IDGM4 - 08 - Operation Overlord (Patreon)

The wind whistled as Maya stared into the gloomy horizon. She tapped her fingers rhythmically upon the rough roll cage of the scouter, casting occasional looks over her shoulder. The two crows, Shadow and Lost Talon, were equally quiet; their sharp eyes scanning for any sign of trouble.

They didn’t need to use their eyes, as the passive scanners would have alerted them of any changes, any motion, and any rouge AI that were moving about. But it was SIL nature to keep an eye out. A quality that was shared by all across the multiverse; use your own eyes, feel it with your own hands, breath it with your own lungs.

The System only reinforced those needs. To increase skills, one had to do it themselves. The Analyze Skill required one to see it themselves. To gain levels in combat, you had to kill it yourself. The dislike of robotics and artificial intelligences was only an extension of that. An AI could do what a SIL could do, but they couldn’t get the experience or mana from the deed. That did not mean mana could not warp ro change AIs; which was the second reason SIL across the Integrated Multiverse didn’t trust AIs.

The fears and dire warnings from movies, games, and novels that artificial intelligences would turn against their makers wasn’t fiction in the Integrated Multiverse. Mana had a habit of changing things; it disliked the biological or inanimate to be as they were. Instead, it warped cells, matter, and energy. It changed everything to be something different. In the case of artificial intelligences, they became rogue AIs.

Wars across the multiverse were fought against rogue AIs. They were something to be feared, something to hate, and something that needed to be destroyed. A Tier 1 rogue intelligence could create swarms that would overwhelm any Tier 1 world. A Tier 2 rogue AI would out maneuver and defeat most nations. The most feared were Tier 3 rogue AIs. Although in the history of the multiverse those had rarely appeared, mostly as dire warnings and tales to terrify children.

Emilia’s words rang in Maya’s thoughts. That a war of atrocities would only lead to bigger and bigger atrocities. Perhaps trying to destroy her enemies wasn’t the ideal way to bring about a peaceful like? Maya pondered the question as the scouter began to slow and came to a stop.

“We’re here, Maya,” Shadow said.

Maya glanced around at the flat plain. It didn’t look to be anywhere special, but it was between the rogue AI army and the Fleshy army.

She hopped off the scouter and grinned at the two crows. “Head back,” she said. “I’m gonna poke the bear and we’ll see what happens.”

“Bear is good eating,” Lost Talon said.

“Good hunting, Maya,” Shadow said and with that, the two began bouncing their way back to the miner.

Maya stood in the silence and took a deep breath. She glanced up at the cracked rainbow sky, wondering if she were crazy or stupid. Probably both.

The railgun was summoned and Maya began assembling its base. The crows had to be a decent distance away before she began her provocations. She tightened bolts and recalibrated the gun several times before she was satisfied that it would function correctly.

Maya disconnected the mana batter and pulled a cord from the tesseract pack she wore. It was a quick release power cable she connected to the railgun. It clicked, whirred, and she could see the huge amount of mana that the railgun could draw on.

She felt her nerves and doubts begin clamoring once more. They were noisy and annoying, but nothing new. Maya flipped on the active sensors and readied herself.

The rogue AI army was thirty kilometers out from her position. They didn’t seem to be moving into any direction, just patrolling or whatever it was that robotic armies did.

The railgun’s targeting system automatically locked onto the massive orb and fired. Six shots fired in two seconds, Maya pulled the power cord, Inventoried the railgun, and then Dimensional Skipped away. A second later the horizon erupted in light and moments afterward the spot she had occupied was erased from the RSH.

[Railgunner] Level 10

With dedication and constant practice is the key to choosing a weapon that will stand by you.

+ 15 percent more damage produced by railguns

+ 4 Physical Endurance

Maya chuckled as the notification bounced before her. She shoved it away and summoned the railgun once more. She shoved the power supply into the machine and fired as soon as it was physically possible. There was a few seconds as the gun calibrated and targeted the distant Overlord.

Return fire came swiftly and deadly, but Maya had packed up her weapon and moved once more. She skipped several hundred meters and stopped. The railgun was summoned once more and immediately began firing.

Devestation rained on her location, but the rogue AIs were too slow in their response. Maya skipped in random patterns, there was no harm in zig-zagging in case they were trying to calculate where she would set up to fire again. Randomness was the only thing she had going for her in terms of defense.

It didn’t take long for the rogue AI to determine that her jumps were measured in hundreds of meters. As Maya skipped, she saw the horizon light up with fire and the rogue AIs began saturating bombing the entire region she was in. Maya cursed and began skipping as fast as she could.

A blast hit her, stunning her sense and tossing her through a skeletal metal structure sticking out of the RSH dirt. Maya bounced and skidded, shakily getting to her feet.

An expanse stretching nearly five kilometers was nothing but charred ruin. The ground smoked and sizzled, sparking embers and destructive energies flickering in the gloomy light. There was a screech and Maya watched as scores of flying drones explode outward from the massive orb.

“Alright, Plan B,” Maya muttered. She detached the railgun’s base and kicked it aside. The massive gun was heavy in her hands, but as she had told Emilia, she was strong. Her Physical Stats were well over a hundred and that meant she could carry the railgun, ungainly and barely, but she could carry it.

“Everyone loves big fucking guns,” Maya said and began firing.

The horizon lit up once more, but she was already skipping. She reappeared, facing the flying drones and sent slugs at them. As with the bouncing scouter, her aim was spot on. Automated turrets and computer controlled weapons would have missed, she knew. But there was that System given talent that steadied her arm and adjusted her aim to send the marsani slugs into the places the drones would be, not where they were.

The drones began thinning and the orb pulled them back, sensing that they weren’t as useful as they had appeared to be. Maya skipped to a stop and panted as her scanners updated her map.

The fight for air superiority was over, it was now time to send in the ground troops. Maya watched as the rogue AIs began pounding across the plains. It was impressive and terrifying to watch as they went from sedately walking to all out sprinting in a blink of an eye.

She calculated they were moving at a hundred kilometers an hour. That was definitely far faster than she could skip.

“Well, shit,” Maya muttered. She began falling back, skipping and firing as she did so. “This was the plan, after all.” Maya chuckled bitterly as the ground around her erupted into shards of fire and destruction.

Dimensional skipping allowed her to move faster than she could run, but there was a cost to everything. Maya staggered as she gasped for breath, sweat poured down her suit and the HUD was reading she was borderline exhausted.

Grimacing, Maya allowed the auto injector to pump in the last of the potions she had left. Stanima burned through her veins and she took in ragged breath. A rumble was approaching her and she skipped again just as bombs began to fall around her. She pushed herself in the skipping, bounding across the wasteland as fast as she could, putting distance between her and the bombardments.

She was focused on escaping the rogue AI barrage, that she nearly collided with a dozen twenty foot long snakes with Tarvana riding them. She paused and stared at them, remembering Chu’s remarks about screeners and outriders.

“Hello,” Maya said and then summoned a sword. They were scouts and she didn’t need them telling the Flesh Army what was coming.

The first Tarvana began to shout something, but Maya took his head off and began tossing around grenades as she skipped about. The roar of explosions and screams filled the air and she moved back into the mass of dying snakes and Tarvana to finish off the job.

“Sorry, guys,” she said, breathing heavily. “Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Maya looked up to see that the horizon was glowing once more, this time not firepower, but the running lights of the fast moving rogue AIs. The great massive orb was falling behind, as its minions rushed forward to deal with her.

She took a breath and set up the railgun again. It thundered out its shots and she began skipping once more.

Rogue Antagonist V

Can’t we all just get along? No? Death and destruction has been wrought by your hands against rogue AIs.

They really don’t like you.

Rogue AI Taunt I

+ 5 Mental Endurance

“Great,” Maya gasped. She looked to the massive orb and focused all her thoughts on it. “Come and get me, you round fuck!”

Nothing happened for a moment, but Maya suddenly saw movement from the orb.

“Oh, shit. It worked,” she said as she watched the orb accelerate toward her. “I take it back, I don’t want you to come and get me.”

RSH dirt pounded under her boots as she ran. She skipped erratically as she moved, every moment she returned to reality the orb was closer.

Fire burned and the concussion of explosions threw Maya about. She landed onto the dirt and rolled, scrambling to her feet and skipping again. Her HUD was filled with red lights and screaming about damage, she ignored it. It would take more than a few bombs exploding in close proximity to kill her.

Maya crested a hill and looked down to see a long wall of soldiers marching in loose order. She let out a long breath of relief at the sight. The Fleshy Army.

“Hey!’ she shouted at the army.

It might not have been her voice, but her presence as a high leveled being that caught the army’s attention. But almost in unison, heads turned in her direction. She stood there atop of the hill as the Overlord arrived, its entire focus upon killing her.

Fire rained down on Maya’s location as she skipped, the fire blossomed outward, incinerating the first ranks of the Fleshy Army. Maya kept moving, the heat on her back and terrified Tarvana faces staring at her as she appeared before them.

The army was caught off guard, but they were not easily cowed. Maya noted as she skipped through their ranks, soldiers shouting and raising what looked to be rifles at the orb. Maya saw the rifles were flesh of some kind, with a long tube entering their armor. Was it powered by the soldiers or was there some kind of power pack in their armor?

The question flashed through her mind as she suddenly slammed into a wall. It wasn’t a physical one, but a wall put up with mana and skill. Maya bounced off it, her suit screaming about more damage. She collided with a Tarvana who was trying to fire at the orb. A moment of chaos later, she had five Tarvana pointing their rifles at her and screaming for her to lay down her weapons.

Maya lashed out with her sword and moved as one body fell and four fired at her. She cursed as two bright red beams hit her backside and sent her sprawling once more. She tossed a grenade and tried skipping again. Nothing. Someone was locking down the area. A dimensional mage?

Fleshy soldiers were rushing toward her, but a moment later they lay writing on the ground as a beam of green burned its way across the surface. Maya dodged and moved once more, tossing a glance behind her to see the orb was engaging the Flesh Army.

She had to get out and away.

Instead of fleeing or falling back, the Fleshies began charging forward. Their red beams lashing out against the sky and sizzling on the orb’s shields. A moment later they were joined by the heavy booming of gunfire. Maya spared a moment to watch a ball of energy several meters wide explode upon the shields of the orb, the energies covering nearly a third of the shield before vanishing. It was followed by more and more.

Maya pushed against the surging Tarvana, their narrow focus only on the orb and the fight ahead of them. No one took notice of her, even as she towered over them and wore completely different armor.

That didn’t last long as an armored figure launched itself toward her. The Fleshy was fast and deadly, carrying a long blade and a buckler on one hand. Their face was hidden behind a reflective mask, but Maya saw the deadliness in their movements.

The battle raged behind them and the Fleshies moved around them, like water flowing around a rock.

“I’m just passing through,” Maya said. “Sorry to bother!”

The figure launched themselves at Maya and she danced away, their blade crackling and clanging as they collided. Maya grimaced as she nearly lost her weapon, she really needed to practice sword fighting more. The battle with Asoltolia only proved she sucked at it.

Maya rushed forward, tossing grenades in her off hand and slashing viciously with the sword. The figure parried expertly and flashed with mana as skills and abilities were being drawn on. Maya didn’t have any of those, but she had armor and a lot of stat points. She pounded her weapon unceasingly against the figure and they went into full defensive mode, backing away and barely keeping her sword at bay.

Their focus was on her sword and they didn’t see the sawed off railgun make its appearance. Two shots thundered out and the figure crumpled as the slugs tore through their armor.

Maya tried skipping again, but couldn’t. In the chaos of the fighting, she let her scanner get to work. In a moment it highlighted a figure that was pulling mana at a good rate. Maya grinned and rushed the robed figure. They were standing surrounded by guards, but their attention was focused on the death machine hovering above them.

Two railgun slugs exploded against a mana shield, causing one of the guards to cry out and stumble as the shield was destroyed. The other guards turned to face Maya, but she threw her sword and was rewarded with a scream and a death notification of the dimensional mage.

Maya skipped away, leaving behind the weapon and snatching one from a Fleshy running toward the battle. It was a bone sword, glimmering with odd light.

Mother’s Death Brigade Commander’s Sword - high grade, Tier 1

Sharpening Enchantment

Durability Enchantment

Double Damage Enchantment

Not a Flesh Army then, but a Death Brigade. Maya almost laughed at the name, but was silenced when a figure took a swing at her.

She parried with the sword and slashed, eliciting a cry of pain before she skipped away. She materialized and was slugged in the head by what felt like a wall of marsani. Her feet lifted off the ground and she was hit again before she could hit the dirt.

Alarms were screaming again and Maya coughed blood as she slammed into a wall of soldiers and bowled them over. Blood, viscera, and screaming filled her ears as she realized her helmet had been destroyed.

A giant foot crashed down as she rolled away, slicing with her new sword. There was a screech as the bone weapon hit something harder than it and a spray of sparks filled the gloomy air. The unfortunate soldiers who cushioned her fall were ground into the dirt.

Maya skipped away as fist flashed toward her. She immediately ducked as a blade hissed toward her head. She skipped again and was met with a meaty fist that smashed into her exposed face. She could feel bones break and teeth shatter, hot blood rushed down and she staggered back. Without hesitation she skipped again, skewered the first person she saw and then skipped once more.

Three hot beams burned at her breastplate, as she tried to orientate herself. The pain flashed briefly before she skipped again, changing her heading. She slashed at a soldier lifting its weapon toward her and took their hands. She dodged a beam of light and stabbed another through the chest, ripping the sword out and most of his left torso.

The Heavy Hitter didn’t appear again and Maya breathed a sigh of relief as she skipped away from the battle. She could see more soldiers rushing into the fight, the massive orb was firing on the army, but also was getting pounded by distant guns.

Maya wanted to watch for a bit, but she had barely escaped. She dropped her damaged armor and skipped away as fast as she could.

With a few kilometers separating her from the fight, Maya slowed down and flopped onto a pile of bones. The fragile bones cracked and shattered, but held her weight.

“Shit,” she said, wincing as the bones in her face readjusted themselves with a painful pop. She could already feel the nubs of several teeth regrowing. She spat blood into the dirt and took a long swallow of water.

In the distance the thundering of fighting was still growing, a crescendo of explosions and bright lights. She could make out the rest of the rogue AI army moving in, their lighting pace slamming into the wall that was the Death Brigade.

Maya began trotting westward, occasionally glancing back at the battle that raged.

Dimensional Skip V

You can move up to 250 meters in any direction.

Threshold reached for Dimensional Teleportation

Maya hurried along.

***

“Why, System, why!” Maya cried out to the uncaring cracked rainbow sky. Though she figured she should have directed it to the dirt, since she was technically walking on the System itself.

No answer came, which was normal.

Was it coincidence or some residue of Taunt remaining, or perhaps it was a ember of anger and rage that drove the orb to abandon its fight and seek her out. Maya watched as a trail of fire, smoke, and destruction began heading in her direction.

Two hours had passed and it seemed the battle had run its course. Maya didn’t know who won and barely cared. She had blunted the two armies and that would give her people a chance at survival. What she wasn’t counting on was the overlord to seek her out and personally squash her after the battle.

Maya pulled the heavy railgun out once more and began firing and skipping. She moved with all haste toward the Trash Valley. If she could make it, perhaps the combined power of the miner and Chu’s railguns could do some damage.

The shields blossomed along the curvature of the orb, even though she could see heavy damage to its interiors, the shields had reformed. Small pops of explosions erupted along its circumference, shedding metal and material as it wobbled in its flight toward her. The thing was on its last legs, Maya realized.

Even a wounded bear is still dangerous. She fired at the overlord and it fired back. A spray of missiles and hot beams of laser fire. Maya skipped but she was still caught in the shockwave, her foot slipped and she managed to skip again, this time face plating into the wrecked hull of some machine.

Maya cursed and skipped again as the world around her blossomed with fire. She fired and fired, watching as slugs bloomed along the shield. The thing was nearly dead, if she could only-

A hot beam lanced beside her, one moment there was only gloomy light and the next Maya screamed as exposed parts of her body were flash fired by the laser blast. She stumbled and saw that the railgun was melted slag. She tossed it and glared at the overlord.

“Just die already!” she screamed.

She balled up her rage and anger, she felt the eddies of the dimensional space around her and around the overlord. If she could cross the distance, she could do some damage. But the shields were still up and that would be a barrier.

Maya cursed and skipped away. Beams and explosions followed her as she tried to skip as fast as she could. She was already exhausted and there was a limit to how many dimensional skips she had left. Soon exhaustion would be her demise.

She hit her wall five minutes later. She tried skipping and made it only ten meters before flopping onto the ground. She rolled and got back to her feet and watched as the orb unsteadily made its way toward her.

Maya sighed and reloaded her sawed off railgun. She clipped it onto her harness and tightened her grip on the sword she had stolen.

Perhaps the overlord had a sense of the dramatic as it lumbered before her, still smoking and sparking, but facing off against her. A tiny speck of a woman to it’s half a kilometer wide structure.

“Any last words!” Maya yelled out, forcing a grin on her face. “Any next of kin?”

Instead of firing upon her, Maya watched as the Overlord opened a hatch and a dozen machines were released. The machines hit the earth and righted themselves, their heavily armored bodies rising in a cloud of dust. Maya could practically sense the menace oozing off of them.

“This is how you want to do it?” Maya demanded. “Then let’s do this!” She rushed forward.

There was a sudden explosion that flared against the shields of the Overlord. Maya gaped as she saw the omni-miner suddenly appear out of the shadow, all of its railguns firing. The barrage of railgun fire rocked the overlord, causing the heavy drones to pause in their attack.

Her sawed off railgun took the head off of one and her sword bisected a second. Maya was a whirlwind among the robots as the miner laid down fire upon the overlord. She caught a glance of a bright blue beam flashing out and crackling against the shields of the overlord.

The Pulse Disprutor that Tender had been building. They finished it.

It was followed by a hail of railgun fire that began slamming into the exterior of the overlord. Maya grinned and kicked aside a rushing robot. The shields were down.

She grabbed the eddies and flow of dimensional space, she forced her will on it, she was a Tier fucking 2 being and the universe would obey her commands.

The Overlord was an undersized version of a hiveship. It had to be, with the AI core hidden in the middle of the entire structure. Maya grabbed onto the memories of the hiveship and the sight before her. She felt the world wrench around her and she was in a dark and cold space.

Dimensional Teleportation I

You can teleport up to 5 kilometers in any direction.

She nearly vomited when she reappeared in a narrow hall filled with the acrid stench of burning plastic. A metallic figure rushed at her, but she shot it and pushed forward. She summoned a terminal into her hand and stripped a panel from the wall, plugging in leads and cables.

Maya grinned as she saw she wasn’t far form the core. The overlord must have sensed her presence for the lightning changed and a low alarm began whooping.

“Repel boarder!” Maya yelled as she cut down a drone. It dropped a rifle and she snapped it up. A dozen battle drones rounded the corner and she threw a pulse grenade then waded into the twisted metal to burn them with the laser fire.

The overlord went into lockdown, heavy blast doors and shielding began to fall into place around it. It was closing itself off from harm. Maya grinned at that. Its what the Hiveship tried to do too.

But she wasn’t after the mind. It was only one part of the ship. A brain was only useful as long as it could communicate with the rest of its body. Maya skidded to a stop before a wall of components and lights.

She pulled her terminal out once again and got to work. She couldn’t defeat the mind just yet, but she could cut it off from everything. She could take control of everything. She disengaged the weapons, dropped the remaining shields, and sent an all clear to the combat drones.

She could feel the overlord trying to fight against her intrusion, but she had done this before. She knew what she was doing. One by one she snipped away at its power. She managed to access the propulsion system and laughed as it sluggishly responded to her commands.

***

The massive orb shuddered in the sky and began moving. Chu stared at it and could say nothing as it moved toward the valley’s entrance. The massive half a kilometer ball fell from the sky and crashed to the ground. A massive plume of dust and explosions blasted outward, flaring against the mana shield Emilia had erected.

The crew of the miner stood there in shocked silence.

“Did it just plug up the valley?” Chu asked.

“I think it did,” Sostanio replied.

“How the fuck are we supposed to get back in then?” Chu demanded.

***

Maya limped out of the smoke and fire, her armor wrecked, the tesseract barely holding on by a strap, and dried blood smeared across her body. Half of her face was charred from the laser blast and so was her arms and torso. She grinned as she saw Chu and the others, a gap of missing teeth ruining the moment.

“Fancy meeting y’all here,” she said.

She walked a few more steps before she face planted into the ground.