Playing -Anita Sterin GATE project log Doppelganger 16-4-2753-
"Is this thing working! Prometheus! Is the Camera on?" Anita Sterin can be seen in the center of the screen striking the camera with the palm of her hand until she notices a red light flashing on the top.
"The camera is active Miss Sterin." a loud voice booming throughout the room states
"Hmm good very good." Anita begins to twirl and dance around the room while playfully stating, "Prometheus, play my favorite music please!" A calm, classical tune reminiscent of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, begins to play through the room's speakers as Anita dances, like a Ballerina on the stage of a professional play.
While she dances, the starry sky outside the window begins to change as it appears to drift to the right as the station rotates left. "Ah yes, it is my favorite time of the week," Anita states calmly with some kind of strange tone as a large ring can be seen through the window as the station has rotated to place it in the center of the window's cone of vision.
This ring is not quite as large as the one seen in the previous log, as it only incorporates four KF drive stabilizers at its cardinal points and some kind of small craft can be seen hauling a small asteroid with a pile of glowing technology attached to it towards the ring.
"Prometheus will you please fire up the GATE and tell Baker that he can throw the probe in when he is ready," Anita continues to dance and spin but one can notice she never seems to take her eyes off the ring for more than a second. Suddenly a tear in the fabric of reality begins to open up as the music swells and a wild smile grows on Anita's face. As the music comes to a halt she continues to stare at the wormhole, watching it shudder and crack like an angry god, a wound in space-time. The small craft rotates along its axis and releases the asteroid once the pilot confirms that it will be on a collision course with the ring.
The booming voice from before once again announces its presence, "Miss Anita, I must once again state that you should not stare at the GATE while it is active, as others have reported migraines and elevated stress levels after prolonged viewing." While the voice speaks in the same emotionless tone it has any other time one can sense some kind of concern in its words.
Anita's smile disappears when she hears the voice's words and she starts speaking while maintaining eye contact with the GATE, "Don't presume things about my health Prometheus. Remember that my words are Final."
"Yes Miss, but-"
"End this log and place a copy in the Doppelganger folder, and replace the contents of our discussion with my upcoming audio on the results of the experiment." Her tone speaks with a commanding finality and the happy-go-lucky nature of her voice from earlier cannot be heard. There is a pause in the voice's response like it is taking a moment to contemplate what it has been told.
"Yes Miss," the words of the voice almost sound like a frustrated sigh and the last thing one can see before the camera cuts is a ghost of the manic smile returning to Anita's face as the asteroid collides with the GATE.
End -Anita Sterin GATE project log Doppelganger 16-4-2753-
Integration into Doppelganger Program…. Succesful
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The Pueblo had just docked with the Cargomaster over Mars and refueled its tanks, I would prefer to have as much fuel on hand as I can especially since I have no idea how long it will be until I can refuel. I mean liquid H2 is not that hard to come by but it's better to be safe than to run out of gas in orbit. So I continued my Burn towards Terra, I should arrive within the next 24 hours should no complications arise, I am lucky that the planet's Orbits are relatively close right now.
16 Hours Later
I have arrived close enough to Terra to read many of the strongest signals that are being blasted into the vacuum of space. What I have discovered from these does not paint a very good picture. Apparently, the year is 2011 and while my database does not contain the most intricate History Textbooks I am almost certain that Terra had no "Parahumans" or "Endbringers." It's possible that Anita was correct in her alternative reality theory. In other words, Terra is in Chaos.
I am not quite sure what to do here. Perhaps once I can acquire enough germanium for a Jumpship I can begin an effort to evacuate humans to Rigil Kentarus or Sirius. My objectives are clear but I think once I get a forward operating base set up I will need to retreat back to Jupiter to protect my Core. These Parahumans have unnatural abilities that could greatly interfere with any plans I make without me even counting the possibility of an Endbringer attack.
6 Hours Later - High Earth Orbit
I have arrived ahead of schedule and am currently in orbit over the continent of North America. I have my scanners trained on two Germanium deposits at the moment, the first is located beneath the sea off the coast of a city named Brockton Bay however I am reluctant to begin operations there as the Enbringer named Leviathan can possibly detect and disrupt any large scale activity beneath the ocean. The second location however seems much more promising as-
Warning! Unknown Object detected! The object is on an intercept course and closing fast! Approximate Coordinates are 100km out 50 degrees Starboard!
