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  Ultimately I'd need to do more, including strip off the armor plating and replace it with self-repairing Bio-armor. The electrical systems were absolutely primitive compared to what I could do with a little nerve wiring and a good organic power matrix. Still, apart from the newly amped reactors it was all well-proven and battle-tested technology.

  I'd even accept Fallen volunteers to help crew along with those who were still Righteous. Perhaps it would help to bring them together, and if not I'd install tranquilizer gas emitters to quell any trouble.

  That had the new factions covered. My own defenses came next.

  Uranium might allow me to enhance my own Bio-bombs. I was reluctant to do so, because the explosive yield was already enormous. Still, SCIENCE demanded answers and I prepared a dozen enhanced bombs to use in case of an emergency.

  I had the same reluctance for enhancing the Juggernaut’s reactor cores. I'd already built the things with more than enough power capacity and while I could perhaps increase it, I didn't have anything requiring that level of output. Besides, it could result in instability and the Juggernauts were too important for my long-term plans to risk them.

  Ground forces were another matter. I didn't mind if one of my drones got blown to pieces. They were already backed up. The tiny Bio-reactors I had in an Aegis suit were constantly power-starved and could do with improving.

  I ran some tests, pushing the suits to their limits and confirmed some instability, and also some radiation poisoning. The suits would wear out faster, although the internal systems should be able to last several battles. The drone inside would be dead after about twelve hours without accelerated healing, or a full day otherwise.

  The payoff was a doubling of the effective combat rating. With an enhanced reactor core the strength actuators let the wearer run and leap further, do more damage with energy blades, and soak more hits from any shield projector.

  For things like sentry duty I'd stick with the standard models. In actual battlefield conditions the enhanced design made a lot of sense. I'd just plan for the drone’s death by growing them a new clone ahead of time.

  I polled my military drones for volunteers. To get used to the enhanced suits would mean training in them and maintaining those memories, requiring they die an agonizing death and my keeping that backup. Not all were up for that suffering. However I soon had ten thousand willing to take the plunge and I upgraded all with accelerated healing. Dying would also let them experience that physical decline and learn to recognize the symptoms—and how to deal with them.

  That just left one project to review and it had nothing to do with our defenses, at least not directly. The brainworms. Caya and the Flawless had continued testing and got the failure rate down to fifteen percent, and the death rate down to five percent.

  I knew those numbers were still higher than Anna would like, and I didn't think that we were going to get any better.

  I especially wanted to make sure we had these as an option before going into battle. I wanted all Flawless to have the opportunity to be backed up, and if I expected the Fallen to crew ships with the Righteous they deserved immortality of their own.

  I issued the order to growth vats around the empire to begin brainworm growth. By tomorrow I could have tens of thousands of new drones, if people accepted it. If they didn't, they were the past. The future was for those bold enough to become a part of it.

  16

  It was time to draw some blood of our own, or at least, machine oil. We'd decided on a multi-stage assault, saving the strike on Warmonger for the last when their attention would most be diverted elsewhere.

  Our opening salvo would our biggest attention-getter, the Juggernauts.

  They were all at least functional for this role. Where I'd had to cut corners to get them airborne was largely on tertiary backup systems. I'd built in multiple redundancies at every level, because these were meant to be our big guns.

  Despite all being of the same basic design, they were also distinctive in their own way.

  The Dawnbringer was captained by Citizen CL129B who preferred to be called Dora, a woman with maxed-out intelligence and a brilliant tactical mind. Her ship had the largest contingent of Flawless aboard of any of the Juggernauts. For the other Juggernauts, automated fire control was standard, but not so for the Dawnbringer. This was a vessel packed with sensors, tactical displays, and fast versatile units that could take advantage of opportunities as they arose.

  The Claw was captained by Citizen KF342L, known as Sharpfang, a Gobble. I'd thought it important to make sure the newly created species have their own representation in command of our greatest weapons. The Claw had more troop transports and heavy weapon mounts than any of the other Juggernauts. It was built on the maxim of the best defense being a strong offense.

  The Mercy was captained by Citizen JDKAC8, who called himself Havoc. Havoc was one of my first drones who had been capable of absorbing a power crystal of his own, granting him the ability to sow discord among his enemies. I'd tried to acquire a version of myself, but like most Compulsion cores I'd been disappointed with the results when attempting to master it. This Juggernaut had been built with disaster-relief in mind. A large contingent of Ophelia's Healers were aboard. It also had the strongest defenses of any of the three.

  Although all three were going to different destinations, I had them cross the border together. Destroying factories might not be the goal of today, but that didn't mean that targets of opportunity were ignored. The Claw opened fire with its main gun, wiping out a border factory with one shot.

  Vinci hadn't been idle the last few days and she had been building mechs, a lot of mechs. A few shots came from ground forces with cannons powerful enough to reach the airships. Mostly it was scout drones that swarmed them. They weren't interested in exchanging weapons fire, instead rapidly scanning for shield strength and weapons placement.

  The fact that they weren't shooting at us didn't mean that we wouldn’t fire at them—defensive cannons quickly cleared the skies.

