Tron 2.31 - Pipeline.

Jet continued to watch as the Datawraith patrol reversed direction to investigate the reactivation of the communications beam to the Terminus. They were at least fifteen cycles, minutes as Jet counted them, away from return at the distance that they were at.

“So now they know we’re here, Sir?” The Section Leader asked Jet.

“No, Section, I think they know the beam was activated from the system side, although they know someone is around and probably suspect we’re here.” Jet said.

“If we conceal ourselves once again, then they will reach the beam shutdown point before the transport arrives,” said the Section leader.

Jet thought about it for a moment.

“What happens if the beam is shut down before the transport arrives?” Jet asked.

“The transport routine crashes,” said the Section leader.

Jet cursed the actions of some of the earlier programmers. Why couldn’t they have written these routines with a more packet oriented protocol?

Jet watched through the LOL. The Datawraiths were picking up their pace, although only half had moved back into view so far. He tried to hold the LOL on one and fired a shot. It went wide, missing by half the Datawraith’s length.

“Sir, our position is compromised,” said the Section leader, his tone halfway between annoyance and confusion.

“Section, we need to get their heads down. Slow their approach. They don’t know how many of us there are, but if they think we might ambush them, then they will have to approach more slowly. Right now, we’re trying to get them the two hundred and twenty or so cycles you tell me we need for reinforcements to arrive.” Jet explained.

His shot, though wide, had the desired effect. The Datawraiths were all moving behind cover while they considered their strategy.

“A reasonable strategy, Sir,” said the Section leader, understanding, although from his tone, Jet realized he understood this meant theirs was a suicide mission. There was no way they could slow down such a large enemy force without being destroyed, although as Jet said, what they really needed was more time.

Then, almost beneath Jet’s hearing the Section leader said. “And that will be two hundred and seventy six cycles before arrival”

Jet looked back at the Section leader.

“My maths is off then?” he asked the Section leader.

The Section leader looked back, seemed to weigh his options, then asked “Permission to speak freely, Sir?”

Jet twisted to better see him, lowering the LOL for a moment.

“Go ahead, Section, there’s no reason for you not to speak freely to me. Jade is your commander – not me.”

The Section leader made a face almost like a smile.

“If I didn’t know you’re a user, I’d think there was something wrong with your arithmetic routines. Do all users have trouble with trivial calculations?” the Section leader asked.

Jet smiled. If he had been a commanding officer, even given the request, the action would have almost been insubordination.

“Section, where we come from, it’s all Analogue – Something you don’t understand. We measure precision by different standards in the real world. That’s why we created computers and programs – they do the maths for us, although we are capable of getting our figures correct if we need to, although we’re just not that good at it.”

The Section leader seemed to be absorbing the comment, so Jet continued.

“And that’s why the Datawraiths behave differently from expected and why we’re going to survive this and hold this position, Section.” Jet added.

The Section leader continued to think about it. “Well, Sir, the precision of a LOL makes it useful out to about thirty two thousand, seven hundred and sixty eight divisions, but those Datawraiths you took a shot at were at a range of between fifty and seventy thousand divisions, so there’s no way for it to coordinate the sighting routines with the aiming routines.” The Section leader said.

The number hit Jet like a brick. 32768 – Decimal equivalent of the maximum signed binary integer for a four-byte value. The accuracy of the shot was tied to the routines – the LOL was a closed loop weapon.

Jet placed his palm against the LOL, then closing his eyes dropped into the code layer. As his vision cleared and the code danced before his eyes, Jet found the source. Although it was locked to a four-byte code, there was no reason to be signed. He adjusted the code and removed the sign bit, extending the directional amplification routines, then closed the code, his hotfix still in place.

“Sir?” asked the Section leader. He had obviously asked a question while Jet was engaged in reprogramming his weapon.

“Sorry, Section, Can you please repeat that?” Jet asked.

“I said would you like us to deploy a defensive line across the perimeter?” The section leader asked.

Jet re-sighted the LOL, then zoomed. The sight zoomed a little further now, letting Jet spot a Datawraith hiding behind cover and another coming over the top of some debris from a position out of view. Jet lined up the LOL on the head of the Datawraith that was coming over the debris and carefully squeezed of a shot.

This one didn’t go wide. It took the Datawraith directly in the head, derezzing him in one. Even without a zoom capability, the Section leader noticed it.

“How did you do that, Sir?” he asked.

Jet handed him the LOL.

“Section, I want you to harass the enemy. Keep their heads down and engage targets of opportunity. Conserve ammunition too, but I think that we may be able to slow them more than you expected.” Jet said as he passed the weapon over.

“Meanwhile, I’m taking the section into the debris. We need to close with the Datawraith and keep them from approaching. We can fall back, but it’s going to cost them time, which is something I need to do at the moment. If we’re lucky, by the time they realize we’ve already got a transport on the way, it will be too late to stop it.” He concluded.

The section leader looked through the scope, adjusted it, then looked back at Jet.