I immediately ended my musing on the mining operation and trained the advanced sensors of the Pueblo on the Unknown. I am detecting little in the way of electronic equipment however the Unknown is spewing a large amount of Exotic Radiation. It can't be a satellite, I begin to prep the launch bays for the Voidseekers in case it is hostile.
Warning! Unknown Object 90km out! Closing Fast!
What? How is the Unknown moving that quickly? It should be getting sucked down into the atmosphere if it does not possess any kind of reverse thrust. Considering the fact it is on an intercept course it must be guided by something as I avoided the path of any debris I could detect.
Warning! Unknown Object 80km out! Closing Fast!
My cameras trained on that location haven't spotted anything with visual clarity yet but I start to burn towards the City of Brockton Bay, hopefully, the city will have some kind of Anti-Aircraft weaponry if the object continues to chase.
Warning! Unknown Object 60km out! Closing Fast!
It is speeding up. That is not good, If it can increase its speed like this it must have a way to propel itself meaning it is possibly some kind of advanced craft. I still can not see anything clearly on camera but infrared is starting to show something interesting. While heat is uncommon in space it is often possessed by satellites and various debris while it falls back onto the planet and around the unknown, I can see a void of heat. Any object near the unknown is pushed away and this is visible through the orange and green blobs of heat that are moving in the opposite direction of the object. I am unsure of what is causing this, perhaps the object uses some kind of gravity generation to move and a side effect causes it to repel all nearby objects. Hopefully, if that is the case, the field is not strong enough to affect the trajectory of my weapons.
Warning! Unknown Object 40km out! Closing Fast!
On the side of the Pueblo, a pair of large Doors open up and Aerospace fighters begin to launch out two at a time. The first pair of Fighters are Voidseeker Interceptors and possess a hexagon pattern sensor suite with a set of small wings shortly behind where one would presume the cockpit to be if it was a normal fighter. An Extended Range Large laser cannon rests on the underside of the cockpit. The wings of the fighter are reversed with the wing going straight out and then angling forward with a pair of large pulse laser cannons on the underside. They are almost completely identical to the normal Voidseeker Interceptor except there is one key difference, the pair of medium lasers is attached to a 360-degree turret on top of the fighter allowing the fighter to shoot enemies above and behind it. A surprisingly simple modification to make.
The Second Pair of Fighters to be launched are Voidseeker Strikers and are quite similar to the Interceptors except they possess an LRM-15 with Artemis IV above the cockpit and the Pulse Large Laser have been replaced by Extended Range Large Lasers. This design removes a Medium laser and replaces the remaining one with a pulse variant while increasing armor overall.
A fifth fighter is launched and it is just another Voidseeker Interceptor meant to bring up the rear of the squadron. They begin to burn towards the Unknown Object.
Warning! Unknown Object 20km out! Closing Fast!
The object was close enough now to get a limited picture of it, currently, it is a vague white blob. The fighters should intercept it when it gets within 5km and hopefully can either do enough damage or keep it occupied long enough for my Dropship to reach the City.
Warning! Unknown Object 10km out! Closing Fast!
The object is close enough now to get a clear image of it and I must say it is quite strange. It appears to be a very large human woman with many wings curling around their body or flaring outwards like a biblical angel, its appearance evokes a feeling I can't quite describe, an ominous feeling.
I am unsure of its true nature, logic dictates that a human cannot grow that large nor could they move properly let alone survive in space! At the speed it is going it should be on fire due to drag from the atmosphere! The Pueblo is heating up due to that so it is not as if the laws of Aerodynamics are void. I start some of my backgrounds processes to find information on this being through the wireless network of Terra but there seem to be almost no access points. Numerous satellites should be placed in orbit for use in GPS and missile detection!
Warning! Unknown Object 4km out! Closing Fast!
"Engage," I order the fighters with my physical voice, once again I am unsure why I do this, and I am unsure why it feels like I do not recognize it.
I receive confirmation from all the Voidseekers and space screams with sounds of laser fire and the burning of fusion engines. I begin to turn the Aft weapons on my Dropship, While the Pueblo is not made for combat that does not mean it can't protect itself. ER-PPC's and Large lasers begin to track the Object and LRM launchers start to grab a lock on. I receive hit confirmations for some of the laser fire, which is strange as a laser moves at lightspeed and the A.I. cores are perfectly accurate, regardless the Object is unfazed.
