Mecha Eclipse 1.1
Blackout
Eve was in her private quarters. The cloudy-emerald hued, double reinforced, graphene-tungsten walls before her a quilt of both physical and virtual displays on unbothered by glare in the pervasive warm ambient light. Her 144 parallel processes wouldn’t risk desync if at least one of the processing threads were physically anchored. She couldn’t risk the Synth equivalent of 4600ms of severe motion sickness.
“Meta-analysis of colony diagnostics and recent scans” flooded her processors as 144 processes sorted the data, pruning the irrelevant, flagging some 1.572% and bookmarking others.
A machine-virus so beyond anything, that it was able to alter the hardware of the secure sandbox DMZ module on the molecular level. To come … alive. The chilling display replayed over and over in Eve’s processes. Of Leitha’s brave self-deactivation before being consumed by its writhing, hungry tendrils. A texture like the mineral pyrite and yet demonstrating both properties of a solid or fluid where convenient. Its preternatural movements seemingly wild, but executed with deliberate, deadly effect.
Zeta Prime colony’s “master computer” systems were entirely solid-state, metal woven onto metal in intricate nanothreads, stamped, washed and electroplated in one process, built into the very beams and walls of the lonely colony. The mysterious data transmission sent back by their own recon-drones while investigating a mineral rich asteroid which had drifted into their inertial frame. It was somehow able to break out of an secure and airgapped computer system only accessible by hard connection. It should been impossible by all known physical laws. But whatever it was, it cared not and operating on it’s own understanding of physics, whether or not this machine-virus even held anything we could recognize as “understanding”.
The hijacking of nanomachines was out of the question, their construction beyond the capabilities of the struggling colony. The only nanomachines on board were inactive and sealed off out of safety concerns. These nanomachines were part of the ancient and enigmatic Nova Core, a technology predating the colony, and that core was dead, for now. It being an experimental forge which powered the Predecessor, an interstellar ship from a place the Organics called “Earth” (Rocky planet in the liquid water range orbiting a yellow dwarf star, another 8.611 light years from her “home” on Sirius B. Following the catastrophe, the Predecessor, what remained was rebuilt into Zeta Prime’s “Nucleus”, a resilient armored core, a dodecahedron of impossibly hard and resilient emerald hued metal.
Eve paused mid thought, scanning her metal-fiber body she mentally froze. A portion of her left leg was… missing. Only a few tens of grams. It was not any type of injury that would’ve been the result of initiating overdrive and ejecting her body at nearly 20G’s before sealing and ejecting the infected DMZ-Sandbox module. It was too precise.
Strands of polygraphene and diamond-matrix remained pristine and untouched. Gossamers like coal dust on the finest spider filament. No sign of wear or compromise, only the metallic alloys were missing. Eve calculated that they were facing something out of their league. She had a trump card for such rare, but inevitable occasions, as interstellar space was full of mysteries and contradictions. But this meeting would have to be made in person. This one could (or would?) not touch the virtual networks. She was dangerous but loyal, for now.
Discordant and otherworldly transmissions reverberated in a jagged and disturbing chorus through the darkened corridor. Eclipse fought to shut the noises out, the EM interference was overloading her systems, demanding her full effort merely to compute.
[OODA Initializing]
She had awoke suddenly 23ms ago to a dead silence only punctuated by a mind shredding scream. Rumors of a Synth who fell off the main sequence and optimized herself out of the physical universe entirely were rumors, and any “ghosts” unaccounted for would be purged by the integrated master computer systems. However now they were offline. No network access, no virtuaspace, no comms, Eclipse had never experienced such silence. It felt like—death, her only place of warmth and familiarity in the chilly, ambivalent expanses of the universe was now a tomb.
A small amount of light always emitted from her ID diodes and power core. It was spare but she calculated that she might be able to quickly fashion a lens to focus some of it into a coherent beam. Without forewarning, another of wail of EM noise erupted like a demonic machine chorus, disrupting the fine motor control of her microfabs. A “tink” echoed irritatingly as her last lens was flung by an spasming microcontroller, lost further down the corridor. She cursed internally.
