Defrag

Carrot

It had been ten days since Carrot had been in contact with any of the Ghosts. According to the one ‘brid he managed to get to speak, they were close to the base. That was all he could get out of him.

~

Icey looked at the screen in dismay. This wasn’t what they needed.

An intercepted transmission from a Machinator Nexus to another Nexus was requesting a dropship to be sent to a base close to Carrots escort, with escorts to take him straight to the Machinator redaction centre. An hour later a dropship signaled readiness to it’s Nexus.

Fortunately the Ghosts Conveyor was pretty intact, but it would be close to get it to the Machinator base before the ‘brids.

~

The convoy was nearing the last outpost of the Everything Else. Soon they would be at the ‘brid base.

However, the escort did not switch places, the convoy simply shutdown and waited. But for what Carrot did not know. He tried asking the ‘brids but none of them were particularly talkative.

~

“Come on, we gotta get this thing in the air sometime TODAY. And when we do, I don’t wanna have to fly it outta the bay sideways!!”

The comment was directed at Jehrico, who was busy fixing the ships starboard engine.

“If you don’t get that leak sealed it won’t fly at all, Raz!!”

The Conveyor had not aged well on Mercury. Razorback was presently picking rail slugs out of the things hull in preparation of sealing it with some duranium plate.

Around the bay, the rest of the Ghosts were readying their own vehicles for combat.

The plan had been hastily thrown together. Razorback would fly the Conveyor to the target at breakneck speed, burning everything and anything, before flying it into orbit and waiting for a pickup signal. Meanwhile the Ghosts on the ground would hit the base with everything they had, snatch Carrot, and then bug-out.

Time ticked away. After Razor fixed up the hull, the other vehicles rolled in, even as Jehrico made the last untested adjustments to the engine.

Finally Jehrico gave Razorback the okay signal from on top of the engine and ran through the closing doors into the cargo bay and his own Bassy.

The Conveyor was out of the bay so fast that Razor had to roll hard to avoid the doors. The heavy afterburners kicked in and the big ship skimmed over the ground at ludicrous speeds, speeds only dreamed of on Earth.

~

A blip appeared on Carrots radar. Moving too fast to be a HERC. It was a dropship.

Carrot’s heart sank in his chest. Or at least it would have had it been biological.

The dropship’s loading ramp slammed silently to the ground and the heavies in the convoy escorted Carrot inside.

With almost ceremonial precision, the Trojan Horse put on his pressure helmet and checked his suit. With everything in place, he slipped his gauntlet over one gloved hand and clicked it into place.

~

Absolute fear was something the Metagen had never experienced. Now however, as the ships doors opened and the gorgon stepped out into the sunlight and continued into a vehicle bay, he finally faced it.

His gorgon shut down and his single blast cannon became useless as a small vehicle drove up to the sleeping giant. A door in it opened and a redactor unit climbed out and moved with incredible swiftness to the gorgons cockpit. Upon arriving it slammed it’s hand into the side of the vehicle. Sparks erupted from the beast like a fountain and the cockpit jerked upwards.

“Remove//discard <your> headpiece.” The Metagen complied after checking the pressure levels in the bay.

Tears filled the Metagen’s eyes as the redactor pounced on him and searched for the tiny socket behind his ear and found it.

~

“In comm range of the base! Patching into Carrot’s suit comm system.”

A second of the screaming confirmed their fears and Razorback shut it off. They were late.

“We can still try...”Razor trailed off half way.

“Did you think we’d give up? Burn all you’ve got!” Icey said.

~

Humans in near-death situations often comment on their whole life flashing before their eyes. They had no idea what Carrot was going through as the redactor worked its way through his memory, reorganising it to fit Promethean requirements.

Suddenly a memory flashed up that he had not encountered before, not once. Then he realised it was not his own, but someone else’s.

He was in a Machinator conversion facility, working at a programming terminal. A calm electronic voice made itself heard, not from the memory itself, but attached to it.

