Chapter 14: Chapter 14 Battle with The Xalkak
With a roar, Dustin charged as the group of five began to turn to leave their circle. He was close enough, that it only took three steps to reach the first one.
Slashing with his claws, he raked the face of the first man. Then, as the man fell forward covering his face with his hands, Dustin jumped over him, jabbing his claws into the neck of the next guy, who was turning towards him.
Dodging the blow of a strange weapon the third guy pulled out, by ducking to the side, Dustin grabbed his arm, twisting it around to block the blow of the fourth guy, who was wielding a similar weapon. The weapons were slim, with spikes along the sides and a blade at the end. It was similar to a mace, combined with a sword. Definitely not a weapon used to take someone prisoner with.
He kicked the fourth guy in the chest, knocking him back long enough to jerk the weapon from the third guys hands and stab him with it. Turning to dodge under the swing of the fifth guy, Dustin stepped closer to him, grabbing his head and snapping his neck. The fourth guy had recovered by this point, and launched himself at Dustin, who dodged out of the way, and when the guy tripped over the body of the third guy, Dustin kneed him in the face as he went down.
Stepping around him, he watched them all struggling as the toxins in his claws started to affect them. Only the last guy, who he had kneed in the face, was still alive enough to talk to. Grabbing his hair, Dustin jerked him up enough to talk to him.
"What the hell are you trying to do?" he hissed at him. These people could have passed as human, if they didn't have the neural implants.
"Uz'En are to be killed," gurgled the man, as the blood from his broken nose drained down into his throat and he choked. "They're abom…minations…-gag-…will… overrun… galaxy…-cough-"
Dustin threw his head down in disgust.
'PED, send out the nanobots to make me a ship. Acquire what information you can about these shits, without giving us away to this AI.'
(UNDERSTOOD. TIME TO COMPLETION THIRTY MINUTES.)
Dustin grabbed up the dropped weapon of one of them, and turned to stab the guy in the back, when Cybele stepped forward.
"Must you kill them all?" she asked.
"Yes, they want to kill me and all of my people."
She nodded in understanding, as he stabbed the guy, then turned to watch the nanobots as they streamed from him, and started to tear down every scrap of metal on the plateau.
He looked at her, as she watched the nanobots, "Still want to come with me?"
"It is natural to want to be safe. You kill them so they can't harm you later. It is a necessity, not a pleasure, that you do these things. Why should that change my mind?"
"Most girls don't like the thought of killing," he said, feeling awkward.
"Then I am grateful that I am not like the girls you have been around, otherwise you would not still be available for me to get with. I look forward to living my life beside you."
"But why?" he asked, turning towards her fully. "You don't know me, or what I'm capable of. Who says I even want you to be with me?"
She looked at him and smiled. It was the first time he had seen her smile. "You're lonely. I saw it in your head. This Olivia hurt you, and you are unable to accept that she left you. I am fully willing to pursue you. And if I have to fight her for the honor of claiming you, I am ready."
Dustin blinked and stepped back, laughing out loud. This was rich!
"Alright, that's a fight I'm looking forward to."
(DUSTIN, I'VE FOUND SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION IN THE COMPUTERS OF THESE SMALL SHIPS. THIS RACE, THE XALKAK, SEEMS TO SEE THE UZ'EN AS A SCOURGE THAT MUST BE ERADICATED. I BELIEVE THE AI I SENSED EARLIER MAY BE LEADING THEM. THE COMPONENTS I REMOVED FROM THE CORPSES SHOWED THAT THE IMPLANTS WERE INSERTED DURING THE VERY EARLIEST MOMENTS OF LIFE, WHILE STILL IN THE WOMB.)
Seeing that he was distracted from their conversation, Cybele turned to continue watching the nanobots as they used the metal salvaged from the five ships to construct a new ship, large enough for the two of them to survive the trip back to his home planet.
'What do you mean by, still in the womb? The AI implanted these things in these people's heads, before they were even born? What do they even do, besides allow the AI to be able to contact them?'
(THE IMPLANTS ALLOW THE AI CONTROL OVER THEM. I BELIEVE THE ENTIRE RACE MAY BE ENSLAVED BY THIS AI.)
'While I'm not really wanting to kill an entire race, I can't just sit back and let this AI hunt and kill my people. Do you think you could work on hiding yourself from it? I don't really want it hacking into you and gaining control of your functions.'
(I WILL WORK ON THAT, BUT IT MAY REQUIRE ACCESS TO THE HIVE MIND BACK HOME TO ASCERTAIN COMPLETE SUCCESS. I WILL BRING BACK ENOUGH OF THE XALKAK TECHNOLOGY TO ALLOW BETTER RESULTS.)
"Dustin! There are other ships coming!" cried Cybele pointing at the sky.
Dustin turned to see a group of a dozen, or so, flyers approaching them. Glancing back at the ship, he saw that it was almost done.
'PED, any chance we can get going? Maybe let the nanobots finish while we flee?'
(AFFIRMATIVE, YOU MAY ENTER THE VESSEL.)
The door popped open for them to climb inside.
"Come on," he said, darting towards the door. The nanobots had moved some of the seats over from the salvaged ships, so he sat in one and started looking over the controls. Cybele climbed in behind him, mimicking how he put on his seat belt.
