Author's Note: I know I do tend to get bogged down in the details and in the villains' side of the story. I'm trying to find a balance by making a fic where you can picture the details in your head without over doing, but sometimes I go overboard. Especially with technology and the bad guys.
Anyway, I'll try to speed things up a bit more. Lookin' back, I think the approach to Antarctica was getting old. I'll also try to delve more into the good guys. So far (as pointed out) they've been more like extras in my fic, and I don't want that myself.
Oh, one more thing, I'm also putting in Phinneas Mogg in this chapter. I forgot to put him in this fic and, being the renowned scientist I assume he is, he would probably be called in for something like an alien ship being found in Antarctica. Luckily for me, Coyoteloon's "Countdown to Mindshatter" reminded me 'bout Mogg.
Disclaimer: I neither own MLAATR nor Star Wars.
Story Title: Metal Army
Chapter Title: Into the Ninth Circle
Derelict site, Dome Circe, AntarcticaJenny followed her Mom and the soldiers leading them while trying to wipe the sullen look on her face. As much as she hated to be here, stuff like this was her job after all. And moping around while she did here job would just earn her a sermon that would rival one any holier-than-thou televangelist could come up with. That, and maybe a possible "upgrade." The last time that had happened she'd found that her monitor couldn't retrat. Just the thought of it caused her to cringe.
Jenny started to idly look around. She could see some other people shivering in their thick winter wear as they went about whatever job they had. She felt sorry for them but honestly couldn't relate. The antifreeze that kept her oil, hydraulics, and lubricants from freezing up in the cold of space kept her just as comfortable in the Antarctic environment. One of the few advantages of being a robot freak, I suppose. Jenny thought.
Then, as she turned her attention back to the soldiers she was following, she caught her mother's expression sour from the corner of her eyes. She thought it was because of their earlier disagreement until she followed her Mom's gaze. It was her old "acquaintance", Phinneas Mogg, who was talking to Colonel Little. Jenny's expression also soured, remembering very well how Mogg had first greeted her. As if on cue, Mogg turned and spotted them.
"Ah, Nora," Mogg said in a tone that almost sounded mocking. "Late again, as usual."
"How did you get here, Phinneas?" Mrs. Wakeman asked, ignoring Mogg's tone. "I didn't see you on the Renzetti."
"On my personal hover jet, of course." Mogg said in a none-too-subtle boastful tone. "As comfortable military jet choppers are, I prefer to travel in a manner more befitting of a scientific mind of my stature."
Jenny rolled her eyes upon Mogg's reply. Yup, just as I remembered.
"I won't even ask about how you managed to afford a personal hover jet." Dr. Wakeman answered. "I'm sure you have a very interesting story about it, but I am frankly nt interested in hearing it. Tough I do wonder how you managed to convince the UNERU to use a non-UN vehicle."
"He didn't," the diminutive English colonel said, shooting a peeved look at Mogg. "That's what we were 'discussing' when you arrived. One of our SAM-fitted hover-tanks almost blasted him out of the bloody sky because of that stupid stunt."
Mogg grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Taking shots at Nora was one thing, but he in no way wanted to thrown wisecracks at a colonel. Especially one who was already irked at him. Seeing this, both Jenny and her mother shared a smirk.
"As much as I'd like to give some sort of penalty to Dr. Mogg, we did not come here for that reason." The colonel said. "I've just been told that the drilling team has just cut into the ship."
He turned to Jenny. "XJ-9, we'll need you to lead a squad of Ct. Burke's men into the derelict."
"That's what I'm here for." Jenny sighed, not bothering to tell the colonel to call here Jenny. At least they hadn't called her "robot" or "Global Robotic Response Unit".
The colonel turned, signaling the others to follow him. He led them to a drilling site in which lay a hole large enough to accommodate USS Renzetti. Jenny looked in awe. Even though she knew what to expect, the sight was still spectacular. It wasn't every day you saw mile-wide hole with a partially uncovered, 3-km long starship laying within. Beside her, the scientists and the soldiers shared the same expression.
