RidOv Chpt-41

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==Ridiculously Overboard!! (A Captain Roberts Tale!!)Chapter 41 - Long Distance Status Check==
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In Orbit, Tresspass Star System - Outworlds Wastes, Periphery
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Almost pathetic...
...how easy it is, when you know how to reach the maintenance access.
then again, the Newgrange class wasn't built to be a secure bunker, it was built to be the spacegoing equivalent of a tow-truck for large warships...or a maintenance facility that gets parked close to the work-site. Despite carrying weapons, it wasn't supposed to be close to the front, and access is kind of important to the role it was created to fill.
<{"Wait. internal sensors show personnel in the corridor."}>, he AI allied cautioned her
Amanda held still, cuddled against the inner airlock door
<{"Clear now."}> Desmond announced
She opened the inner door and slid through, resealing it behind her and pushing off and forward to the next deck access.
<{"The limpets are in place and armed, the teams are returning to the shuttle."}>
How long do I have?
<{"I've updated Mister Samuel on your current status, you have time."}>
That's a relief. I don't want to have to try and steal a lifepod or small craft to get out of here...
The hatch between decks is oriented to act as a door while under thrust, it opens smoothly and closes quietly.
The spin-rings are visible, the grav decks were running. This segment has cargo modules lining the hull between ribs.
Not as many as there should be...
Careful, not a lot of hiding space in here.
She Knew That! the central pillar-really the support structure for the Jump Core, was on her left, with lift-trams running along it. Stevedores riding EMUs with waldoes were moving containers to the lift. The visual amplification from her suit's helmet opened a secondary window in her vision, revealing markings from Skobel, Krupp of Terra, Starcorps incorporated, and some with markings from Clan and Inner Sphere sources.
Another crew was attaching hookups for life support and sewage access plumbing.
<{"Not a colony, those are provisions similar to the ones used for interstellar colonization during the initial expansion."}> Desmond illustrated the connection types, <{"Notably, there is no provision to open the modules from inside."}>
She half-crawled along the structure, observing to time her movement for when a load would block the workers' view.
They're taking people.
<{"Estimate thousands."}> Desmond suggested.
She made it to the bulkhead to the next deck, and found a maintenance panel to bypass the clearly-in-use P-way along the tower of the ship's core. 
The maintenance access would open into another corridor, this time one run perpendicular to the ship's bow. she tapped into a junction loaded with glowing data fiber cables.
She was rewarded with internal security cameras. The 'big bay' a the nose was empty. No shipyard equipment, but massive electromagnetic rings. Mass Driver. this IS the Erinyes. A pair of guards were on the other side of the hatch, bored.
<{"You have thirty seconds."}>
She opened the hatch one-handed and drove her dive-knife through the white-uniformed man on the left, up through the base of his skull.
The second tried to turn and kick loose, she used the door as a fulcrum and spin-dove, cutlass out and across his face at the nose, severing through flesh, bone, and brain and out the other side.
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Twenty eight seconds
She pulled the corpses into the service-passage and shoved them into the locker, unable to really do anything about the blood floating except avoid the globules.
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Fifteen seconds.
she was already breaking into a side-compartment.
The men inside were caught by surprise as she raised the M&G 920 and dispatched them in a string of aimed shots, the pulse frequency of the laser rendering almost a pulse to aim between each cycle.
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Ten seconds
She was through the compartment and into another corridor.
Unarmored men, off-duty or whose normal duty doesn't involve a suit or armor, versus an early 28th century pulse laser?
She didn't give them time to scream.
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Five Seconds
She moved to a blind zone where surveillance cams weren't looking.
"That's going to cause something of a stir."
"No shit." she stopped subvocalizing, "Not a lot of options."
<{"Stealth systems engaged"}>
She could move again, finding a coolant system maintenance duct access, she entered it and closed it behind her.
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===Breaking and Entering===
In the Yardship Erinyes, Orbit of Tresspass - Outworlds Wastes, Deep Periphery
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//"You're killing my crew....
...I think I have some objections to that, Desmond."\\
The words hammered Amanda on multiple levels, because the transmitter wasn't just in her helmet, the voice was in her head.
"AAAHHHHGGGHHH" she stumbled into a tumble, losing her footing.
//"DOWNLOAD ACTIVITY LOG AUTHORIZATION MURAKAMI771651E."\\
Amanda felt her bladder let go and her body go limp.
Desmondwhatthehellman??
<{"I'm sorry Amanda, the code is correct. initiating download."}>
Her fingers were numb, she couldn't move because the artificial muscles in the suit were holding her.
//"Oh dear...this is completely wrong..."\\ the foreign voice hit and it hurt.
Amanda was back in the dark place with the too-bright-light, and they were stabbing her with their knives again.
//"Completely against protocol! Incorrect! Incorrect procedure, incorrect subject!!"\\
She could feel it all again...
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===Truth and Betrayal===
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M-11/01 Casper Flag Ship, SLS Erinyes probed the Desmond unit, evaluating memory record and engrams and comparing them with the data from the authorized SLIC operators who activated her core, and the data did not match.
It matched less, than the modifications to her hull planform, it matched less than that.
To the advanced processor core of an M-11 project, the 'Desmond' was about as smart as a trained bug. It's not a true AI, but instead, an expert system designed to amplify specific Royal operatives. Those operatives were chosen carefully for compatibility, psychological stability, and were some of the most elite soldiers in the SAS.
Not seventeen year old girls with emotional problems who were. If the engrams were correct, kidnapped and tortured during implantation.
They lied to me!!
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