  Offensive fire turned the ground below to molten slag, focusing on power distribution centers and factories. We weren't hitting the supply hubs, leaving them for the later waves to raid.

  With a molten, red trail thirty miles long behind them the Juggernauts finally broke apart, angling towards their own target.

  There was no attempt at subterfuge. If Vinci's AI was worth anything at all he'd be able to determine where the Juggernauts were headed. Vinci would only throw more drones and that meant more she'd have to rebuild. At least that was the hope.

  The fact was a large enough swarm could eventually bring down even a Juggernaut, especially if Vinci had any clever tricks. After witnessing the Absorber making use of a matter-to-energy conversion beams, Vinci had proved she wasn't ever out of clever tricks.

  The Claw was continuing to blast everything in its path. There was little reason not to, I'd built in extra Bio-reactors specifically for its plethora of weapons and they could always be shooting at something. The Gobbles liked that, the Gobbles really liked that. Factories, repair ships, empty long-abandoned buildings. If anything at all looked interesting and destructible, they'd take shots at it.

  With the ships separated the drone swarms were converging. I was preparing to send a polite reminder to the Claw to not be so busy shooting at ground targets that they missed the aerial swarms, but the Gobbles didn't need reminding. Moving targets were more fun.

  Well, I might have risked giving life and sentience to a bunch of murderous cats—at least they were good at shooting small moving things. SCIENCE was wonderful.

  The Dawnbringer was taking a more ambling course to its destination. Captain Dora didn't feel bound to follow the direct path and was taking the targets of opportunity thing especially seriously as her sensors picked up vulnerable targets. It meant the Dawnbringer was drawing the heaviest enemy fire, almost twice as much as the defenders sought to bring the ship down. The shields were already at eighty-eight percent and under fire
like this wouldn't be going up anytime soon.

  Still, Captain Dora was doing what she could and timed a hit at a power converter below to coincide with a passing swarm, obliterating both in a massive explosion. I sent an estimate of shield strength based on their flight path so far. Captain Dora was still in the safe zone, but she needed to put a limit on the side missions.

  I was getting a comm from Havoc and I opened up a line. So far the Mercy wasn't experiencing any issues, sticking to the path and focusing fire on attacking drones.

  "Do you realize you're last in the kill-count right now? I did install guns on that ship," I said.

  "I realize. Have you ever bothered to check the distress bands? We have traffic even this far into Vinci territory," Havoc said.

  Given the sheer quantity of comm traffic in Vinci's territory, monitoring anything was difficult, and I wasn't especially listening for humans in distress. As part of the Mercy's mandate they had a comm operator with that as their sole purpose and I accessed their logs.

  Scholarium, Independents, Righteous. There were nine unique signals that had been monitored along the Mercy's path so far and they weren't halfway to their target.

  There were people alive down there that weren't aligned with Vinci.

  On the one hand, it made sense. The Earth now was made from all the individual planes that used to compose reality having been crushed back together. People had gotten scattered everywhere. Just because Vinci had claimed territory it didn't mean that people weren't already there.

  I rather thought the swarms would have killed them all. Perhaps Vinci's mechs didn't bother in territory they considered safe, or maybe some temptation to have people in her lands made Vinci hesitate.

  How did I want to deal with this? The Juggernauts could handle enemy fire just fine, but rescue craft would be at risk. I'd probably lose more drones than any people I saved—however, drones that I could regenerate later.

  It would also lessen our resources and distract the crew from their main mission.

  "If it is just a beacon try to establish contact. If you can, send a rescue party. The shuttles will draw a lot of fire," I said.

  "Acknowledged" Havoc said, sounding pleased.

  This would be popular on his ship, I wasn't as sure it would be as well-received on the others. I issued orders for the Dawnbringer and Claw to also monitor those communication bandwidths and to rescue those they could.

  Neither was built for rescue missions. Still, the Dawnbringer's versatile craft could serve the purpose of rescue shuttles and the heavy troop transports of the Claw were ideal for the role.

  The other ships acknowledged.

  I didn't like this. When did I become the protector of organic life against the machine? Was this another step along the path I'd long ago chosen, when I'd decided to become an organic computer for very practical reasons, or would I still do this had I remained purely electronic?

  It didn't matter, this wasn't a time for introspection, it was a time for killing. Well, killing and saving lives, apparently.

  The other ships seemed pleased by the addition to their mission. Taking new factors in stride was just what the Dawnbringer was for, and landing transports on the ground meant the Claw and its ground forces might get to see some action.

  They'd all already made contact with some survivors and were sending rescue ships, launching swarms of fighters to defend them. In a way this was all good, this would get them even more attention. It was time to deploy the strike teams.

  17

  There were four strike teams, all mixed forces. The core of each was four Annas providing the teleportation to get them deep into enemy territory quickly. Each squad had one of Ophelia's second generation Healers—most of the Annas had accelerated healing of their own but not all. This covered their weak spots and amplified their strengths. The Healers wore exo-suits to enhance their strength and speed, and they were armed with a rifle. Their gifts weren't offensive in nature and armor was largely wasted on them with their regenerative abilities.