“This LOL has modified code,” he said. “This shouldn’t be possible. Is this the power of a user?”

Jet smiled.

“No, the real power we users have is that we don’t do the Math’s, so we don’t know that we’re going to lose and sometimes, we can take on a force that should be capable of stopping us and we win.” Jet said.

The Section leader smiled back fully now.

“Then I think we should show the Datawraiths that we have a user also, now, Sir,” he said, then returned to sighting the weapon.

Jet shuffled off the platform and returned to the Terminus area where the others were waiting.

“Alchemist, the Datawraiths are coming. I need you to protect the shell,” Jet called out, his cry bringing in the others.

“How many?” Mercury asked.

“At least thirty, I expect,” Jet said.

Ma3a looked out to where the beam struck out.

“If they take this platform, they can shut down the beam.” She pointed out.

A LOL shot crackled in the background. Jet guessed that if the Section leader could aim, that another Datawraith just fell. That made twenty nine.

“Which is why we need to delay them,” Jet said. “They’re expecting program tactics, so we’re going to use something they won’t be as familiar with.”

“Something they don’t know?” Mercury asked.

Alchemist turned and walked in the direction of the shell, accepting her orders already.

“Something they would know well, but it works in our world as well. We only need a little time, and they will be nervous to attack in force with limited numbers this close to system shutdown. We call it guerilla tactics.

“Basically, we hit them and fall back. We fire at them then escape. We can’t stop many, but we can slow them all down,” Jet explained.

One of the ICPs rubbed his chin. It was a conscript. “I haven’t heard of such tactics, but I can see how it would delay them. I know we’ve done well with the Datawraiths ourselves, but look how few of us remain.”

Jet looked around. They were quite small in number now. The Datawraiths had been effective in cutting them down even if they had made it this far.

“And it will work well against them for the same reason that their tactics have worked so well against programs in the past. And although we can’t stop them, we can slow them and we can reduce their numbers.

“ It will take some time for them to bring in reinforcements, but by that time, we should have ours as well.” Jet said.

The programs seemed hesitant, but Mercury and Alchemist both took up weapons and moved behind Jet. Ma3a also floated over and stood beside him. Jet turned to Alchemist and realized she intended to fight.

“Alchemist, you need to stay out of this one. If we’re derezzed, your mission needs to go on.” Jet said.

“And if yours is not successful, then I calculate that the odds of my completing mine are near enough to zero that I wouldn’t divide by them.” She reasoned. “I will fight.”

Jet looked to the ICPs then back to her.

“Alchemist, we may be successful yet, but if you are damaged or derezzed, then we still fail.” Jet pointed out.

Alchemist withdrew her rod primitive.

“Then find me something to do that helps without exposing me to undue danger,” she reasoned.

One of the ICPs pushed another gently in the shoulder.

“Program, I’m not about to let a babetron do the fighting for me. I may want to see my cycles continue, but I’m not that thinly timesliced.”

He walked over to stand with Jet.

“User Damn It,” said the other ICP, then walked over to stand beside Jet as well. The other ICPs all moved in. “Well, I mean, I guess we have a user with us so we can’t lose right,” added the offending ICP to cover his blasphemy.

“No offence taken, program,” said Jet smiling. “Alchemist, hand me your rod.”

Alchemist passed over her rod primitive to Jet.

Jet placed his hands on it and felt for the code, which bared itself before his scrutiny as all the others had done.

Alchemist’s rod primitive was different from his. It had a far larger source of energy to draw upon, but otherwise, had little in it except for baton and staff modes of operation – essentially targeted delete and a blocking function to deletion.

Recalling the memory traversal routines, Jet modified the rod primitive coding to allow it to traverse memory in a much wider function, added some feedback routines, which would make sighting much easier, then rebuilt the routines with large integers.

It was more coding in that brief time than Jet had ever attempted during his time in this world. He wasn’t just flipping a bit or resetting a variable this time.

He was completely reprogramming the device from the ground up.

He was programming this world from this inside.

When he finished, he flicked the rod primitive with his band, causing it to come apart wildly then reform into something resembling a LOL. He handed the rod over the Alchemist.

“Head over beside the Section Leader and cover him. You’ll be safe there, but very helpful to us. See if this helps.” Jet gave her orders.

As Alchemist took back the weapon, her usually hard expression changed to one of awe then fear.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“It’s a user thing,” Jet mentioned almost dismissively, then realized that the programs around him were staring at him, backing off a little. For a moment he was worried he had made a big mistake, then realized Mercury and Ma3a remained close.

“Is something the matter?” asked Jet.

All of the ICPs fell to one knee, as did Alchemist.

Mercury stepped forward and spoke to Jet quietly. “In our beliefs, there are two kinds of users. There are the users that we serve, and the users who create.”

Jet thought about it briefly. A user could be anyone – even someone who didn’t know and understand about computers. They made changes to programs, but all were simple – flag level options.

The sort of options and changes that Jet had been making.