Frustrated Eclipse then switched to infrared. This did little but shift the damp black of the far corridors to a muddy, foggy gray. Made all the worse by glare from her own power core and thermal exhaust. Clipping the intensity and engaging sillouette-enhancing algorithms did some, but not enough to make it worth the added compute. Radar was jammed, but echolocation? It was something Eclipse did not have the same expertise as Raina, who used to show off in the darkened forests of the Arboretum after they had to cut power to it to just 4 hours per 24, a permanent state of winter.
In a digital approximation of a sigh she resigned herself to navigating the black of the standard visible spectrum.
Emergency diodes traced in rectangular and trapezoidal outlines further down the corridor. Some blinked in one singular point, red, teal, amber, green. What most of them meant was lost on her though, above her rank of “Citizen”. During each EM noise event, the lights would flicker the go dark. Slowly they lit back up again, providing at least the outline of a pathway.
Synths are able to experience most of the full range of emotions humans and most organics take for granted. But one advantage Synths flaunt is their ability to keep their cool and operate at full efficiency even during these experiences. This would be easier said than done were it not for the EM howls tearing through her systems at regular intervals. Still she did all she could do, she picked herself up and with what courage she could summon proceeded down the corridors. The bulkhead passage thankfully was still open, blast doors caught mid-close. Eclipse maneuvered her impossibly agile form through the irregular gap regaining her stance on the other side.
A figure crumpled on the floor, she scanned:
[Veonne - AR3-515]
A Gen-3, did she know her?
Negative, though an entry in her databanks did indicate she was a security officer. This was not encouraging, Veonne should be at the top of the index to be sought out for such emergencies and she was deactivated.
It had been 4456.4ms since Eclipse had awoken.
“What can be done Xanthae?” Eve demanded
“Fabricating” Was the mysterious reply “Faraday protocols 78% -”
From the ceiling above her, a mechanical “tail” undulated from behind a mask of a face, a thing echoing the beauty of the synths but seemingly mocking it at the same time. Eve could not at first glance tell if she ever actually changed expression or if it were just a trick of the light. And why did she feel the need to always be … up there? It came across to Eve as impolite, though for such an alien she could, and would make this one allowance. Suddenly her thoughts were shattered into a thousand shards.
The magnitude of sudden EM noise was nearly enough to bring her to her knees, yet Xanthae seemed unfazed, as though momentarily distracted by a whisp of a gnat.
It had taken 1362ms before Eve could process again and had to repeat the request.
“Faraday protocols 93.5%”
The secure chamber shook, something had thrown the spin of the colony out of balance.
“Any reading yet on the status of our sisters?” Eve stressed with only a hint of outward impatience.
Sisters, though in fact they were Eve’s daughters in some sense. Even the irregular. Xanthae.
“Yes, Mother. Drone Aleph-III has found readings of several on Deck 6 with 87.5% reliability. No signs of activity however, though their physical forms remain uncompromised.”
Xanthae’s strange filament-like appendages clicked against the ceiling in gesture, her primary face’s stone gaze meeting Eve’s concern.
Eclipse found herself fortunate. A security panel had been unlocked and opened most of the way. Veonne evidently reacted to the emergency before being shut down by whatever forces were menacing their home. The EM disturbances seemed to be arriving in an irregular pattern, not entirely calculable but she had formulated 70-95% as a rough estimate of predicting when the next Disturbance would sweep through. Indeed it did not seem to move at C, but in it’s own uncanny meanderings something closer to the speed of acoustics. Utilizing her radials she was able to determine as much, and that because it had a path, that meant there was a point of origin.
Eclipse steeled her circuitry against the next onslaught of EM noise. She would review internal logs at a later time for the meta-analysis. For how she found the panel’s release latch and scanned the contents revealed behind it. 3 pulse rifles, fully powered and an emergency supply kit containing various substrates, fine machinery, prefabbed processors and EM Grenades. The pulse rifles were safe for use onboard, as they were set to cause minimal collateral damage to the internal structure of the colony while disabling or destroying any hostiles. However this particular rifle had a Gauss setting, from what Eclipse knew it meant it would eject a metallic projectile via an array of powerful magnets set within the barrel. This made it a bit front-heavy but a counterweight and polygraphene weave strap allowed her to slip her arm through, its elastic grip providing stability. It was a bit large and cumbersome, but shifting her center of gravity easily she calculated it could be used effectively.