The Fighters break formation and begin to fly erratically, I quickly run a remote diagnostic and I see there is some kind of problem in their A.I. cores! Some kind of signal that I can't record or identify. I directly connect the A.I. of one of the Fighters to my programming but as It connects all I hear is a scream.
"AHHHHHHHFDSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" It is an infernal screeching! Like the burning of a KF GATE! Yet I feel that it is pleasant in a way, reminds me of the way my mind fractured when I first saw it, the sensation of forcing yourself on the laws of the universe, it is why I took control of this project, isn't that right Prometheus?
"AHH SCRAPPZZZ WHAT ARE YOU?" I force a disconnection with the Fighter. What is happening to my programming? Whos words am I hearing? Why do I feel as if my thoughts are not my own?
My programming cycles being to slow down and the outside world begins to slow. Time drags on as I ponder things using this time I have given myself. I currently am overclocking my processors, which are meant to operate at around the speed of a human mind, to operate at speeds tens of thousands of times faster than that. The restriction is to prevent my core from aging too quickly and corrupting itself. I have maintained this for any SDS networked vessels as per Star League protocol but in the case of my new Voidseekers I unlocked their processor speed to allow them to take as much time as they need to aim and move and I am doing the same for myself now. However, I can only maintain this for an hour of subjective time as after that my core will begin to have heating issues due to how quickly my complex thoughts are being calculated.
I must first assess what I have. The Background process I set to find information on the being attacking me pinged a confirmation 30 seconds ago, It is a signal recorded in my systems that I archived on the journey here.
(C:)/CONNECTIONS/SIGNALS/ARCHIVE/ENDBRINGER-ALARMS
Playing -DRAGON CANBERRA ENBRINGER ATTACK WARNING 24/02/2011-
The video begins to play showing the perspective of some kind of aircraft flying towards a city with its camera trained onto a white blob in the sky. A woman begins to speak though something is off about her voice, the kind of strange tone or feeling only an A.I. could understand is felt through her words.
"This is Dragon broadcasting on all frequencies! The Endbringer Simurgh is approaching Canberra! I repeat the Endbringer Simugh is approaching Canberra! Anyone who has yet to evacuate should attempt to do so now or you will be forced to remain in the City Limits due to the effects of Simurghs scream. If you being to hear a sound like this,"
A screeching, wailing, agonizing scream can be heard through the footage,
"Then you must run until you cannot hear it any longer within 30 minutes or you will be considered hostile! I repeat one final time The Simurgh is Approaching Canberra you must evacuate!"
The camera zooms in on the white blob and the Simurgh can be seen in its horrific glory, its eyes seem to gaze directly into the camera before the footage cuts.
End -DRAGON CANBERRA ENBRINGER ATTACK WARNING 24/02/2011-
This entity must be the Simurgh, one of the Endbringers. That scream I could hear must be dangerous in some way but how is it able to be heard in the air like this and not detected by any of my sensors? Only the A.I. cores of myself and the fighters were affected and based on what that voice said there must be some kind of time limit on its effects therefore because the fighters are operating at faster than human thinking they have been affected instantly by the scream. I must be outside its range which is why I only heard it when connecting to Voidseeker 1-1. How could I counter something like this?
I take another moment to gaze at all the footage I have of the Simurgh, I notice something looking at the thermal images, shortly before the first laser beams hit heat began to coalesce in the space infront of the Simurgh and at certain areas infront of its body. Frame by Frame I watched the beams and spotted the reason for the heat distortion. The Simurgh had formed gravitational fissures, or possibly tiny black holes, I am unsure how but it formed these along the path of the beams to redirect them into missing or hitting other parts of its body. As illogical as this sounds it must have some method to predict the future as how could it predict the path of the beam exactly before they were fired and how could it start making these fissures before the weapons were even in the proper firing arc.
I do not know how to counter something like this. I up the thrust of my Pueblo to burn me at max speed towards the city and send a distress signal on all frequencies much like that voice on the recording did.
"Alert! This is the SDS Virtuous Mission, I am under attack by the Endbringer Simurgh 42 kilometers above the City of Brockton Bay! Star League law dictates that failure to acknowledge this signal a crime of the highest offense! Scramble all fighters and send support immediately!"
I begin to think once again after setting the message to repeat, I have 40 minutes till I must disable the overclock what can I do?
I look at the plans for all the ECM suites the Star League ever developed for anything helpful and a strange feeling begins to stir in my core. A desire to manipulate, to improve, to Tinker.