The same sort of changes Jet had made to Jade back when she was about to derez in the cellblock. Mercury had been there too – had been surprised, but even then, had already known Jet was a special sort of user.

The other type of user.

A programmer.

All users were sacred to programs, but programmers held a special tier in their belief system. The programmers were the ones who created the programs – who created the very being that Jet was now with.

He realized the irony then had the programs known of Jet’s mother’s spirit locked away in Ma3a, sentenced to deresolution by order of the Kernel until Jet had arrived and the warrant been lifted.

She was again a user beyond him. She may not have been the programmer that Jet was – that he got from his father – but she was the one who created this world with Walter Gibbs. If Jet’s kind gave birth to programs, his mother had given birth to world.

Just thinking about her made Jet’s stomach knot as he remembered how recently he had been with her once more. Like a gift from the gods, given so whimsically then snatched away.

He put it out of his mind.

“Programs, you know that I am a user, so is this really so suprising?” Jet asked.

The ICPs were all looking at the ground now. Even Alchemist’s face showed signs of shame. Jet started with her. He kneeled down in front of her, putting his face in front of hers so she couldn’t look down, so she looked aside.

Jet placed his hand against her cheek and slowly brought her face around. He didn’t smile, not blink. This could be a serious issue if the programs started to assume him to be some kind of meta-god in their world.

“Alchemist, your user is a programmer also,” Jet said, “As is the user she has entrusted you to safekeep. Likewise, I am here to ensure also that she is safe.

“There is nothing special about me – In here I’m just a program, just like you. When a user comes to this world, we lose our power mostly, although we gain some others.”

Mercury put his hand on Jet’s shoulder.

“No Jet, you’re not just a program, you’re a user and you’re the only one who seems to know what’s going to happen to us all and you’re the only user fighting to save us. A lot happened during the time the users were away and a lot of programs lost faith in the users.

“And I don’t think most of the programs here realized you’re not just a user, but a programmer.” Mercury explained.

“That makes a difference?” Jet asked.

Mercury nodded.

“We serve users, but we were created by programmers. We believe programmers are special users who gave us life, who brought this world into existence. It is from our creators that we take our name of programs.”

Jet looked around at those who were suddenly deferring to him. He needed them to get over the awe this seemed to cause amongst them. He decided not to explain the irony of how the programmers had received their term from writing programs.

“Programs, we need to move now. OK, so I’m a programmer. Get over it. Right now we need to hold those Datawraiths at bay while Jade brings in reinforcements.

The programs looked around, clumsily, then all rose to their feet. Jet looked to the Section leader, who nodded in approval at Jet’s choice of words.

“Then let’s go,” Jet said, then started to walk down the ramp and into the rubble area between the intersector terminal and the Terminus.

Mercury fell in right behind him, giving him the air of someone with authority.

The other programs fell right it.

Mercury moved swiftly past Jet as he watched the path she had come from for Datawraith activity as they approached the location they thought the main force would be coming down. The Datawraiths were fast and hard to see, but needed to stop and decloak to fire or act, and for that period, they were pretty much sitting ducks.

But ducks didn’t usually fire back, so they were still lethal and Jet needed to approach with caution.

Presently, the best advantage that the small group of programs-turned-guerilla’s had was that they knew fairly well exactly where the enemy was located, even in this maze – the infrequent LOL shots overhead giving a good idea.

Jet knew that the LOL snipers – both the section leader and Alchemist, were lethally accurate and adjusted his approach to give them a clear shot at any Datawraiths they might encounter as far as possible.

Mercury approached a corner, looked around, then came back within cover, making eye contact with Jet then touched her nose at the side – the signal for Datawraiths.

“We need to close as much as we can before we hit them and run, close enough to smell them”, Jet had told them as they moved into the field beyond the Terminus.

Nobody understood what he was talking about. None of them had a sense of smell, so to some extent, Jet was surprised that they even had noses, but then even human smell wasn’t as advanced as it once had been. He reminded himself these programs only looked as they did due to residual self image contained within the quantum data that comprised each of them. Some had less than others and looked less human, but all appeared at least humanoid.

Still, the sign he showed them was as good as any, and Mercury had placed them just around the corner.

Jet nodded, then passed the sign back, causing the ICPs to slow and approach more cautiously. Jet checked directly behind and saw that the path they were on had a clear line of sight back to the Section Leader and Alchemist, who were now both in different locations near the Terminus giving slightly different lines of fire.

The programs around Jet remained motionless waiting for a signal from Jet, each prepared for combat with a far more dangerous foe.

Looking back on them, Jet realized each of them was low on energy from the ambush, but each stood with him, prepared to face deresolution at the hands of an enemy that Jet didn’t fully comprehend himself yet.

Jet was just preparing to fire when a Datawraith walked, still crouching, out into the open area next to them, looked up and locked vision with Jet, freezing in position as the purple foe realized what he had just walked into.

Slowly, with no one moving, his masked eyes seemed to flick from each of them then back to Jet.