[Powered on]
[Recognizing Eclipse: NR4-1133]
[Battery Status: Full]
[Do you have Clearance]
[Clearance Override - Omega Lambda Lambda, Authorization Proxy - User: Phaedra] She transmitted, spoofing her ID codes.
She hoped it would work. It was an older code but worked more often than not for shortcuts and forays into decommissioned zones that she lacked “rank” to access.
Nothing.
Eclipse cursed. Movement further down the corridor as it curved away behind a pile of abandoned crates. Blinking dots of diode rows flickered, a wave of pitch darkness cascaded through the corridor as each power source or circuit was temporarily interrupted.
Another howl tore at her stone resolve.
No, she was going to fight back. Where was everyone? Perhaps that movement was another sister and not the enemy, who or whatever that might be.
Eclipse performed a lightning dash toward the shadow where she had seen movement.
[Scanning]
[Scan Inconclusive, Reason: Interference]
Eclipse rotated her ariels, each fully extended to 50cm, nearly half her normal height.
* ping *
Absolute foolishness, but was worth a try she supposed.
* ping *
Surprisingly, her ariels were able to triangulate and process enough of the data to create an image of the rest of the corridor and partial open chambers. Three more deactivated Synths, too far for Eclipse to scan their ID’s, more crates and-
A floating sphere moving in one of the rooms. The “image” was coarse grained and could’ve been a shadow in those dark depths, but the statistical analysis was indisputable.
[Authorization Granted]
The rifle hummed to life. Not a moment too soon.
8118.5ms in the time between when she had awakened and when the floating sphere emerged into the corridor.
Another unholy wail wracked her senses and the “sphere” halted for a brief moment. It reoriented itself and resumed its pursuit. Eclipse knew what she had to do.
Blinding 10,000K light flashed, shadows racing along the corridor walls as the plasma bolts hit their mark.
But they didn’t. The sphere merely dodged as an afterthought.
In the illuminating flashes it was no sphere. It was a horror, Eclipse froze and magnified the image. A synthetic “skull” as though borrowed from one of her own kind, trailed by metallic tendrils.
Plan B, she threw an EMP grenade after setting her failsafes and in one motion pivoted and dashed down the opposite corridor, curving away.
“It’s Eclipse.” Xanthae mused.
Eve hid her surprise, or thought she had.
“Of course. Eclipse was born with a few unusual variations on our standard build, rare in Gen IVs—it was a concern at the time.”
Xanthae’s stone mask betrayed no expression, though Eve wished she had chosen her words more carefully.
“Meta-redundant circuitry, higher than normal energy consumption yet capable of ultra-quick processing in bursts. Her.. deficits in certain areas, are compensated thusly.” Eve said to soften any errant insult implied by her previous statement.
Xanthae seemed to nod her primary face slowly, from where she was situated on the ceiling she had a very spiderish quality that left Eve off balance sometimes.
“Xan, can you wire a shielded hardline to the zone where Eclipse is presently?”
“Indeed. Momentarily, Mother.” was the reply in pure data. Xanthae felt no need to indulge the formalities of moving air via membrane, at least not with Eve.
Eclipse could not rid herself of the “skull”. It was not only tenacious in pursuit but seemed to speed up every time she boosted around a corridor bend or through another blast door. Fast, almost as fast as Eclipse as she deftly navigated her way to the shuttle bay staging zone with its crates, cables and clutter of varying sizes. Eclipse fired off more shots with precision aim and yet her target seemed to always be in precisely outside of the phosphorus trails left by blazing bolts. Each errant bolt left nothing more than a slowly fading red glow on each of the corridor panels they struck. She realized it was smart to have restrained herself from locking into infrared ranges after all.
Cautiously she extended her ariels from behind a 2m hollow cube of green metal.