Colonel Little gestured toward a series of spikes dug into the pit's sides with rappelling cables tied to them. The soldiers and specialists grabbed on to the cables and carefully made their way downward. Jenny, however, merely activated her pigtail boosters and flew down toward the center of the man-made crater.
Minutes later, the others caught up to her. They all stood in awe, watching the curve of the spherical central section of the partially buried starship. The Colonel pointed at some scaffolding that led up to a section that rose from the spherical part of the ship. "That section appears to be this vessel's bridge. We've drilled an opening into one of its windows that will serve as our point of entry."
"Why is it all the way up there?" Jenny asked. "Wouldn't it be easier for all of us if you just drilled a hole into the hull?"
"It's not that simple, robot." Mogg answered. "This derelict's hull seems to be made of an alloy capable of resisting focus-laser drills. Even the windows were difficult to penetrate since they are made with some sort of transparent metal composite."
Jenny shrugged. "Whatever, let's just get this over with." She faced Ct. Burke. "Where's the squad I'm supposed to lead into this thing?"
The captain barked an order to some of the men in his company. The captain and six of his troopers peeled off from the rest of the troops and approached the teen robot. She looked over the men and women she was supposed to be leading before she shrugged and signaled them to follow her.
Cluster Infiltration Sloop, approaching derelict siteThe powerful but noisy main engines of the Infiltration Sloop shut down as the slower but quieter electromagnetic levitators came on line. The cloaked dragonfly-shaped vessel was already in close proximity to its destination and couldn't risk having its presence revealed because of its own loud engines. It flew silently and unseen over the derelict site before settling down on its "legs" a few kilometers away.
The four ant drones that had clung to its hull the whole time jumped off, but they were careful to stand well within the cloaking field. There was a hiss of hydraulics as a ramp opened up from the ship's underside. Out of it came several read and green roach drones, a locust drone, a weevil drone, and glass-topped robot that looked somewhat like a roach drone.
"At last, we are here!" Smytus declared. "Soon we shall infiltrate the ship, assimilate its technology and XJ-9, and open a can of Cluster butt-whooping upon the pathetic hairless apes!"
"You know," AHAB said in a barely suppressed superior tone. "Humans aren't really hairless. Most of their body hair is just so thin and short that you don't really see it."
"I didn't come here for a biology lesson." Smytus said sounding annoyed. "I came here to do a mission. And I, the incomparable Commander Smytus, will personally lead the infiltration."
"Sure, Sir," AHAB said, dripping contempt on the word 'Sir'. "But how are we supposed to infiltrate that ship in the first place? It's not like we can walk up and ask nicely."
The Commander scowled within his small cockpit. The contempt in the locust robot's tone had not escaped him, but he had to admit that the annoying hacking/assimilation robot did have a point. Of course, he wasn't going to say so.
"Do you think that I, Smytus, Destroyer of Worlds, do not know what I am doing?" Smytus blustered. "First we, ah… um… uh…"
"Brilliant strategy, Sir." AHAB said sardonically. "Not how would we execute operation 'ah um uh'?"
Smytus' face twisted into a mask of rage. He was about to scream something at the insolent robot, but SID interrupted him before he could. "I believe I may have a way, Commander."
Smytus turned a snarl toward SID in response. The weevil drone didn't seem to be shaken by the hostile response and continued in his emotionless monotone. "Using my infiltration capabilities I can enter the human's drilling area and extract the necessary information we need for a proper infiltration."
Smytus glared at him. As much as he hated to admit it, SID's suggestion made perfect sense. But he knew that if he took it to wholeheartedly he would just give AHAB more material for snide remarks. He considered vaporizing AHAB before taking SID's suggestion, but that would merely leave him something to explain to Vexus later. Oh well, what choice did he have. He shot a tiny warning glare at AHAB before he spoke.
"Fine, do it." Smytus said. "But come back here after you've gathered enough data."
SID gave a salute as confirmation before opening his wings. The coils of the wings' electromagnetic levitators hummed slightly as they lifted SID of the ground. The weevil drone initiated its own cloaking device before speeding towards the derelict site.