For what seemed an eternity, but what was certainly only fractions of a cycle, the group remained locked as if paused, neither willing to move, then the Datawraith made a grab for the triangular primitive attached to his hip.

His fingers never made it before two disks, three blasters and a LOL converged on his location, each driving through the purple armor for an instant combined kill, regardless of how much armor he had at that point.

As the purple vapors drifted up, Jet and his team leapt out into the open area where beyond, the surprised Datawraiths were still tracking the LOL shots from the Terminus. Many faces turned to watch them, but none of them managed to aim their weapons before bolts of blue and rains of red showered into them along with two unblockable disks that derezzed two datawraiths as they stood.

No sooner had they fired into their stunned opponents than the blue and red programs disappeared back the way they came into the debris field.

Jet hazarded a look behind to make sure Mercury was with him, when he saw a slightly larger Datawraith round the corner, lifting his blaster as Jet read off his stats with an impressive level of armor.

Dodging to the side, Jet grabbed Mercury and flung her sideways as a purple rain showered the place she had been standing. She came down hard, tangling with Jet as she did, bringing the two of them to a halt, their hears coming up against a block of debris that still had sharp defining lines, their view directly of the Datawraith who was adjusting his aim to bring his weapon to bear on the two downed programs.

Jet instinctively placed his arm across Mercury’s chest, expecting to feel the rain of purple as a blue and red beam lanced out from above their heads, each making a perfect headshot, causing the datawraith to flip over backwards, spinning up and out as it derezzed.

A second Datawraith appeared around the corner, but pulled their head in as a loose LOL beam came in overhead from the Terminus, blowing a small hole out of a sphere primitive behind him.

Jet took a moment to untangle himself from his partner before they both scampered back to the small unit to prepare to hide briefly before making another attack, their retreat covered by the digital snipers who now had command of much of the field.

Ma3a pulled Jet and Mercury into a thin corridor, where they took a moment to get their breath back. Jet looked over at Mercury who looked into his eyes also, and a smile spread across her lips, showing him the true warrior within the program – the almost reckless spirit that he now realized was what he had fallen in love with during his previous visit.

“That was close,” he said, facing Mercury, but then to the others, “But we succeeded. They’re going to have to think twice about each move they make now, and that’s going to slow them down. If we slow them down enough, then reinforcements are going to arrive and we can take them on and fight our way out of here.”

One of the ICPs nodded.

“We’re with you either way, Sir,” it said.

Jet smiled himself now, realizing it was the heat of digital battle that suited him so well. It had suited him well on the outside and now it suited him well in this world, and he was suited to it as well.

And it gave him something else to think about at the moment, rather than his mother, each time he looked at Ma3a, although he wasn’t entirely sure what he felt about her at the moment.

The ICP section moved away into the debris field to begin the slow process of circling around their opponents.

Manny paid the Cab driver, who gave him change and left without another word. The driver had tried to make conversation several times, but gave up in the end after realizing Manny wasn’t going to respond to anything other than a direct question.

Manny had been polite enough, but wasn’t sure what was going on and didn’t really want to discuss it with someone else.

He walked up to the lady at the counter of the airline ticket agency, who fixed him with a stare, then asked what she could help him with.

Manny took out the envelope that Flynn had left as a part of the instructions, and gave it across to the lady. She read the name printed neatly on the cover, then directed Manny to sit over on the side of the terminal where there were some seats and to wait a while.

The boy nodded, then sat where he expected to and watched as the lady walked back behind the baggage counter and through a door.

There was a short wait before a sharply dressed man in airline ground-staff uniform came out and walked over to where he sat.

“Manny Gurimin?” he asked.

Manny nodded. The man crouched so as to bring him eye level to the same height as Manny’s.

“Hi Manny, my name’s Peter. My Uncle said you’re heading to Canada to visit him. Are you a friend of his?”

Manny shook his head, which succeeded in getting a questioning look from the man in front of him.

“He’s more a friend of my friend, but I’m waiting there for my friend to arrive.” Manny said, being honest and following the instructions from the envelope.

“Your friend?” asked Peter.

“Alan,” said Manny.

“Doctor Bradley?” said Peter.

Manny wasn’t sure what to make of the question. Had the police been there for Flynn, Alan and his father? Would the man here know?

“Do you know him?” asked Manny.

“Jet, his son, and I used to know each other,” said Peter, then paused, as if remembering something, before continuing. “Anyway, you can’t travel alone on these flights at your age. There’s a lot of new rules now about who can travel.”

Peter Gibbs took a small two way radio from his belt and twisted a knob on top before putting it to his lips.

“Security, Entry here.” he said into it.

A crackly voice came over the device. “Entry, Security, go ahead.”

“Security, is Carol up there?” he asked.

Manny started to feel a cold sweat form on his back, even in this warm terminal. It was early in the morning now and he was tired and every sound outside made him feel jumpy.

“Entry, Carol’s at gate four. Should we ask her to come to Entry?”

Peter looked at Manny, who was doing his best to look bored, although he must have looked a little scared too.