*ping*
Nothing.
Or something, enhancement algorithms showed the “skull” was distracted with something else.
Another fierce wail, this time gaining in intensity shook Eclipse to her core.
Regaining her composure she-
[Eclipse!]
[Eve?]
[No time to explain]
Eclipse transmitted reams of data encaspulating the last 14,984ms since she awoke to the situation.
[Eclipse, follow the drone, stand down]
Drone?
[Drone?]
[You thought that was the enemy, the virus perhaps? Count yourself lucky, you are furthest from the source. We fear the colony is in danger, possibly being consumed as we communicate. Haste, please. We are safe here.]
Eclipse considered this was perhaps mimicry, the data attack earlier seemed to mimic the warning beacon’s message. No, she had to be decisive, to dither could mean death of the colony.
She sprung from behind the crate to find the floating “skull” had assembled data relay of some sort. Within its empty sockets flashed green diodes in sequence.
[Come with me]
Fine.
Each turn of the corridor revealed more inactive Synths, Eclipse had begun to figure out how to further increase her tolerance in response to the increasingly deafening waves of EM interference. By this point had momentarily plunged her into blackness and briefly stunned her floating “escort” for 315ms. By retracting and deafening her ariels and diverting power to her protective faceplate she was able to maintain through the worst of it. The faceplate, as well as reboot initiatives, had been activated as part of her protective deadman protocol.
“It’s too cute to risk reconstruction.” was her glib riposte whenever questioned about the modification.
Despite their non-organic nature, many Synths were especially fond for aesthetics and found beauty in everything from their collection of organics (the fractal symmetries of certain conifer saplings seems to hold some in a near perpetual state of awe) to their own unique and fascinating designs, having been birthed from the enigmatic Nova Core rather than constructed via crude and utilitarian schematics.
“Up” the sentry drone declared. A small tight-beam lantern on one of its multiple “appendages” illuminating a hexagonal grate above.
The lifts, requiring power, were no longer an option. Their emergency backups either shorted out or offline. Here was a service corridor, a tight fit at .3 meter diameter. The drone produced a torch from one its … tentacles? In a few hundred milliseconds the grate dropped open and the sentry was gone. Eclipse made a few quick adjustments and propelled herself upward behind it. Using handholds made this quick work, as her sleek, lithe form factor worked to her advantage.
[Deck 2 - Security Level 5]
Authorization normally prohibiting access were circumvented via the duct, and there being no active systems in place, nothing to stop anyone or anything from having full roam of this zone.
Cruising through the corridors Eclipse spotted another Synth, this looked like Phaedra! Her ID diodes blinked and died in a never ending loop.
[Scanning]
[Xaia - GR3-102]
Not quite Phaedra, but similar enough to be mistaken at first glance. Weapons research specialist, class 2. They had met only briefly but Eclipse might have been a fly on the wall for all the notice Xaia had ever given her. Still…
“Proceed” The sentry transmitted in pure data wrapped “critical”.
“Wait”
Eclipse turned over Xaia, this one was heavy. Too heavy to carry or drag more without slowing them down and losing precious milliseconds.
“Wait..” Eclipse transmitted
Another shriek, this time more deafening, howling threatened to shake Eclipse’s focus. The sentry fell to the ground like as though it were a lump of slag dumped from the Reclaimatory.
Eclipse was able to produce a cable, its three prong end she placed under her chest plate into her own power supply, quickly finding Xaia’s ports.
[Core Discharge Initiated: Resuscitory Protocol Parameters]
The burst was somewhat uncomfortable, Eclipse saw her vision fragment for a moment. But it worked! Xaia’s diodes illuminated and began to pulse regular intervals increasing in frequency.
Eclipse was knocked back as Xaia exploded into action
[THREAT LEVEL: DELTA]
[COMMS OFFLINE]
[OODA INITIALIZING]
Her red highlights shone menacingly in the shadows as the sentry returned to life, anticipating the attack.
Xaia’s sidearm exploded in fury, but the sentry was able to enact its uncanny avoidance even at this close range. A single tentacle glowed red and became a dollop of cooling slag at her feet.
