Vessel Name:Hook
Propulsion:
1 CFD-111 Fusion Reactor(FUEL: 43%)
2 CFT-10 Fusion Torch Drive(1 DAMAGED, REPAIRS IN PROGRESS)
14 CFT-97 Fusion Torch Maneuver Thrusters(5 DAMAGED, REPAIRS IN PROGRESS)
4 CMDCGAMT-4 Auxillary Cold Gas Thrusters(1 DAMAGED, REPAIRS IN PROGRESS)
Primary Armament:
1 CPL-77 triple barrel tracking plasma projector
1 CPL-66 double barrel tracking plasma projector(DAMAGED, OPERABLE, MUST BE BROUGHT OFFLINE FOR REPAIRS)
Secondary Armament:
2 CSL-3 Missile Launchers1
Current warhead count:39(max 108) Heavy MIRV shaped plasma warheads
1 Missile Auto-fabricator(current production loadout: Heavy MIRV shaped plasma warheads)
Current missile fabrication limits:67(WARNING:RAW MATERIALS SHORTAGE)
1 CDL-2 Drone Bays:
Current drone count:5 CCD-14 plasma drones(max bandwidth limit's to 2 drones per bay)
Defensive equipment:
1x CEWJ-90 Radar Jammer
1x CEWD Laser Dazzler(DAMAGED, REPAIRS IN PROGRESS)
1x CEWODJ Omni-directional Radio Jammer
1x CEWCM Countermeasure Launcher(DAMAGED, REPAIRS IN PROGRESS)
Current Ordnance Count:
Chaff: 8
IR: 4
Active: 2
4 CPP Plasma Particle Shotgun Point Defense System
2 CPP Guided Plasma Munition Point Defense System
Utility equipment:
Autonomous repair drones(98/108, PLEASE TASK DRONE PRINTER FOR REPLENISHMENT )
Autonomous repair drone printer
1 CML 2 MINING BEAM
1x CTU Medical Unit
C.O.G. REPAIR MATRIX: 4 OF 4 NODES ONLINE.
CURRENT STATUS: REPAIRING OUTER HULL, RESTORING ARMOR, BRINGING ALL DRIVES ONLINE
4 CDS-SWR Radar Panels,
2 CDS-LWR Radar Antennae
1 CDS-RTR Radar
“I didn't even realise we took a hit to one of the turrets... I'm starting to see why Hook originally had three turrets on this vessel, they seem to take damage easily.” I said... with no one to reply to me. A sinking feeling gripped my gut.
“I see... I may have to retool the ships design.” I said, again to myself,
The reality of losing Hook was starting to sink in as the silence continued to press on me.
I briefly thought about hooking Carolina into all of this... then I decided to check on her first.
Carolina was strapped into her bunk, her arms and legs braced on the floor and ceiling.
She seemed okay for now. My perspective flitted over to the Berzerker.
Did I have time to scrap it?
The more I thought about it the more I realised it was a bad idea, Hook was already down, and there was an imperial ship watching right now, and they already thought C.O.G. Ships were made using berzerker tech.
When I thought about it like that, it did not sound like a smart move.
I deflated.
“I see... guess I should just go down to the planet.” I said to myself
Carolina was saying something from her room, and I switched perspectives.
“What's up Carolina?” I asked. I could see she was already unbuckling herself.
“Is the battle over?” She replied.
“Yeah.” I said morosely.
“What happened?” She asked as she stood up and stretched.
“We took some damage. I kind of want to salvage some scrap here to patch ourselves up, but it's probably dangerous to do that right now, and the Baron Hannity is right there so...” I realised I may have fucked up, telling her that.
Carolina perked up. “The Baron Hannity? They were part of my squadron! How many others are there?”She asked, seeming elated.
“They're the only ones left.” I replied.
Carolina went still, and let out a breath.
I held my own breath. I was waiting to see if she would ask to be moved over to the Baron Hannity. I didn't want to offer it myself. I couldn't help it. I liked her.
“I felt some shaking, how bad did we get hit?” She asked, changing topics to a less painful one
“We took a bunch of hits. But the overall damage was pretty minimal. Well, not minimal, we lost a drive, but most of the damage was confined to the hull armor.” I replied
“Huh... normally if something gets through the shields and we can actually feel it it's pretty serious, like people dying serious.” She mentioned, sticking her head out of her cabin and beginning the walk to the bridge.
“C.O.G. Vessel. No shields, just looooots of armor. And bots repairing said armor. And jammers.” I said offhandedly. I realized I felt exhausted. I was coming down from the high of the fight and I felt like crashing hard.
“Who were the aggressors? I was calling to see but I think you were too busy to hear me.” Carolina asked as she reached the bridge. When we weren't gaming or busy she liked to look at my body directly when talking to me I had found.
“Oh yeah, I was getting knocked in and out of frame-jack the whole time. I'd crank up the speed then I'd take a hard hit and be knocked back into real time. Was super jarring.”I admitted
“Frame-jacking is where you think faster so everything slows down right?” Carolina asked.
“Yeah, but it looks like if there is a hiccup in the power or my systems get disrupted I get dumped back down to real time. It was disorienting and think it cost me a few hits the first few times.”
“That sounds... rough. Also like a design flaw in your helm or bridge or whatever.”
“Yeah... Also we got hacked.”
Carolina eyes went wide as she stared at me.
“We got hacked?!?!”
“Yep, Hook tried to take over the ship. It's restoring from backup right now but... it may not remember you, not sure when the last backup was made.”
“Jesus... I've heard horror stories of ships that got hacked, everything from minor things like shields going down, to thrusters overloading and pasting the crew with G's...”
“Yeah, it was... it was scary.” I didn't want to get into just how unnerving Hook had been before the end, they sounded like the original Hook but... different.
Different enough to send a shiver up my spine.
“So... you didn't say who the aggressors were.” Carolina asked.
“Berzerkers.”
Carolina paused where she was about to go out the door and looked up at my camera.
“Berzerkers?”
“Yep.”
“And we're... okay?”
“Mostly, we lost a drive and a lot of armor. There were four, but only two left by the time we arrived.”
“Who else was fighting them.”
“I think the rest of your patrol group.”
She went quiet.
I was really worried she was going to ask to go back to her people before we managed to fully deprogram her. If she went back as is she'd probably be used for parts or... something equally horrible. The imperials didn't sound like they valued their clones too highly.
But now with Hook gone, I don't even know how far her deprogramming had gotten.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
She looked wistful for a moment.
Then she looked back up at my camera.
“So... are we still going down to the planet so you can get your checkup?”
“Uh... yeah. I need to let the onboard repair drones do their job and empty the material stores before I can even think of salvage... and the Lord Hannity is watching my like a hawk regardless, so pilfering Berzerker tech is probably a bad idea.”
“It'd be a bad idea even if he wasn't watching you.” Carolina admonished me.
I paused and thought.
“Hey I have a question, are imperial vessels just named after the title and name of the captain?”
“Yes, why?”
“Just thought it was weird.”
“Makes keeping track of who's who easy. Why, what's your ship called?”
“Hook.”
She snorted.
“And what was it's captain called.”
I paused.
“IronBait.” I said lamely.
“Did she change that after she named the ship or something?”
“I don't know, probably, C.O.G. People apparently change their names pretty often.”
“So not that weird, at least taking into account how C.O.G. Does it.”
“Do you know how Alliance ships are called?” I asked her.
“No clue, never run into one in a warzone, and all we did to the ones we saw otherwise was give em a quick scan to make sure they weren't bringing contraband through our turf.”
“That actually brings up a good question, you just let ships of enemy factions through your lines as it were?”
“Not really through our lines, no real lines in space. But we'll let them pass by planets under our protection to make for the transit lanes, we don't bother them if they are passing through.”
“Why not, if I may ask, the empire seems like the kind of nation that wouldn't allow that.”
“Too much effort for not much to show for it. Plus it clutters up the transit lanes, which means trade between planets breaks down, which means factory worlds starve and farming worlds agri-robots start breaking down.”
“Got it, didn't think there was actually all that much trade, with no unifying currency.”
“It's barter mostly. A planet, well, the countries and different colonies on a planet generally have their own currencies, so a trader will generally bargain for some of those that gets the best end deal for the load they want to take to the next planet, any currency they don't spend I guess theoretically could go into a local bank, but most traders would prefer to either invest in the local economy in businesses or buy smaller but more expensive items. I know we're encouraged never to leave anything in the local banking economies when we get shore leave, we get a set amount of the local currency to spend, and once we leave we probably are not going to come back to that planet this decade, if ever, so there is no reason to keep any of it, and we'll probably never return to a bank to make a withdrawel so...”
Carolina shrugged.
I nodded, or I wanted to nod, my body was still lolling at the helm.
“Makes sense I guess. Not much reason for any of the factions to invest heavily on a planet that may not be theirs tomorrow.”
“Well...” Carolina paused.
“What?”
“The exception might be the core worlds, Prime for you, New Tokyo for us, and the worlds directly connected to them. Lots of lords have estates on New Tokyo, and I am sure C.O.G. Captains have... I don't know, server farms on Prime?” She animated as she spoke, walking around the helm, and stretching her arms out above her, interlocking her fingers as she wandered around me.
“I wouldn't know. Maybe when Hook finishes booting they can tell me.”
“So... about that.... Is Hook like... dead?”
“Kinda? They'll remember some stuff but... I don't know when the last restore date was.”
“Geez, how do you think the Berzerker's did it?” Carolina paused and turned to me to ask
“I don't know, I don't think I had a data connection going from Hook to the outside... Hook was pretty specific about limiting data connections.” I had been pondering this very thought.
“Hook could see though, right?”
“I guess.” I replied
“Basilisk hack.” Carolina said.
“What?”
“Hacked through the sensors.” She clarified.
I paused.
Yeah that made sense.
“Does that happen often?” I asked.
She shook her head negative.
“Only times I've heard it happening is when Berzerkers are slinging code or...” She deflated.
“When we've tried to take C.O.G. Worlds.”
“I see.”
There was an uncomfortable pause.
“So... Do you want me to drop you here?”
I dropped the bomb.
She screwed up her face.
“I think... I think this might be a good place to register that I am at least still alive... maybe I can figure out where the rest of the Carolina family holdings are and make my way there.”
I felt... conflicted.
On the one hand, she was technically with an enemy faction.
On the other hand I had never fought the empire.
Not to mention the fact that, outside of Hook, she had been my only company for awhile, and there was something about having another living person to talk to, and with Hook gone...
I worried for my own sanity.
“Alright, I'm going to see about getting us down on the planet. Take the pad and the VR gear I made for you, if you need to you can contact me, and we can still game till I leave the system.
She nodded, looking down at her feet for a moment before going back to her room and to the little locker beneath her desk where she had stored those items and the clothes I had fabricated for her. Her uniform had been getting a bit ripe by the time we found her.
I opened comms with the planet. Or at least in the direction of the planet.
“This is Captain Cofey of the C.O.G. Vessel Hook, requesting permission to land.”
I waited.
“Planet...” I paused and looked it up “Hou Ji... Please respond.”
Still no response.
“Lord Hannity, please come in.” I changed tacks
“This is Lord Hannity for...” The voice sighed. “Hook. What do you need?”
“You can just call me Captain Cofey if the name is too much for you Lord Hannity.”
“Thank you Captain Cofey.”
“I am trying to contact the surface, they aren't responding to my hails, are you having any more luck?”
“Wait one.” And he disconnected.
While I was waiting I experimented with my sensors and integrating them into what my synchronization display. Once I figured out what to look for I realised I could actually SEE the comms and emissions radiating out from the Lord Hannity, if I focused I could even see them emitting from the individual emitters on the hull.
I clocked at least three seperate transmissions from the Lord Hannity directed at the surface, I didn't quite understand how I was detecting them at first, as the transmission was directed away from me, until I realized my sensor suite was picking up the reflections of that transmission from the debris it was hitting on the way down, and was generating an approximate 'picture' of the other vessels emissions.
“Captain Cofey, this is Lord Hannity, please respond.”
“I'm here Lord Hannity, anything?”I replied
“Nothing, they should at least have an automated response but...”
“Do you think the Berzerker's messed with them during the fight?” I asked
“Probably, they were dropping viruses as part of the their jamming most likely.”
“So they could just have downed communications, or...”
“Or their entire civilian network could be compromised.”
“Okay, pretend I've never had an encounter with berzerker's before Herr Baron, What would that look like.” I asked a legitimate question.
There was a pause on the line.
“Berzerker's do their best to cause as much destruction as they can as quickly as they can, so it will likely be a combination of effects, one of the most common ones is messing with traffic control systems, they are often the most vulnerable, as they only need to infiltrate a single civilian transport, whether ground or air based..
“The next most likely targets are going to be utilities, it will hold off on going after the power, because the virus's need power to keep propagating through the systems, but it will try to contaminate water supplies, inhibit or eliminate food shipments, and actively mess with any climate controls it can get access to. Public transit controlled by computer systems will be locked down and their internal temperatures cranked up or turned down to cook and freeze anyone inside, and any air conditioning will either be turned off or used in a malicious manner to provoke any fires that start.”
“And if it can take direct control of any vehicles, they are going immediately into the most damaging target the berzerker code can find.”
“Jesus, what is the point of any of this.” I asked
“Destruction. Berzerker's don't reason. They only hate.”