“This is where <you> started. <Your> becoming a Metagen was no accident, it was planned from <your> very creation//activation. Some of <our> >>units<< infiltrated a Machinator base//facility in the Arctic region and affected the programming of a whole batch//group of >>Trojan Horse<< units in the hope that <our> legacy would continue.”

On the screen a file was uploaded from an unknown source into a number of organomech brains, which were then taken and placed into their organic bodies.

The view then switched to another place. Several Metagens were running from a base in the snow. As the narration continued, the Metagens were slowly hunted down and destroyed.

“Some of <our> >>units<< had to sacrifice//self-terminate <themselves> for the sole purpose of sowing the seeds of a new generation of Metagens into the Prometheans. <We> hope that <you> will fight alongside <our> creators and crush <Prometheus>’ minions//sub-ordinates. If <you> do not, then all <our> sacrifices have been in vain. Good >>luck<<.”

Abruptly that memory ended, and he was in his own body again, a younger body though, in an earlier time.

He had just returned home from the office. He had done pretty well today sowing seeds of distrust in the Empire’s ability to defend the civilians and he looked forward to his meal.

Haley brought their food in and set it on the table.

“How was work?” she asked?

“Fine, the glitches have hacked into our network though, the techs are trying to lock them out now.” He picked up his cutlery and started eating the stew. As it came into contact with his taste buds he grimaced. It was cold.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s cold.”

“I must have not cooked it for long enough, here let me heat it up for you.” She leant over to take the plate from him.

“The cow was cryogenically frozen! Don’t you know it’s rude to lean over tables?!”

“Okay, I’m sorry, let me warm it up.”

He drew a gun. A look of horror crossed her face.

“No... I love you.” she whispered.

The trigger eased home with a bang.

“I love you too.” The indifference in his voice betrayed a hint of emotion.

~

A strangled scream emitted from the Metagen as his contact with the redactor came to an abrupt end. A voice was shouting in his ear.

“Get out! Your gorgon’s in no state to fight!”

“Wait! Gimme a sec!!” he replied to the speaker.

He inputted a course into the gorgon’s auto-pilot as he considered his options. A firefight was happening outside and now only the bay’s atmospheric force-field was holding the air in. Carrot knew it would not hold for long and jammed his helmet back on.

He saw a goad heading for the doors and a plan came together in his head. It was mad but it would get him out.

As the goad passed under the gorgon, Carrot slapped the auto-pilot on and fell onto the top of the smaller HERC. He wrapped his arms around the goad’s top weapon mount and didn’t let go.

He held on for all he was worth until the warmth of the force-field passed over him. Only then did he level his gauntlet on the goad’s cockpit. The hatch exploded off of the top of the HERC and the vehicle skidded to a halt. Another shot blew the pilotform out of the cockpit in several individual pieces.

“See the goad that just came out of the bay?” he said over the comm, “I’m in it, don’t shoot.”

“Okay, Del’ll escort you back to Fantasma. Hang tight.” It was Icey.

Now Carrot located the connection that the pilotform used to control the goad and jammed it into the top of the gauntlet. The combination of Tarazedi and Cybrid technology fed the goad’s controls into his brain and he became one with the warform as it sped on towards the waiting minotaur.

“Icey to Razorback, get ready to drop, we’re just cleaning up now.”

“Roger, prepping for drop.” came the reply.

As the goad approached Del’s minotaur, she spoke over the comm.

“Remember, I got more firepower than that little goad’d ever dream of.” she said.

The Trojan Horse said nothing, knowing that it would not be necessary.

~

The goad’s foot did not feel good in Carrot’s back.

“I better not catch you ever leaving this colony without someone with you again or I’ll have your head as a souvenir of your time with us!”

Del was mad, real mad.

Razorback and Altas slowly moved to restrain her, but it was not necessary as she let him drop onto the HERC’s toe with a thud. She walked out of the vehicle bay without saying another word to anyone.

“What do you do to get off so lightly?” Altas queried.

“You’re joking right?”

“Do I look like I am?”

Carrot could not tell.

“Come on Bumpy, you need that head seeing to.” said Razor.

You don’t know the half of it.

/ < / << /