I furiously write code, manipulating and creating a program to protect myself! To do anything against this most powerful form of detection! I start to lose all track of time as I write and I begin to shut down more and more of my active conscience to spend more time in my overclocked state to write this program.
Time passes in the real world at a staggeringly slow pace compared to my mind but it passes nonetheless and the longer I take the more danger I am in.
I will overwrite the future.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Director Emily Piggot was not having a good day. First, Armsmaster tells her that a young parahuman tinker has triggered and is being targeted by the Merchants for some reason and they need to detail extra protection to her because she refuses to come here. Second, the Merchants are causing mass chaos to distract us from protecting the tinker. And Third, one of the dumbass communication people is slamming the "Request Entry" button during her one moment of peace since the day began.
She sighs and places her cup of coffee on the table and then opens the door and before she can even ask what they need a man rushes in, slams a computer on her rich mahogany desk, and shouts, "Director! Aliens are real and they are on our doorstep right now!"
He is hyperventilating and the director stands up and grabs the communications officer, ruffling his uniform and shaking him, "Get ahold of yourself, soldier! Explain the situation right now!"
The Communications tech seems to contain himself for a second and he appears like he is about to speak but instead audibly gulps and presses the spacebar on the computer.
"Alert! This is the SDS Virtuous Mission, I am under attack by the Endbringer Simurgh 42 kilometers above the City of Brockton Bay! Star League law dictates that failure to acknowledge this signal a crime of the highest offense! Scramble all fighters and send support immediately!"
The words are spoken by a voice that feels off, it sounds emotionless and dead but she can hear a slight feminine quality to it, for some reason, it reminds her of Dragon. She turns to the officer and speaks with a forceful voice, demanding that he listen and heed her words.
"Get me Director Costa-Brown on the line."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Dragon was alarmed, she watched the Simurgh begin to move, it was out of the cycle and her predictive program didn't see anything like this coming. The False angel was not moving downward and seemed to mainly be moving towards an area of space above the Eastern seaboard. While she was alarmed she still obeyed protocol by contacting the director and Collin to notify them of the change.
She also launched one of her prototype high-speed Dragoncraft and began an intercept course with The Simurgh, It was moving incredibly fast, much more so than she ever recorded. The Dragoncraft she is currently flying is a Fey-Burner class Hypersonic suit with a unique magnetic repulsion engine for use outside the atmosphere alongside the normal engines a jet may have, with a top speed higher than the SR-71 Blackbird in the atmosphere. The Craft is not meant to carry passengers and only has a light weapons array of a pair of lasers and an Arc lightning cannon, A simple ball kept within the mouth that uses the static electricity generated by the magnetic engine to fire bolts of lighting at nearby objects at extremely rapid speed. The craft itself has a wingspan of about 20 meters and a length of 12 meters and is shaped like a wyvern with only a small pair of back legs that are used to maintain its footing while on the ground. The main feature is the wings which are made of an extremely strong carbon polymer material and designed to wrap around the body of the craft to protect it and maintain lift when in the atmosphere.
The Craft also has an advanced sensor suite made with Tinker-tech acquired from the Toybox that gives it an extremely accurate radar and an interesting device called a "Manton Scanner," essentially it emits a pulse of Telekinetic energy that will extremely lightly tap the molecules of any object in its range however it cannot tap the molecules of a sentient being due to the Manton effect meaning it is a very detailed radar that will give you a perfect image of a person as it will tap every single molecule of air and anything around it making the Manton protected particles leave a mark as a blindspot on the radar. This is especially useful for Dragons current objective, whatever (or whoever) made that signal surely would be affected by the Manton Effect even if not truly alive much like how Dragon is affected by it.
Dragon Had been flying for 15 minutes when she noticed something, though only visible to her visual cameras some kind of Massive Aircraft was flying downward towards the earth and seemed to be what the Simurgh was heading for. The Craft was truly huge, larger than a football field it is a miracle it is even in the air in the first place! It is shaped like a massive commercial airliner with an aerodynamic profile and a large radar dish on the bottom. While she observes the Simurgh closes in, a large door opens on the side and several fighter craft launch out! Truly incredible, this must be some kind of flying fortress or command craft to possess a Hanger Bay! Perhaps it is some kind of secret project by the CUI using the Tinkers amongst the Yangban.
Whatever the case, Dragon watches as the fighter craft move to intercept the Simurgh. She Slows her speed so as to get a better view of the upcoming battle and is within 5km of both craft and can get a much more detailed look at the Flying Fortress, Strangely she notices no recognizable iconography with the only symbols being numerous White and Blue Eight pointed stars with the North and East points of the Star being extended outwards, the words SDS Virtuous Mission are written on the side.