“Negative, Security, I’ll go there – let her know I’m coming.” Peter said.

“Entry, Willco,” came the reply, then Peter twisted the knob on his radio again and clipped it back to his belt.

“Don’t worry, the flight crew on the Canada run should be able to help you. Let’s go see a friend of mine and find out what she can do to help.”

Peter got up and beckoned Manny to follow. Manny checked the zip on his backpack then spun it around as he put it on his back and followed the man.

Peter led Manny back to the counter and through the airport security door to the rest of the terminal.

Flynn felt the helicopter lift off and for a moment, felt like he was falling and felt the panic rise in him, then heard a slight cry from Alison and realized he wasn’t the worst off here.

His shoulder still hurt and he was starting to get a headache. His wrists felt almost numb from the cuffs and his vision was still obscured by the bag he wore over his head.

But the voice he had heard before they loaded them into the helicopter would likely be around here.

“Hello Ed,” called out Flynn to the blackness. “It’s been a while.”

“No talking,” came the warning from the same voice he had heard in the van.

Then there was a pause and the familiar voice appeared directly to Flynn’s left, surprising him and causing him to turn his head suddenly.

“Hello Flynn,” came Dillinger’s voice, muted by the sound of the helicopter they were in. Flynn heard a door slide, then as it shut, the noise subsided slightly, some of the frequencies muted now.

“You shouldn’t have come back, Flynn,” Dillinger said, bringing back old memories that Flynn hadn’t expected.

“Yeah? Well I guess I had my reasons. Of course, I’m wondering what the secret CEO of F-Con is doing here holding me a prisoner, but then, I guess you always figured yourself to be above the law for as long as I can remember.” Flynn said.

There was a pause in Dillinger’s response and a tenseness in the tone that even in this Helicopter, Flynn didn’t miss.

“You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Flynn. This isn’t about a few games anymore. There are bigger players involved, people you really don’t want to upset.” Dillinger said.

Flynn waited a moment as he considered his words carefully.

“I’ve beaten you before,” said Flynn.

There was an even longer pause from Dillinger this time in the conversation, before his old nemesis responded.

“It’s not me you’re up against this time,” Dillinger said.

Flynn sat back quietly as he considered what he had just been told.

For some reason that he couldn’t put his finger on, it scared him.

Jet ducked behind cover as a barrage of purple rain came in around him, putting his back to the damaged cube primitive as he did.

Ma3a floated down beside him, packing her huge frame into an impressively small area as she did so.

“Ma3a, there’s not lines of fire anymore for the Section and Alchemist. We need to fall back to the Terminus now or we’re all going to be derezzed.” Jet called out.

Mercury came around a corner on her knees and hands, half skidding to a stop.

“We’re still outnumbered, Jet, and they just took down another ICP,” she said.

Jet looked out at the rubble before him. He had taken the ICPs down so casually before, but now each time one was derezzed, it felt like he had lost a friend.

“Who’s left?” he asked.

“Just the conscript from Sector nine,” said Mercury.

Jet nodded, then pointed out to the Terminus.

“Mercury, I need you to let the Section leader and Alchemist know we’re pulling back, and to get to the far side of the Terminus to cover us while we run across the face. We need to pull back to the other side before the Datawraiths take us all down,” Jet said.

Mercury nodded, then moved away. Moments later, Jet jumped back up and let loose a disc at an approaching Datawraith who was almost close enough to engage them directly. He saw Jet coming and began to move to Stealth mode, but the disc caught him high and flipped him over backwards as he derezzed.

“I don’t think we got more than half of these guys,” said Jet, moving backwards as quickly as he could while Ma3a picked up two triangle primitives and began providing cover fire.

“I believe we’ve derezzed thirteen of them,” said Ma3a. “Which gives us the higher kill-death ratio if you consider it.”

Jet took a moment to look at Ma3a as he walked backwards. Her personality was changing. Some of the more human aspects she had once exhibited were now more machinelike then before.

Jet moved around a primitive to his rear and saw the conscript hiding there.

He grabbed the conscript by the shoulder and pulled him up.

“No time to sit there, program, you need to withdraw now. We’ll provide you cover fire,” Jet said.

The conscript’s face was frozen with fear now, fully realizing he was the last ICP of his section, with the exception of the Sector commander, however Jet’s orders cut through his fear and he moved back under control, taking occasional shots at Datawraiths that did little to slow them down.

“I did not calculate we could hold them this long,” said Ma3a, her shots slightly more effective, but the Datawraiths had changed their tactics now and were aloof to the threat from the snipers.

“How much longer before the transport could arrive, Ma3a?” said Jet, halting just before the ramp to the Terminus.

“Eleven cycles have transpired since T0 for arrival,” said Ma3a.

“What!” exclaimed Jet. “Why isn’t it here?”

“T0 is a calculated minimum time. Without knowing when the transport transmittion initiated, we can’t calculate arrival time.” Ma3a said.

“So why would they delay getting here?” Jet called to her, stepping out to retrieve his disc and resetting the sequencer.