The door closed behind him, and he grabbed the controls. With a jolt, they were in the air, with nanobots rushing not to be left behind. It was time to lose these guys and get out of there. They wouldn't try to capture him alive after what he had done to their friends.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab This AI doesn't know who it's messing with. Dustin doesn't allow anyone who is an honest threat to his people live...
Chapter 15: Chapter 15 Finding Granny…Maybe
"That's the third planet we've been to, that's been decimated. There's nothing left alive on any of them. This feels a lot like someone's a step ahead of us, killing the Uz'En," said Olivia with an exasperated shake of her head as the ship jumped away from the solar system.
Every planet that had shown life on all of the reports, for each of the solar systems they had been to in the past hour and a half, had been devoid of not just Uz'En, but also plant and animal life. The scans had shown nothing living on any of them.
"Shall I jump us to the next system?" asked the computer, as they floated in dead space.
"The next planet on the list is a desert world used for mining."
"Yes, the reports state that the Uz'En were being used as mining slave labor, and the guards around the planet were sufficient to keep the nanobots from rescuing them. I believe they had a net around the planet itself, because the minerals they were mining were worth so much."
"Is it legal?" asked Olivia, wondering if she could just bust in, grab the Uz'En, and bust out without breaking laws.
"In that sector, it is."
She sighed, giving up on the guns blazing option.
"There has to be a way to get them without sneaking in. The last time almost got me killed."
She thought for a while, running through different scenarios in her head. She could try to pretend to be an inspector or something, but she wasn't very good with that sort of stuff. They would probably be able to see right through that.
What if she took out their system? If it dropped the net over the planet, she could fly in and try to get the Uz'En before they got it back up.
"Any idea how many Uz'En are on the mining planet?" she asked, sitting up and looking at her console.
"No. The nanobots were able to determine that there were Uz'En on the planet, but not how many there were. We would have to scan from orbit to get specifics."
"Then that's where we'll have to start," she said with another shake of her head. Why did this have to be so complicated? She was sure that if Dustin were here, he would have a wonderful idea on how to get these people out.
Several minutes later, they were floating cloaked, above the planet. The spike of energy from their jump gate had alerted several patrol ships, but they couldn't scan the ship with the cloak that Dustin had built onto this thing. Olivia was both relieved and impressed.
"Scans reveal that there are only a handful of Uz'En on the surface of the planet, and around thirty Gooblens. One of them may even be Granny Gooblen, but I am not completely certain of that."
"How can you be so sure it's her?" asked Olivia, shocked that the system could be so accurate when scanning from orbit.
"The signature that I scan for is unique to the individuals. I am capable of scanning for specific broad signatures, as well as very specific ones. Every since Granny left, Dustin has been waiting for her return. He informed me that should I scan for anything, I am also to scan for her, and her people, in the off chance we run across them."
"So, are they all together?" asked Olivia, excited to be able to rescue them, if it really was her.
"It appears that there is only one mine currently active on the planet, probably due to the unstable conditions of the mineral they are mining."
"How unstable is it?" asked Olivia, suddenly rethinking her strategy of swooping in and back out.
"The mineral itself isn't unstable, the minerals that are commonly found around it are. Too much force in removing the desired minerals can result in explosions that can kill a person, and destroy the desired minerals."
"Sounds annoying. Why do they have to use slave labor? Surely it would be easier to have robots or some mechanical device mine the minerals?"
"Any electronic field can set off the surrounding minerals. Only a living individual can safely harvest the minerals that are mined here."
"Well, fuck. How am I supposed to get these people off the planet if I can't use nanobots or anything?"
"It appears that there is a camp set up not far from the mining location in order to bring food and pick up the collected minerals. If you time it right, you might be able to collect the people during their drop off times?" suggested the computer, showing her a picture of the camp site.
It looked like they only took a small ship down, just big enough to drop off the necessary supplies for the slaves, and to bring the harvested minerals back up, and nowhere big enough to handle the slaves themselves. They must have brought in a larger ship, and made the slaves march in to the mines from a distance.
"What are the chances that Granny still has functioning nanobots?" asked Olivia, an idea starting to form in her mind.
"If she still has any nanobots inside of her, they would be out of fuel. Granny would not have been able to recharge her nanobots as a Gooblen, because only the Uz'En are capable of doing that."
Olivia nodded in thought. She had an idea, but it required her being able to get the ship through the nets surrounding the planet. Judging from the instability of the landscape around the mining operation, the nets were probably to ensure that debris entering the atmosphere didn't set off a chain reaction. There were enough potholes and old rubble on the surface to attest to previous mishaps.
"How hard would it be for you to hack the computers controlling the net?" she asked.
"It would take me a couple hours to successfully hack them, without being detected."
"Good, I want you to bring them down long enough for us to go through them, have them come back up, like it was a blip in the system, then have it come back down at a prearranged time, again, long enough for us to escape."
"That is a complicated job you are asking me to complete."
"Can you not do it? I thought Dustin upgraded you to do things far more difficult than that?"
"Oh, I can do it, don't get me wrong, I just wanted you to know that you have some pretty high expectations of me."
"Of course I do! Dustin reprogrammed you."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab
Sorry about no chapter yesterday, I didn't have the time to write at all. If I have time today, I'll try and get an extra chapter out to make up for it. Thanks for reading!
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment