A pack of 500 statist ships is within 15 minutes of Indie’s space project, 12,000 feet deep in the South Pacific. They’re coming on the surface from the north and south, and also at staggered depths of 4K, 8K, and 12K feet. There are only 50 agorist ships within the same area, but distress calls have been put out on The Mesh and other peer-to-peer networks, and another 20 ships are within range and coming in at full speed to help defend against the government aggressors.
The shell of the spaceship itself is being methodically taken apart by robots and split into 4 quadrants. Each piece will be escorted away in opposite directions by as many ships as possible in an attempt to save this work from the mob of moral relativists.
Indie, Ion, and Symphy have evacuated the work zone near the spaceship shell and are on their own sea vessels, getting ready to defend and escape. Shine is on the surface with other agorist ships, getting ready to engage the first wave of mind-controlled government thug ships.
Shine is looking at a holo-map of the incoming statist ships. His ship’s A.I. tells him that multiple frequency weapons have been fired by the statists and have all been neutralized. He then receives a call from Symphy.
Symphy: Shine, how many ships do you have a visual on?
Shine: Twenty that I can see in the first wave! And they already started firing on me!
Symphy: How many are moving?
Shine: Twenty!
Symphy: Are you sure? Check again.
Shine (squints, looks closer): Ah, wait a sec. A few are slowing down to a stop, looks like.
Symphy: How many exactly?
Shine: Five.
Symphy: Send me the visuals you have of the ships that stopped. I’m going to find similar models and try to disable them as well.
Shine: How did you…?
Symphy: No time to explain. Hold on….(Symphy’s synthetic fingers fly over holo-controls)...Now test their shields with the same weapon, on all of them.
Shine: Don’t have to tell me twice.
Shine fires a phase-changing quantum destabilizer. Some of the statist ships’s hulls starts to flicker.
Shine: It’s working! The hull is destabilizing! Their shields are down!
Symphy: The same ships as the ones that stopped?
Shine: No, different ones.
Symphy: How many?
Shine: Another five.
Symphy: So half the ships within your visual range have been negatively effected?
Shine: Correct.
Symphy; Send me visuals of which ones. I’ve got work to do.
Click.
Symphy sends a message to nearby anarchist A.I. to search for those particular type of ships, with the same engine codes, and disable them with the same code she used, the one obtained from Zune in the government A.I. network.
Shine, along with five other anarchist ships on the surface, is coming within striking range of the statist ships. Shine sends a couple of air drones to harass the stalled ships and keep them occupied. Two of the other anarchist ships do the same. He checks the next incoming wave following closely behind the first, and it’s another 30 ships. Shine contacts nearby anarchists.
Shine: I’m gonna try the prototype.
Dude: This early?
Shine: You got a better idea?
Dude: Go for it.
Shine: I’ve got two, so I’ll hand control of another over to you just in case I get into trouble.
Shine enters a sequence of commands on holo-controls. A compartment opens near the bottom of his ship, and two football-size submarine drones pop out.
Shine: Ok, you should have control of one.
Dude: Yep, got it.
Shine: I’m gonna send these little guys in to keep those bastards occupied, while I retreat farther out, away from the spaceship.
Dude: Gotcha. I’ll do the same.
The other anarchists communicate that they plan to spread out as far as possible while they fire away. The tiny sub goes under a couple hundred feet. Shine is controlling it from his holo-display. He has the sub fire frequency weapons at the five statist ships within its range. This draws attention. Just as they are about to fire on the tiny sub, Shine commands it to split apart. It breaks into a 1,000 pieces, all of which are 1,000 tinier versions of itself. They disperse in all directions, and many of them are able to dodge the government gang's weapons fire. The new swarm of mini-subs then fires back, and each remaining little sub is then commanded to split again, exponentially creating a growing cloud of smaller and smaller submarines, each capable of firing frequency and energy weapons.
Shine: It’s working! (flails arms victoriously and stomps feet)
Dude: Mine isn’t.
Shine: Damn. Well, at least the one will help us. I put it on auto split now, so in a few minutes there are literally going to be millions of molecule-size subs out there getting at the attackers. I wonder how they’re doing down deep?
Ion and Indie are each in separate ships, each escorting a quadrant of the "Anarchy Star" spaceship. Other anarchists are helping to escort them, along with a few remote controlled drone subs. They’ve split in opposite directions and varied depths. They’re all joined by Symphy on a holo-call, as Symphy helps escort a third quadrant of the spaceship.
Symphy: I’ve sent codes to the A.I. of your ships. If statist attackers get within your range, you might be able to disable some of their engines and shields with those codes.
Ion: Have you crossed paths with any of them yet, Symphy?
Symphy: Yes, there was a confrontation on my way down to your depth, at 8,000 feet. The code has have proved nearly 30 percent effective so far, and my ship is faster than all the ones I’ve come across so far.
Government ships suddenly appear on Ion's holo-display.
Ion: Looks like I won’t have to wait long to test those codes!
Symphy: I see them on my scanners. They’re headed straight for you.
Ion: Yeah, I’m gonna dive deeper.
Symphy: I’m sending 3 remote controlled subs their way to try and distract them.
Ion: Well, there’s 25 of them, so…..
Indie: I’m gonna leave my quadrant’s platform and come your way to help! I think I can get the angle on them and cut them off!
Ion: Don’t you dare leave that thing!
Indie: There are still three other agorists nearby, forming a perimeter.
Symphy: It appears I’ve also got a chance to cut them off. Ion, on the current trajectory, you’ll be the first to see them.
Ion (sarcastic): Great news, thanks!
Symphy: It appears that Setarcos is in our area as well.
Ion: Late to the party.
Indie: The more the merrier.
Setarcos joins the holo-call.
Setarcos: Looks like I picked a bad day to bring engine components and coffee to the lab.
Ion: Your timing couldn’t be better, actually.
A few tense moments later, 25 statist subs become visual to Ion.
Ion: I’m firing those codes!
Symphy: Shields down on five, and engines cut on another five.
Ion: Ok, only 15 left! I like my odds now….
Indie, Setarcos, Symphy, and three other agorist ships converge on Ion's area and approach the statists from multiple angles. The extortion-funded government pirates fire first, firing frequency weapons and quantum disruptors. The anarchists respond by firing multiple pulse, frequency, quantum disruptor, and energy weapons at them. Two statist ships are effected by the quantum disruptors and begin to flicker and disintegrate in random areas. Ion sustains some minor damage to some of his weapon systems. The anarchists flee as their ships’ A.I. attempt to confuse the statist navigation systems with quantum interference. It works temporarily, and the agorists are able to disperse and escape at full speed.
Symphy: We’re faster than most of the ships that remain, so try to get out of their visual range while you can.
Indie screams over the holo: The quadrant I left behind! They’re caught in a pincer movement by 30 statist aggressors!
A red light flashes on Indie’s holo-map, indicating that her communication with the ones she left behind has been lost.
Indie: I’ve lost comms with them! I’m checking the video feed from the quadrant’s platform…..
There is a chilled silence as Indie goes breathless for a moment.
Ion: Talk to us, Indie. What is it?
Indie: There are four statist pirate ships surrounding it, and no anarchists in sight.
Symphy: I’m also not able to read their energy signatures. I’ll need to get closer to confirm, but it appears that they have likely perished.
Another moment of silence goes over the holo airwaves.
Ion: Indie, you know what we have to do.
Indie (sobbing): I shouldn’t have left them!
Ion: I’ll do it. Computer, initiate self-destruct sequence for quadrant four.
Indie: No, I’m going back!
Ion: We’ve gotta save what we still have left! Going back there now is a suicide mission!
Indie: But it’s my fault..
Ion: It’s not your fault. It's the fault of the government thugs that attacked us. There’s nothing more we can do. We’ll rebuild, now let’s get the hell out of here!
Indie complies and they split up, carefully navigating out of harm’s way. An hour later, they’re able to meet up a few hundred miles away, along with the third quadrant of the spaceship, and some other sea agorists, including Shine. As robots begin setting up a temporary lab 10,000 feet deep, there is a general discussion on how to proceed. There is a somber mood as they lost multiple friends and acquaintances during the attacks, not to mention a quarter of their work on the spaceship.
Ion: This can’t happen again. We’ve gotta have better security.
Shine: I think I can help with that. Check out video of the prototype I tested on those bastards today.
Shine shows all anarchists in the holo-call meeting a video of his splitting submarines.
Shine: I based it on the concept of how shape-shifting A.I. work, only more basic and straightforward. It was quite effective, as you can see.
Setarcos (grinning ear-to-ear): Shine, you just might have saved this mission.
Episode 14 Coming Soon!
Thanks for you time and attention!
Just say "NO" to slavery!
Top image is from pixabay
Check out my archive at