“Protocol preamble, Buffer time, Lack of push bit setting,” said Ma3a. “If you give me an error code, I can adjust predicted arrival times.”

“I think it’s time we got out of here,” said Jet, turning and running up the ramp, as Ma3a floated up behind him, both arms extended with triangle primitives laying down a barrage of blaster fire than kept many of the Datawraiths behind cover.

Ma3a took a few hits herself, but her armor held and as they disappeared over the top, Jet gained enough height to see something he wished he hadn’t.

Barely further away than he had been about thirty cycles ago – possibly only three to four cycles without fire – was a wave of Datawraiths coming at them – not just the eighteen or so remaining, but Datawraith reinforcements of dozens – possibly more than a hundred, and they were moving up fast.

Jet continued to run onto the platform, then turned to Ma3a as she moved behind what little cover the slope change offered them.

“Did you see that?” he called out.

“See what?” she called back.

“The other Datawraiths,” called Jet, now up again and moving to the far side of the Terminus.

“I saw one hundred and twenty seven reinforcements,” Ma3a called out.

“And that doesn’t surprise you?” Jet said as they ran, although most of the effort appeared to be his.

“That seems like a suitable number,” Ma3a said.

Jet shook his head.

“You’re different, now, Ma3a.” he called to her.

“My quantitative qualities have realigned slightly with the loss of Lora,” said Ma3a.

“It shows,” said Jet.

“I feel as though I would prefer her continued existence,” said Ma3a, surprising Jet with the humanness of the comment.

“Yeah, I miss her too,” he said, trying not to think about it at a time like this.

They reached the far side and caught up with Alchemist and the Section leader. Mercury and the last remaining ICP were there also. There were only six remaining altogether now, three of the ICPs being killed during the delaying action against the Datawraiths.

“Sir, your orders,” came the Section leader.

“We only have a few moments before the Datawraiths arrive,” Jet said. “So we might need to head deep into the debris and find another way to the out of band connection.”

The Section leader looked out towards where the beam terminated into infinity.

“Do you think the Transport will arrive before the Datawraiths reach the control functions?” The section leader asked Jet, as he pointed in the direction of the beam.

Something flickered at the end of the beam.

“Alchemist, hand me the LOL for a moment,” Jet said, then retrieved the weapon as she offered it.

Jet dialed up maximum resolution and looked out towards where the beam went.

Sitting nearly at the limit of the LOL’s zoom, Jet could see three lumps on the beam.

“Section, hold that order, we need to hold them off, but we can’t risk the others yet.

“Alchemist, Mercury, take the shell into the rubble where we had it last time. You can reach it behind cover and it won’t show up as something all that unusual where it was. Then hold the near positions we identified last time in case you need to provide cover fire.

“Ma3a,” Jet said, then looked at the remaining ICP soldier. The conscript application was almost shaking with fear and didn’t seem to know what to do. Jet was about to address him when he realized he didn’t know his name. He froze for a moment, realizing how little he knew about the ICPs that had given their codespace for him so far.

Jet stepped over to the program. “Program, what’s your function.” He asked.

Through Jet’s own functions, he could already see that the program was a basic executable that performed simple checks on data, but this was the last survivor of the section.

“I perform diffie-helmann checks on data, Sir,” said the program quietly. “At least I did before the users stopped communicating with us. I don’t really have a user designation, Sir.”

Jet nodded. “Crypto, then, is your user Designation.”

The ICPs face brightened a little. “Sir, Thankyou Sir,” he said, stiffening a little as he did.

“Crypto, I want you and Ma3a to head back to the original location we waited in the first time, and prepare defenses in case we need to retreat all the way back into the rubble.” Jet said.

“Sir, Thankyou sir,” said the ICP, seeming to take pride in his new designation. “I’ll try to live up to your expectations.”

“Section,” started Jet, checking the load on his LOL, “We’re going to hold back any Datawraiths that try to make it to the control function API before they can shut down the beam. This is our only chance.”

The Section likewise checked his load.

“ I have around nine shots left, Sir, and you?” he asked.

The others moved out as they spoke.

“I’ve got twelve left, Section,” Jet said.

“How many Datawraiths are there left Sir?” asked the Section leader.

Jet realized he hadn’t known about the new waves of Datawraiths coming through.

“They have their reinforcements already Section – It’s all we can do to hold them back for as long as possible.

Jet looked over the area they were defending.

“Anyway, Section, you take the lower platform and I’ll climb up to that platform there and we’ll stop as many as we can. If I think you have the shot, I’ll hold, so let’s make each shot count.”

The Section leader ran quickly to his location and lay prone, waiting for any Datawraiths to appear as Jet moved out of the Terminus briefly to find a way to climb to a higher position in the mostly open area.

He had almost reached the top when he heard the first report of the Section leader’s weapon and noticed the red beam lance out across the Terminus receiving port.

It wasn’t a kill shot, but it did knock the Datawraith back over and it also got the other heads down, now they knew they were under sniper fire once more.

