to find solitude that your death had meaning. But just as you must try to not die for nothing, you must also try not to serve for no reason. Find the higher meaning within the moment, serve that meaning, and you will do just fine.” As her father would say.

  “Oh my god! Hey guys! I just found a map for this whole area!” Coté mentioned. It got everybody excited until they realized where she was.

  “What they hell did I tell you about wondering off!?” Ellis almost yelled at her.

  “But sir, this map is informing me as to where the major communications hub is for this entire area.” Coté responded out of excitement.

  “Elizabeth. Download the map to me. I want to take a look at it.” Ramirez informed her.

  “Yes sir.” Coté responded and did as she was told.

  They finally received their lucky break and it was all because of Coté wondering off and discovering something that easily could have been missed. It was only after Ramirez study the map that he finally realized what they may be dealing with. And he didn’t like it one bit. It scared him. And what he had to say stopped everyone dead in their tracks.

  “Listen up everyone. I think I may have an answer as to what we may be dealing with. But it’s a long shot at understanding.” Ramirez was saying.

  “Go ahead. I’m listening.” Vaistll responded.

  “Some of the locations within this facility suggest that it is an assembly plant for…” Ramirez said. He didn’t continued because he did not even believe it himself.

  “Assembly plant for what?” Taylor asked.

  “Spaceships sir. Spaceships.”

  “What!?” Taylor mentioned unable to believe a single word, let alone a letter, of what Ramirez just said. Talk about something that didn’t make any sense. This would take the cake, the bakery, and then some. Starships are built in outer space for a reason.

  “I’m having trouble believing it myself sir. But I can only go by the available data and that’s what it is suggesting.” Ramirez responded. Everyone could hear him talking to himself as he was just in total disbelief as to what he was seeing. It was obvious to everyone as to what he was saying to himself that he was struggling over to rather or not that what he was seeing was disinformation. But he had to keep on giving credit to Coté in her ability to spot a map based upon disinformation and this particular map consistently appeared to be genuine. But he was having a hard time in accepting that it was a genuine map. Why would the EOD create a map to that facility in which it suggested that it served two entirely different purposes?

  “Is there anything else that you are having trouble in accepting?” Taylor asked him.

  “Plenty sir. It seems like everything about this place doesn’t make any sense. First of all, there are parts of it, like the part of the facility under the airbase, that suggests that we are dealing with a starship assembly platform. Then there are the cloning facilities in which not much emphasis was put upon. It was as if though, if starships was the reason why this facility exist then they didn’t care about the crew. So that would suggest that they had something else in mind. But so little emphasis was put upon the crew that I think that they were planning on making the insane move allowing a spaceship to be run by nothing more than robots.” Ramirez was saying.

  “What!? They don’t think that people never tried that before!? Sorry sir.” Coté mentioned.

  “That’s alright. It was thinking the same thing. She’s right, it doesn’t make any sense in that regard either. They are obviously manufacturing something on a massive scale and it has nothing to do with cloning. I don’t like it because I think I seen this before. But I don’t want to talk about it right now. If I am correct then what we are looking at is something so massive that if we could defeat it than we could deal a massive blow to the EOD the likes of which they may never fully recover from. Nevertheless we would need to make our decisions effectively as yesterday.” Ramirez informed everyone.

  “Why do you say yesterday?” Taylor asked him.

  “Remember when I said that this place is basically a assembly platform for starships? And what does all starships have in common? A tactical computer network. And just precisely, what does all tactical computers can do when it comes to machines? And why does these machines seems too smart? As if Sayaka herself created their so-called brains. Now we know that not to be true given the fact that they can’t outsmart any one of her artificial intelligent programs. But given the fact of how well they are able to stand up to her AI programs suggests that either we are dealing with very advanced AI or we are dealing with the computers of a starship.” Ramirez was saying.

  “And why do you say ‘computers of a starship’?” Taylor asked him.

  “Because I don’t think that Sayaka ever anticipated that there ever would be a starship down here, or something very similar. Besides, who could anticipate that?” Ramirez responded.

  “Any ideas as to where we should go next?” Taylor asked him.

  “We need to get to the main communicational hub and then try to contact Captain Maxwell. Maybe he might be able to shed some light upon this, or give us a better idea as what to do next.” Ramirez responded. He was at a lost about what is occurring at that facility. He knew that they didn’t have near enough people to get a large scale job done, Maxwell is the only source for good Intel, and he seen this before. It’s just back then he was the enemy and the good guys never made it out thanks in large part to Ramirez. He has a lot to be concerned about.

  Everything was eerily quiet (minus the facilities machines) until they got near the pathway that would lead them to the main communicational hub. The combat machines came out in force. Especially both Goliaths and spider-bots. (Because the dragons didn’t come out it told the team that both Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X was still alive. It also told the team why they didn’t come back. They’re trying to keep the dragons at bay.) Fifteen minutes later with some of the team coming within a ace of being killed, both Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X came swooping in and taking out the Goliaths. Although the spider-bots tried to retreat, all was destroyed.

  “Ma’am… your team needs to following us. This way!” Jaguar 42R mentioned.

  “What? Why?” Vaistll asked, but it was too late because both him and Viper 33X flew off into the distance. Although it was annoying that neither one was talking that much to them, they started to understand why they were behaving the way that they were. The combat machines were trying to adapt to the team’s tactics, but because they couldn’t think, it caused them to make stupid mistakes that no human would ever make.

  “Ma’am look over there.” Jaguar 42R mentioned.

  “We need to…” Vaistll was saying before Jaguar 42R interrupted her.

  “Not now! Look or die at their hands!” Jaguar 42R told her. Vaistll then looked and noticed that the machines were lying in ambush had the team kept on going in their original direction. The distance between where they are to where those machines are, were approximately half-mile away. The team wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  “Okay. So they are…” Vaistll was saying. But both Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X flew off. Neither one said anything as Vaistll was ordering them respond.

  “Jesus effing Christ. They’re acting like dogs or something similar.” Wexler mentioned.

  “You know I think I know why they are behaving the way in which they are.” Coté mentioned.

  “And what way is that?” Ellis asked her.

  “If we are dealing with a tactical computer that is the equivalent of that type that is in a starship then we must view their tactics differently.” Coté responded.