711. Dominari dominans, 4
We thought that liquid but vaporous flowing wall of dark sand was already intelligent. It turns out that was its dormant state.
Only checking the situation about it, Computer poked the bear. It’s awake now, and pissed.
Asking the bear now to bow down to us, that will not be smart.
We see on screens that the swarm has thinned and risen higher to form a more even screen like a bubble around most of the mountain. The highest point reaches above the dark curtain but still.
S has woken up and is on its guard now.
Computer told us mechanically on our request what this S is and is able to do. It’s powerful alright.
R - How long will you need to do the override? To know how long we would need to survive its assault.
C - Time estimated to override is about one minute.
R - Yikes.
N - That’s a challenge for you even as Licht.
R - We need a diversion and a plan.
~
Supremacy, or the security system, is a machine alright. Or rather a swarm of tiny machines, working in perfect synergy and union. They hold onto each other making a fluid body able to do everything imaginable to a physical body...
Purely physical, but with all the power physics can have. It could forage the blast doors in seconds if we thought the bunker could hold them back, they can’t. It’s a programmable and adaptive weapon. Able to crank open anything, breaking down anything material down to shreds, and even disrupting electromagnetic fields apparently. On battlefields of old, without T.I, it was the unstoppable end.
It’s able to generate enough energy from all sources available in the air to live on, and possibly to generate heat and electromagnetic fields even.
Its only limits are in its programmable intelligence. It has fairly limited knowledge and computational power on its own. So it requires a remote connection to bigger computers like here to be a little more knowledgeable and self-aware. The connection in question here, we’ll be trying to take over shortly. It will fight back with all its got, since that is its duty. Computer was lenient enough to help us without question, but Supremacy is not programmed to do so.
The faceoff is unavoidable... And I’ll have to hold it for at least a minute...
It’s not fencing against a sword. Nor a gun. It’s shredding locusts, tiny and strong, by millions. Resilient like the metals they are mostly made of, smart and quick thinkers like any other modern computers.
N - Humanity... I swear.
R - Impressive uh? Even I am.
I hand the glasses over to Nightmare who puts them on. I pick up the nearest pocket device that lied around and let Computer create the diversion with it.
That’ll be the essential step. Computer will hide for the minute needed with Nightmare, while a stronger dummy signal will be carried as far away as possible by me. So that S attacks the decoy instead of our only chance. Hopefully that will distract it long enough. There won’t be second chances. Not here.
N - Good luck... Burn well.
R - I want a hug when I return.
N - Deal.
And thus, I head outside to face the Supremacy of past technology.
~
They shroud the sky a little, but the sun is still clearly visible through. Like on a cloud day, or behind a thin veil.
I begin to open my inner doors. I breathe in. The flows begin to react within me.
I hold the pocket computer nearer to me. I breathe out and in.
R - Go.
I immediately stick it inside my breast pocket and ready myself.
The perfect veil abruptly collapses and rushes at me like an amorphous demon.
I’ve already jumped aside and bolted into light.
~
After a moment of daze into the sky, I slow down to look back and let myself fall. The swarm didn’t seem able to fly since it has no wings nor antigravitational ability per se, but goodness it’s already so close to me!
I reopen in a kick the doors to bursting light. I bolt away leaving only fire behind. I open the other eyes because the biological ones are unable to follow. My brain feels the shock as I mostly fall to the other side. There’s no other way.
The shapeless dragon sure can fly somehow. The fire doesn’t slow it down. It scatters heat in its wake in puzzling ways. The race lasts as long as I can push it while remaining humanly reasonable, but I soon lose it.
The swarm attempts to reach me in spikes to perforate everything remotely hostile.
I lit on the most toxic of light, raising the temperature insanely high.
At this point my remaining clothing are gone and so would be the computer if I didn’t push it inside my abdomen. My flesh isn’t fully solid anymore at this point.
It works still, the supremacy’s spikes melt as they dig too deep inside my light. Just enough to slow and divert this thing’s attacks.
But it adapts in the blink of an eye. A shroud throws itself all around me to cover me entirely.
Time to go full calamity... I stretch my arms on instinct more than need. I blow up my light all around me, no longer focusing on flight or direction at all. I just become a glowing orb of plasma and radiations, pushing it as hot and intense as can go.
The swarm of microscopic machines covers me in an orb attempting to shrink and crush me. It also attacks throwing spikes at the faintest sign of weakening, forcing me to hold on every direction. I hold it back with all I have, unable to see anymore where we’re free falling. I’m entirely surrounded.
The handheld computer died in my fire meanwhile along the way, but the swarm doesn’t let go of me. It had a twitch when the computer disintegrated, but it chose not to let go of me.
Interesting strategy in more ways than one...
The struggle depletes rapidly everything I held inside and all I can vacuum from outside. The machines meanwhile keep themselves at just the right distance from me to avoid melting, and step back if I push an attack, keeping me at bay without faltering or suffering.
My little star could have scorched the land, but the swarm takes everything just the right way, looking for the weakness to come while keeping its safety and the pressure on 4π.
It’s draining and I’m about to lose it all. But then it suddenly recedes.
I suddenly see my small environment blowing up in a bang, laying waste to the entire landscape where we had landed without me noticing.
By the time it takes me to realise the swarm has left, it’s already rolling fast and quite far.
I push myself and my limits a little more. I bolt back toward it as it rushes back toward the mountain obviously.
I throw all that’s left in me into a wave of plasma that burns the air ahead of me.
I fall short. The swarm eludes the attack and rushes back toward the Cheyenne mountain.
I’m falling onto the land, exhausted enough to pass out and possibly die.
~
Thankfully, I feel myself waking up.
Sometime.
Somewhere.
I’m feeling calm and confused at first, but then realise I’m on a bed inside the mountain. Nightmare’s face, queer looking with glasses on, is looking down toward me. It’s weird but also reassuring.
I try to speak but nothing comes. I realise I can’t feel nor move my body at all either.
That bad hm... I really gave it everything I’ve had... But we made it it would seem.
I notice the metallic grey swarm flowing around. What the?
N - Don’t try to move. It’s okay.
I trust her and I relax. The flow goes through me I can feel it. It’s everywhere. There mustn’t be much of my human flesh left to compose me currently...
But... What are you doing to me?
N - Experimenting. I’ll admit it’s interesting.
Around me I notice bowls of food and medicinal suppliers. The swarm is flowing around everything peacefully, carrying elements and...
It’s rebuilding my body?
N - Precisely. You didn’t leave much behind. The Supremacy is also a prodigious building and construction tool. You still have no idea of what it can do truly. It can’t do the finest of works, but it can do a lot. Anyway for now, rest for a few more days while S and I rebuild you properly. Let me handle your being on the T.I. side as well for a while. You should sleep.
Okay. I trust you.
I fall into slumber and dream under her breath. I’m held body and mind by this spooky but kind big sister of mine.
~