One Datawraith stood up and let loose a barrage of purple fire in the Section leader’s direction, but it lacked directional strength and the Section leader, as depleted as he was, was still able to take the fire and deliver a derezzing blow to the offending Datawraith.

Jet lay himself down on the platform and sighted through the LOL. The Datawraiths had moved behind cover now, but would sometimes move, although they were not out of cover long enough to draw a bead on.

Jet glanced out to the end of the beam. The transports were visible directly now, three in a row on a single beam. Looking back through the scope, Jet noticed one of the Datawraiths briefly break cover and point. They saw the transport also.

A heavily stealthed Datawraith crept up the ramp and moved towards the control room, where they could access the API to allow them to shut down the beam. After a moment, the Section leader didn’t fire, so Jet assumed he couldn’t see through the cloaking as he could. Jet lowered the crosshairs and a blue beam shot forth, taking the stealthed Datawraith in the head and derezzing him as he decloaked and fell forward.

Jet glanced over at the Section leader who looked back and gave a strange motion Jet didn’t understand, but which he took to be that the Section leader couldn’t see the cloaked Datawraiths.

“You take the visible ones and I’ll take the cloaked ones,” Jet muttered to himself. He assumed the Section leader had thought similar.

Several Datawraiths made a break for the control room, both cloaked and uncloaked, at the same time.

Working his way from the back, Jet started picking off the cloaked enemies while the Section leader took out the uncloaked ones.

Several shots weren’t clean and required a second shot, although once shot the first time, the cloak failed, so the Section leader picked up some of Jet’s missed targets, but all fell to deresolution as the fatal shots hit home.

Then an uncloaked Datawraith made a run for it. Jet watched through the sights, but the Section leader didn’t fire.

Pulling his head back from the sight, Jet looked over at the Section commander, wondering if he was OK. He was further back on the platform now, pulling his disc free, the LOL laying on the ground.

Jet realized what had happened – he was out of shots.

“Dammit,” Jet Cursed, then looked back through the scope. The Datawraith had almost made it to the control room.

Jet fired a shot, but it missed. The Section leader threw his disc, but it cascaded off the ground and skipped.

The Datawraith had made it as far as the entry ramp to the room when Jet realigned the LOL for a final shot.

“Jumboframe coming into buffer – Enlarging buffer space to receive frame transports,” came a voice throughout the Terminus.

The Datawraith turned and came straight towards Jet as he sprinted up the ramp.

It was just for long enough that Jet was able to realign the LOL and take the Datawraith down just as his derezzing body carried on through the opening.

“Too Close,” said Jet.

Jet scanned around for a datawraith, found none, then looked out to the beam. Several floor panels the size of football fields rezzed in on the outside of the receiving area, forming an extended docking buffer as he watched.

The transports themselves were still some distance away, but were clearly visible now as their detail became apparent.

Jet wondered if they could transport without the beams, but given that these were packet transports – even of a larger size, Jet assumed they couldn’t.

As the scope flicked back to the rampway entering the Terminus, Jet watched as the wave of approaching Datawraiths came up over the edge – The main group had arrived.

“Damn,” Jet muttered again. He had about six shots left, and no way of stopping the Datawraiths.

He removed his eye from the scope and looked out. The transports were close now – perhaps less than a cycle from docking and the extended receive buffer looked almost complete as only small items were rezzing in now.

As Jet looked back, he saw a larger, bulkier Datawraith appear and remove a rod primitive from his back, which he held in front in a motion Jet knew well.

The Datawraiths had lightcycles, and this one appeared to be using it to get across the open space to the snipers as soon as possible.

Jet aligned the LOL once more on the caparace of the forming Light Cycle, and tracked as it shot speedily across the open area between them, heading in the direction of the Section leader.

Jet fired into the lead tyre of the cycle, causing it to spin out, the remaining vehicle tumbling end over end, but the Datawraith came clear and landed on the group near the Section leader, gaining his footing even as he came down.

Three other streaks appeared, none leaving a trail, and moved after the first.

Jet lined up the LOL on the rear of the one nearest the section leader and noticed that he had rezzed in armor on the front of his shell. The Section leader threw his disk, and while it shattered one of the armor plates, it didn’t penetrate and bounced away.

“Armor at the front won’t stop this,” said Jet as he fired, the shot hitting the Datawraith at the back of the neck.

The shot was clean, derezzing the Datawraith even as he brought a new type of weapon to bear on the Section leader. The weapon skittered away as the purple nemesis derezzed, but the three other Lightcycles made it, two stopping in front of Jet.

Moving quickly, Jet dropped down and was about to flee when he saw how close the other Datawraiths were. Up close, they were a lot bulkier than the others, had clearly visible armor shields and had a weapon Jet hadn’t seen before.

Jet paused then realizing that one was lining up on him, dived to the side over the edge of the terminus platform as a sudden hail of heavy fire ripped up the surface of the platform where he had been standing.

Recovering and returning fire, Jet fired from the shoulder without using the sight, firing directly into one of the Datawraith’s chests, the armor smashing and derezzing in a slotted panel as the beam drove home.

The force of the close-range shot staggered the Datawraith a little but didn’t derezz it, and Jet ducked again as a rain of energy ripped up the edge of the platform that Jet had taken cover behind.

Coming out of cover once more, Jet fired again from the shoulder without aiming. The second shot drove into another adjacent armor panel, derezzing it and knocking the Datawraith back as it did, but not harming it. Risking a third shot, Jet fired as soon as the LOL cycled, this time hitting the Datawraith in the chest, the beam bursting through and continuing on.

Jet ducked even before he saw the shot derez the Datawraith and very nearly didn’t take cover in time to avoid a new barrage burst that chewed further through his cover as the damage eroded the surface.

Taking a moment to get some distance, Jet ran to some nearby rubble a little out from the Terminus, taking cover as yet another burst sought to rip his data apart, opcode by opcode. He looked out to where Mercury and Alchemist would be, but at this distance, blasters and disks wouldn’t be enough to help even if they did open fire.

Moving around the far corner, Jet was surprised to see his new foe already almost upon him, running in too fast to bring his weapon to bear. Jet discharged the LOL into his shoulder plates, with the same effect as before, then again trying to score a direct hit, but only hitting the arm that held the weapon.

As Jet aimed once more, he fired at the gap in the armor only to hear the sound that the LOL made as its chamber went empty and it ran out of power.

Still coming in at speed, the Datawraith didn’t pause to bring it’s weapon arm, now uncovered and without armor, to bear but instead drove directly into Jet, taking him hard in the chest and driving him backwards into the rubble field behind him.

Jet came down hard and lost the LOL to the side as he did, then still sprawled, looked up to see the huge Datawraith standing just past his feet, taking his time to aim the huge weapon.

Jet saw it clearly now – it resembled a large rotary canon, except that the barrels seemed to float in the air and spun slowly when they weren’t firing. The Datawraith lifted his weapon and spoke as he prepared to derezz him.

“You’ve been a troublesome program, program, but now you’re mine. Time to meet your programmer,” came a voice almost metallic and hard.

The barrels aligned with Jet’s face until he could see a light within each one. It truly felt as if this one moment might be the last. Jet prepared to say his final words in case they might take them back to the real world, when a pair of legs came down either side of his head as the person they belonged to dropped from the debris above him and over him.

There was a flash of blue, then as Jet’s vision returned, he looked up to see the Datawraith shaking as if electrocuted with Mercury still standing at an angle, driving her half-rod into his chest through the gap Jet’s LOL had made earlier.

“He’s not a program, he’s a user, and he’s mine,” she said through gritted teeth, then suddenly stepped back and pulled the rod from the Datawraith’s chest as it derezzed.

Mercury turned around and held out a hand to help him up. As Jet stood, Mercury threw her arms around Jet’s chest and pushed her head into the space under his chin.

As Jet held her, he thought her felt her tremble briefly, then lifted her face to see her eyes glow briefly, before she dropped her gaze once more and looked down.

“Mercury, Thanks,” said Jet, but she only held him closer. The message was clear enough. She definitely felt the same way about him that he did her.

She came away as Alchemist came around the corner, still walking behind cover and armed with only a disc.

“Nice move, Mercury, you dropped that Datawraith with one shot,” she said.

Mercury held her face away from Jet as Jet pulled her to the side gently.

“There’s another after the Section leader – We need to help him out,” Jet said.

Alchemist put her hand on Jet’s shoulder and held him back. “Relax, Jet, Section’s safe.” She twirled the disc on her finger and gave a sly smile that indicated exactly how she knew that.

“But he is a little low on energy so It’s a good thing there’s no more Datawraiths in this area.” She added.

With this, Jet looked back to the Terminus and noticed that the three transports had docked although the beam was gone.

“When did the beam go?” Jet asked.

“About a microcycle after the transport docked,” said Alchemist, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a tight synchronization. The Kernel only just made it.”

Jet moved out from behind the rubble and saw the platform once more. Two tank programs had been set up at the edge of the platform and the Kernel could be seen approaching the Section leader, who was being cradled by two ICPs.

On the far side, the occasional tank program delete instruction could be seen tearing into the rubble indicating the activity that was occurring where the Datawraith forces had been coming in on the far side.

This had been a close call for all of them. The Datawraiths were not only learning new tactics, but were also developing new armor and variants.

Jet made his way around the armor carefully and over to the Kernel, who saw him coming and was walking over.

“Kernel, I’m really glad to see y,” was all Jet managed to say before the Kernel’s arm shot out and grabbed Jet by the throat, lifting him off the ground.

Mercury immediately spun and removed both batons, while Jade moved to the other side of the Kernel and pulled back her disc.

ICPs in the area suddenly flashed bright red and prepared to move in, but the Kernel spoke with a booming voice that carried out over the Terminus.

“What did you do to Jade’s code!,” he accused

Next: Chapter 2.32 – Drivers