Alien starship's bridge, derelict siteJenny slowly entered through the hole in the derelict's window, her eyes scanning the bridge, looking for any possible threats. Ct. Burke and his squad of UNERU troops followed her inside, beam rifles at the ready. The dim light entered through the thickly iced-over, giving a faint, almost unearthly, light to the bridge.
An imaginary lump formed in Jenny's non-existent throat. The overall impression given by the faint light and hollowness of the air within the bridge gave the creepy impression of the derelict being a ghost ship. And looking at how the UNERU troops nervously tapped their weapons, she knew she wasn't the only one who thought so. She activated her built-in night-vision while the soldiers flipped on their NV goggles. What they saw didn't make them feel any better.
There were frozen and preserved dead bodies of aliens littered all over the bridge. One of the bodies was slumped on a terminal with what appeared to be a weapon clenched in one hand and some sort of disc in the other. A part of the side of its head was… gone while its still open eyes stared at the intruders blankly. Jenny suppressed a scream and a shudder.
Sure, she had dispatched a few Cluster drones before, and the vaporization she inflicted on invading alien ships could not be good for their crews either. But part of her programming made her emotionally distanced from all that. As long as she protected humans, everything was fine. It was an emotional fail-safe Dr. Wakeman had installed to prevent her creation from being wracked with guilt.
The thing was, it didn't have the same effect on Jenny when faced with dead beings she hadn't fought. Had the UNERU troopers not been wearing NV goggles they would've sworn that they'd seen Jenny turn from light-blue to a sickly shade of green. Never had Jenny thought that she'd ever get the feeling of wanting to barf.
She pried her eyes away from the dead alien and started to resume her scanning of the bridge, being careful not to look directly at the other dead. The visibly shaken UNERU troops did the same, though both them and jenny knew that they'd probably see more of the same as they explored deeper into the frozen starship.
Suddenly, one of the UNERU troops slipped on the iced-over floor of the bridge. He fell right on the alien slumped on the terminal, shattering its body. Everyone spun around to face him as he involuntarily screamed an clambered away in panic. Before Captain burke could reprimand him, a disc-like device, dislodge from the dead aliens now shattered hand, clattered to the floor and activated.
Everyone's attention was drawn to the device as a quarter-sized bluish hologram of the alien was projected from the device. And as if that wasn't shocking enough, it spoke in thickly accented yet unmistakable English.
"This is Puule Gaarko, chief designer of the Baktoid Armor Worrrrrrrrksho-shop-shop-shop...." The hologram said, repeating itself. Clearly broken.
"Ooookay," Jenny said with a tone of disbelief. "This guy is speaking English, right? Please tell me I'm not the only one who heard it speak in English."
The rest of the UNERU soldiers could only nod as Captain Burke nervously reached for his radio.
"Um, Colonel Little," he began. "You might wanna see this…"
Outside the derelict pit
A technician rubbed his eyes with his fingertips as he stood from the mobile computer terminal within the insulated tent. He put his winter wear back on and exited the tent. He was eager to join the rest of his colleagues down by the derelict itself.
Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched by an invisible presence. A cloaked robot watched his every move, taking in every detail with its blank unexpressive eyes. The robot observed every little nuance in the technician's movements, burning it into his memory banks.
When the technician was far enough, the robot began to change. Its body shifted in shape slightly as it settled gently to the ground. Its cloak deactivated and was quickly replaced by a perfect holographic copy of the technician. SID gave himself a second to adjust to the new body configuration before he strode purposefully into the tent.
He quickly reached for the computer and accessed the data it contained just by touching it with his fingers. The screen displayed nothing but binary as SID simultaneously accessed and copied the computer's files in a matter of seconds. His holographic disguise smiled as he exited from the tent.
He took a quick look around, making sure no one was looking his way, before he re-cloaked, reconfigured, and flew back toward the Infiltration Sloop.
Author's Note: Well, that's all for now, I'll try to get the next chapter up next week.. Kudos to the person who guesses where I got the chapter title from and what it means.