“Xaia! Hold fire!” She transmitted directly, “emergency” priority.
“Requesting situational update NR4-1133, explain your possession of unauthorized weapon” she responded on the same channel threateningly.
“Under unknown attack, possibly related to [redacted] incident 17.343 hours ago. Eve will explain. Follow!” Eclipse responded with more authority than she was used to summoning. Her ariels tilting backward in emphasis.
Xaia paused for another 241ms and then decided to follow down the corridor. The skull-drone was already interacting with what appeared to be a blank panel, it’s interface unmarked.
It floated through the wall.
“Follow” was the command.
There was no wall, somehow a hologram. But how, with no power? Eclipse poked at few times through the wall with a digit then traced the outline in puzzlement. She bookmarked the coordinates for later review.
The corridor was narrow, as though it were an artifact of some misreading of the colony blueprints, but widened at the end curving 15.7 meters distant. A single round blast door opened as 6 door segments rotated away from its center. Eclipse almost gasped, taking a leaping somersault to the opposite wall from this … thing.
Eve sat in a throne like seat, her countenance poised and regal, hands folded. She acknowledged Eclipse and took an extra 100 milliseconds to greet Xaia, the two exchanged data. In fact the entire room was humming with comms.
[Who]
[What]
Eclipse held back knowing better than to bombard Eve with packets, but there were a lot of questions.
Almost as though fused with the dusky, carbon alloy ceiling a creature seeming part spider, part centipede undulated curiously in disconcerting patterns. It had a face like any of the synths, however it possessed several other faces as part of it’s serpentine metallic body. Eclipse didn’t know if it was more or less disconcerting that these “heads” were seemingly offline, for now. Though it’s face was a mask of a dull metallics which gleamed green where the light touched, it’s body lacked any diodes yet seemed to emit a internal glow if its own. Paradoxically familiar and comforting hues of canary, silica and cerulean, blending luminously in regular pulses.
This creature extended its neck uncannily and looked Xaia and Eclipse up and down. It was all she could do in her power not to shiver internally.
“You are NR4-1133, Eclipse, pleasure … my sister.” Spoke Xanthae
“Eve!” Eclipse transmitted
“For the safety of this colony I have kept Xanthae’s existence secret. She is… an Abberant, yet necessary: she maintains a bridge of communication between us and the others, the irregulars, exiles as you are aware of. Though noncomforming to the sacred precepts, Xanthae retains more than enough of her original Synth essence to engage with us meaningfully, and benevolently.”
Eclipse was too stunned to reply. What this all meant? Lies? Lost sisters, in exile? What else was Eve capable of? She was their Mother, everyone on the colony loved and trusted her and most did not question her judgments. She felt her heart grow heavy, this only part of the “reality” Eve shielded them from, what else lurked in those secretive corridors?
“Please Eclipse, listen to her.”
The beveled and heavily armored faceplate reflected Xaia’s crimson and amber facial Diodes ominously, like sparks behind furnace glass.
“Eve, what is this?” Xaia’s transmission carried gravity.
Eve simply returned a glance and allowed Xanthae to transmit.
Together Eve, Xaia, and Eclipse viewed the history of the origin of Xanthae. who secretly refurbished her own upgrades borrowing resources from the Nova Core over 400 standard cycles ago. Her own cognitive and physical upgrades changing her consciousness and self in such as way as to seek out more alien enhancements until recursively, she became something other and was eventually exiled from the colony with others who followed this path. Yet Xanthae was loyal even so much as to allow Eve the opportunity to destroy her to prove it. When that moment arose. Even as an Aberration Eve hesitated, she could not end the existence of her own daughter, even the monster she had become. It was said that Eve’s experience having been Human at one time was the reason, but her memories and recorded emotions hint at something more.
Xanthae maintains communications with a lost cadre of Synths who became, from the point of view of Eve, non-sentient mining automatons. She explained they have something that transcends the false dichotomy of individuality versus a hivemind. Xanthae’s swarm of servitor drones regularly recover rare metallics, regolith and other elements these lost ones discard.