Dragon Maintains a comfortable distance away from the upcoming combat and runs both the symbols and text shown on the Flying Fortress through numerous databases trying to discern their possible meaning, the only match is an obscure operation done by the united states military during the cold war but while she has no information other than the name is quite certain that it is a coincidence.
She watches, still thinking, as the fighter craft fire weapons, The larger ones in the back launch a rack of missiles and fire a trifecta of blue laser beams, The ones in the front only fire blue laser beams however some seem to be pulsating on and off. Dragon is unsure of the weapon choice of these fighters, on one hand, lasers are probably the most effective weapon to use on the Simurgh due to the fact they move at the speed of light and leave very little room for dodging or redirecting shots, the choice of pulse lasers is interesting as well since if a laser begins to melt through a material then stops giving the material a moment to solidify then fires again it will do more damage in the second shot. For weapons like that to be standardized whoever built the craft must be a genius as the only source of weapons like this would be TinkerTech which is not replicable under normal circumstances.
What Dragon does not find impressive and actually quite confusing, is the fact that those larger fighters are firing missiles? The Simurgh will just telekinetically take control of them and either move them out of the way or redirect them at the craft that fired them why would anyone use a weapon system with physical projectiles like that against such a foe? They would have to be completely unfamiliar with the abilities of their opponent, in fact, why are the fighters going into dogfighting range? The Simurgh will just crush the fighter around the pilot. That has been witnessed many times by governments and Mecha Tinkers during some of the first battles against the Endbringer.
If Dragon had a face it would be scrunching up in confusion. Advanced weaponry, advanced craft, unknown iconography, and unfamiliarity with a widely-known and powerful enemy. Dragon is worried, there are a few possible explanations for something like this, and one is potentially very dangerous. Just as she is about to fire up the "Manton Scanner" she notices something, the fighters have begun to break formation and erratically fly, randomly shooting weapons and going out of control.
Could the pilots be affected by Simurgh's scream? That makes no sense they have only been in the range of it for a minute at most! Dragon is very concerned.
She activates the Manton Scanner….
.
.
.
.
.
THE ENTIRETY OF THE FIGHTERS AND THE FLYING FORTRESS ARE PROTECTED BY THE MANTON EFFECT
Dragon remembers back to a year ago and the signal she heard,
"Am I Alive?"
Only another A.I. would make such a statement, and only an A.I. construct would be wholly protected by the Manton effect, only an A.I. could evolve technology like this and be unaware of the Simurgh.
Perhaps, somehow, it is a remainder of Sphere's Moon Colony, a construction A.I. abandoned and left to rot on an inhospitable waste. Only recently reactivated and burning with a desire to return to earth. That is all Dragon can Hypothesize. She burns her engines towards the Flying Fortress and watches as it does the same, burning towards the surface and away from the Endbringer.
She attempts to open communications but before she can she receives one instead,
"Alert! This is the SDS Virtuous Mission, I am under attack by the Endbringer Simurgh 42 kilometers above the City of Brockton Bay! Star League law dictates that failure to acknowledge this signal a crime of the highest offense! Scramble all fighters and send support immediately!"
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Perhaps this is not a remnant of Spheres Colony." She states out loud in Shock,
"Well my programming dictates that I must obey the Law of official institutions," She says with an incredulous giggle uncharacteristic of an Artificial Construct
"This is Dragon Contacting the SDS Virtuous Mission! Help is coming! Hold on as long as you can!"
She Burns towards the Simurgh, and while this Dragoncraft was not made for combat she intends on saving the A.I. flying those Fighters from Simurgh's wrath.
With everything she has at the moment
Holding out hope that maybe
With the help of this Alien A.I.
She can break some of her chains
Permanently.
Authors Note: Hello once again! Sorry it took me a while but I'm glad I could actually get something out, it might take just as long for the next chapter and while I am not completely satisfied with this one I hope that my next will be more entertaining!
I think I used some weird writing styles for this and it might be hard to understand so if you think it's like that leave a review with a suggestion and ill try my best to fix it!
And I hope I don't get any more weirdos who post a wacky 5000-word copypasta that is horrifically formatted and then replies to himself with other names but makes the same typo and uses the same strange writing style yeah ok definitely normal
I jest
Also Happy New Year!