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MESSAGE BEGINS
Chairman,
As per ORDER LOG 78998 I have initiated Stage 1 of the Starlight Project. Conveniently there was a Operator close by, in orbit, even. Her code is B-108, Class 7 Full Action Handler. The one associated with the Ulysses affair. Seeing as you mentioned a Juliet-class Priority on the project I have taken the liberty of reactivating her employment contract and requisitioning one of COMPANY-678C's routine trade flights for transport- it's already on its way. She'll be awake any minute now. I look forward to presenting you with results.
Sincerely,
GM-14
MESSAGE ENDS
***
Celestora System
Asteroid Thicket | Alcyon
SIGSAWA INDUSTRIES built their products to last- and it showed in how the small cryochamber hidden within the asteroid had only lost a light (and even that to a micrometeor) during a hundred years of inattention. Indeed, the core functions had remained intact- that being the life support, communications line and power systems buried deep within the rock. Now a microburst transmission crackled across the vacuum of space and was picked up by an aerial disguised as a bit of debris, and machinery thrummed to life. The first piece of hardware brought to full functional status was Combat Intelligence Officer KINGMASTER, a Handler-class artificial intelligence program. Written with over sixteen billion lines of code, the self-learning AI had been bestowed the persona of a slightly cynical male, an exact copy of the famous human pilot that had given him his name from eons ago. KINGMASTER took a few minutes to sort out his subroutines and conduct a security scan of the small facility and its immediate surroundings, then opened the transmission.
He scanned the message in an instant and initiated thawing and revival procedures on the lone cryopod buried deep in the core of the asteroid. Dust billowed from a blocky life-support module as its vial container cycled, swapping out mixtures of fluid that were being pumped through a mess of tubing into the naked figure beneath the frosted glass of the capsule. Red-tinged serum coursed through the tubing, and into the woman's body. Even in the cold of the dormant facility, condensation began to form on the glass as the temperature gradually warmed. Her right eye opened as her body began to restart. Eventually the woman could feel extreme pain shredding her nerves as cells thawed and regained their life- she lay unmoving and waited patiently for the sensation to subside. The condensation turned to mist in a matter of minutes and the lid began to rise. The power hadn't been restored to her artificial limbs- her grey and yellow, steel and plastic left arm refused to budge, nor did her legs. The Operator waited. The camera system that had replaced her left eye blinked on and diagnostics scrolled up her field of vision as KINGMASTER moved several subroutines back into her electronic-neural pathways. Finally the microfusion reactors on her limbs hummed to life and the Operator slowly eased herself out of the cryopod. The entire facility was chilled to exactly zero degrees. A normal person would have shivered. The Operator waited.
"Rise and shine, pretty lady." drawled KINGMASTER in her head. The Operator touched two fingers to her lower jaw, a steel replacement which contained connection ports with a helmet's OS systems, and traced two circles on the cold metal- signage for exasperation. She could technically communicate with the Handler through thoughts, but the Operator was too busy maintaining the emptiness of mind which allowed her to stand the freezing cold and excruciating pain. "Whatever." sighed Kingston, looking at her from the security camera feed. "Alright, new assignment from the Grey Men, Priority Juliet. Snatch and grab, on the planet Alcyon, right below us. I'll give you more details as we get rigged up. Undersuit over there, TOJIMBO over there. Transport from Merchant Trade United inbound in six minutes, so you'd better step on it." The Operator stepped in the baggy undersuit and pulled it above her shoulders, then pulled a ripchord that vacuum-sucked the suit to her body with a obscene slurp. KINGMASTER continued to chatter as she slipped into the TOJINBO Force Suit. "Alright, we're looking for intelligence on the Shards of Starlight. Know what that is?" The Operator zipped up her suit and checked the airtight indicators- nothing like decompressing yourself in the cold vacuum of space- and shook her head. "Jesus, you're hopeless. Alright, these Shards supposedly have the power to destroy or create galaxies- silly, eh? Grey Men think some nasty people are looking for it and don't want it getting in the wrong hands. No further details of yet." The Operator gathered up her long hair in a bun and dusted off the CORVUS helmet hanging on the wall. She put it on and flipped the jaw connectors into position, then felt around the back for the on-switch and activated the OS.