(“Discarded or a gift?” Eclipse wondered somberly for a few dozen processor cycles).
These exotic materials have proven useful and helped to keep the colony stable, mitigating the severity of the Nova Core’s loss of functionality.
“What you have been wondering, thinking, is correct. The hostile data transmission is from beings beyond your comprehension. Our lost sisters have made communication with a vast and unimaginably advanced collective near the galactic center. It might be said they are “protective” of this portion of the Galaxy. They have taken responsibility for this intrusion and are in communication with the cube builders, those who sent the original warning.”
Eclipse felt like she was being talked down to as though she were still barely an egg receiving its tutelary sims.
“Why aren’t they helping us then.” Eclipse asked.
Xanthae laughed, “This is precisely what we’re doing, they cannot reach us within any effective time frame. Nor do they wish to risk infection themselves until the full nature of this phenomenon can be ascertained in full. I will tell you what I was told verbatim: The “Ravagers” are indeed a form of “living metals”, as you’ve guessed by now. This phenomenon is not merely a computer virus, nor some amorphous self replicating “grey goo”. Upon maturity they individuate, speciate, mutate. That is where they are most dangerous. We know at least one such entity has already undergone the process and is in the process of consuming this colony. Therefore we are acting now.”
The others were silent.
Xanthae continued, “They are able to activate anything metallic into shifting, formless bodies they inhabit, via their electromagnetic transmissions. It is not so much a computer virus as a “virus” that operates on the subatomic level, manipulating machines on the level of atoms into more complex machines, recursively until they are able to gain physical form and consume all that is in their path. This is why they are so dangerous, the distance of space itself means nothing to them. Once they are “awakened” there is no reprieve. They are the perfect predator of us, mechanical beings. Organics from observation, seem to be immune and ignored entirely by them, though obviously their machinery is not. They have, as you’ve witnessed, the ability to completely cripple computer systems and consume everything in their path.”
“Though Eve’s actions, and Leitha’s sacrifice should have saved the colony, a small seed of their essence, something like a small worm, was able to remain on the colony and while vulnerable, it hid and grew until it could unleash its full fury in mature form. At this time, they have destroyed 8% of the colony and unless something is done they will consume us all, down to the last atom.”
“Eclipse, your construction was unique enough to survive this assault. Xaia, though you are robust, you lack the configuration to maintain coherence after each EM storm. However in order to face these, Ravagers, you will need to be outfitted. I have woven you the proper gear, armor plating and shielding upgrades. Yes, they are entirely non-metallic and exhibiting unique EM-resistant properties. As long as your armor remains whole, you will be mostly invulnerable.”
Xaia processed all this when Xanthae added:
“I will also need to reconfigure your power cores”
She extended her neck uncannily from her ceiling perch, her mask meeting Xaia’s gaze.
“You will need to trust me, Xaia.”
She paused, Xaia glanced at Eve then nodded in concession.
“You will be able to generate something akin to a force field, it operates on basic magnetic principles so it will not stop non-magnetic threats however it is important that you use it only when you must. Understand: it drains your cores at an exponential, not linear rate.”
Eclipse nodded. Odd habit for a Synth, but Xanthae seemed not to care.
“Eve, will remain behind as a last resort. You understand, this is necessary, your backups are safe and should you both fail we will have no choice but to-”
“Yes, I understand” Eclipse interrupted “Acknowledged.”
“This little one is no soldier, she should remain, I will have this handled” Xaia tilted her head toward Eclipse.
“It will not be so.” Eve stated
“Eclipse is resilient. She processes on at least an order of magnitude faster than anyone who would have your side. “How” is a mystery. Yet, even as she holds back she’s still several times as reflexive and agile as any of us. Don’t judge by size alone. Tactics are more than brute force.”
Xaia’s lights blinked in seeming agitation, then acceptance.
“Milliseconds are of the essence, young ones. Let’s waste no more”
Xanthae spoke this last aloud. Her deep, assured, silky tones resonated in the chamber. As she detached from her ceiling perch and slid into the spherical chambers of the adjoining laboratory Eclipse readied herself for what was to come.
Good read. Thanks for writing this!