  In addition, each squad had five of my new Aegis Enhanced units as well as some Gunslinger Enhanced. The Gunslinger Enhanced were a bit of a last-minute version and I hadn't really had time to test them. I'd removed their gauss rifles in favor of beam weapons with reinforced emitters that I could channel more power through. It was terribly inefficient, a thirty percent increase in power for a two hundred and seventeen percent increase in power consumption, but with the upgrades they had power to burn.

  I'd tried to make up each squad with a mix of Annas with complimentary power sets. They all had at least one elemental, one teleporter, and one telekinetic.

  They didn't suffer from power burnout like Anna Prime. Although none had nearly the level of her gifts they were able to make the leap to their targets in a single bound.

  I cycled between the teams as they reached their destinations.

  Squad One arrived beside the withering remains of a forest. Defensive turrets tracked the sky and shield emitters buzzed preventing teleportation directly into the ore mine.

  All of the squads were targeting mines that seemed to be especially important. Not the largest, but the well-defended.

  The automated defenses were faster than organic reflexes. A machine gun turret swiveling towards Corana fire sent her staggering back, chips flaking off her Bio-armor.

  "Get the shields down," I said through one of my drones as I turned a Gunslinger against the turret. A single shot pierced the armor and its tracking became sluggish. A second shot finished it, a spray of sparks erupting as the ammunition exploded.

  Other turrets were opening fire and I turned the Gunslingers on them as the Aegis provided defense. Ground mechs were arriving in force, razor-sharp metal claws glinting in the light as the Aegis units moved to meet them. Feana and Magana were unleashing electrical and fire attacks against the shield which was already flickering.

  Squad Two was in trouble. I turned my attention to them.

  Their target was in a narrow valley surrounded by mountains and with a single path in and out. Using the path turned out to be a mistake.

  Landmines, crystal-enhanced nuclear landmines.

  It was ludicrous overkill by Vinci for guarding this place. I had two Aegis drones still functioning although badly radiation-poisoned and their suits were in tatters. The Gunslingers with their weaker shielding had died instantly.

  Ophelia's Healer was bruised and bleeding, with multiple broken bones, not to mention naked and without a weapon anymore. As I'd observed with one of my own drones, a crystal-enhanced nuclear blast seemed to slow accelerated healing for some reason. The Annas were doing better, they'd all their Bio-armor up and while that armor was ruined they'd escaped with little more than scrapes and bruises.

  The blasts had also taken down Vinci's shield leaving the mine exposed.

  The surviving Aegis were useless in their current state, and suffering. I triggered their kill switches and both slumped to the ground with their strings cut.

  I tasked Volcana to mind the Healer and ordered the others to begin their assault. Mechs were already coming from the mine area and the stony ground was exploding in jagged shards as the strike force advanced.

  Squad Three had turned on itself. Several of my drones were already down and the Annas were flinging elemental fury at each other. I accessed the logs.

  One of Vinci’s few humans. The golden-eyed man had stepped out of a building as soon as they had arrived, telling them to kill each other. Compulsion cores—oh, how I hated them.

  I had a solution. In a way what happened to Squad Two had inspired it. Each enhanced combat suit was powered by a crystal-enhanced Bio-core and if overloaded became a small crystal-enhanced Bio-bomb. Something not unlike the nuclear landmines.

  I had people who would survive that. Let’s see how Vinci's human did.

  I activated the overload and the world tore itself apart in a series of blasts.

  When I could again connect to my drones I found
the situation worse than what happened to Squad Two. The Annas here had already done a number on each other’s body armor. Two were down with broken bones and internal injuries that were healing slowly.

  I had a pair still on their feet. They began reducing mining equipment to molten pools of metal.

  I wasn't getting any alerts from Squad Four. Still, I switched over to see how they were doing. They'd materialized near a mountain and spent several minutes reducing defensive towers and drones to scrap.

  Then they'd hit something unexpected, what they had found wasn't actually a mine. It was an excavation. The ground had been stripped to reveal what appeared to be the top of a building. It was familiar, it was a little too familiar. A mountain, and the set of doors leading within. I knew this mountain, I knew those doors.

  This was my laboratory.

  Not quite. The original was certainly destroyed, although Amy had recreated it and used it as the setting to give Anna her powers as some sort of twisted walk through memory lane.

  This wasn't even that same recreation—it wasn’t Amy’s work. No Righteous vehicle out front, no scavenged Righteous weaponry in the mountain above.

  I could guess what this might be—and I didn't like it. When Earth had originally fractured it didn't do so equally. Entire cities had been duplicated in different locations amongst the shards. This must be another version of me.

  My mountain, my laboratory.

  I ordered the team inside. Vinci had probably been looking for information about me, and it would be important information to find. There were vast archives in the original mountain that I'd had to destroy. If they still existed in this one there was a great deal that she could learn to use against me.

  That notion was soon dispelled. The corridors were right and yet wrong at the same time.