The cameras dotting the helmet flickered into life and more diagnostics scrolled up the screen. The Operator froze in mid-step as the suit tested its Physics-Fabric by hardening unexpectedly, crashing onto the floor in a awkward statue-like pose. "Let's hope you don't do that when we're engaged." muttered KINGMASTER as the suit blinked all-clear and assumed a cloth-like texture again. The Operator got to her feet and drew two lines down the front of her face to mime tears. "Relax, 108. Your guns are over there." A locker clicked open and the Operator retrieved her rifle and pistol, wrapped her Battle Cloth around her neck like a scarf, and slapped a silencer on the FM-204. "All set?" asked KINGMASTER.
Yes.
"Oh, she speaks now- oh shit, that'll have to wait. The transport is just around the corner, so grab that MAVE Frame and we'll rendezvous with it as it passes the facility. We don't want to have to have it stop for us." The Operator grabbed the MAVE and dashed out of the room, climbing up the stairs that led to the airlock while simultaneously clipping the MAVE into the TOJINBO. She arrived at the armoured doors just after running self-diagnostics and performed a quick vacuum-entry check on her equipment. Satisfied that she wasn't going to decompress as soon as she went outside, she activated the airlock and KINGMASTER disabled artificial gravity- the Operator hit the exit button and the airlock vented with a loud pop, pulling her and bits of debris out of the facility and into the cold darkness of space. The planet Alcyon spun lazily just below her as she fired a puff from the MAVE's rockets to orient herself. The transport, a blue and white-painted cargo shuttle hurtled towards her- the Operator spread out her hands and slammed into the hull as the small shuttle slowed slightly. She entered the shuttle's airlock and worked the controls. The doors opened and she let herself inside. The interior was empty save for a small message stick floating in the middle of the room- the Operator snatched it and flicked the display on.
FOR B-108 EYES ONLY.
PROJECT NAME:
STARLIGHT
OBJECTIVE:
RECOVERY OF INTELLIGENCE RELATING TO TARGET A
CAPTURE OF TARGET A OR COMPONENTS. ALL COERCION TACTICS VIABLE.
SUPPORT PRIORITY:
JULIET
INSERTION
TYPE -7 PLANETARY.
She snapped the message closed and dropped to the floor as gravity began to affect the shuttle. Right on cue, a prerecorded message began to play from the empty cockpit- "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday- Merchant Trade Shuttle B-750 suffering catastrophic engine failure, no control, no control, no radio either, I repeat, no external communications. I repeat, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday..." A hash of emergency response messages began to come in over the radio but the Operator ignored them. Instead, she climbed up the rapidly tilting deck to the airlock again. The Operator waited. The temperature steadily increased as the transport sliced through the atmosphere, glowing red with reentry friction. The shuttle pitched up and deployed airbrakes and braking parachutes- her rate of descent slowed, and the Operator stepped through the airlock.
Countdown.
KINGMASTER started a timer on her HUD. Six seconds. The Operator waited. "Now." said KINGMASTER. She hit the exit button and jumped, firing the MAVE for a two-second burn to get her clear of the shuttle as it spun away, airbrakes failing. The Operator fell, hurtling towards the ground as she brought the MAVE's shielding online. Landing Point was two metres off target- but still tolerable. The Operator slammed into a perfectly round lake, raising an impressive pillar of water and steam from her impact. She avoided coming to the surface for oxygen, lest people may see her- hopefully any witnesses would have assumed she was an asteroid or something. She triggered the MAVE's internal oxygen supply and activated the TOJINBO's stealth arrays, rendering her invisible to the naked eye and most forms of detection. "Research on this planet indicates several temples scattered underground. Might be a good idea to start with those first."
How far away is the first one?
"I'll keep you updated." replied KINGMASTER cryptically- a sign he didn't know. The Operator shook her head in the water and began to swim towards the shore.
