The "Watchbird" Program

[Linkero]

[font=Times New Roman][color=#FFFFFF]"Ok, this thing is on?......Good." Daniel Torvalds said as he prepared the cruise engine on his Recycler. "Setting course to Sector H-8. The last place for me to check out here. Bout damn time. I'm getting tired of the same views every day."

The energy gathered, and the engines started to glow. In an instant, the ship flew forward with amazing force. Pushing Daniel back into his seat as the space dust darted by outside the cockpit window. The engines roared with life as the ship started towards its destination. Unbuckling the harness, he got up and grabbed a pad. On it was a checklist. Pretty standard for Junker's Congress members. A list of all the ships equipment with standard points to check for error. Of course, everything checked out due to having maintenance a few days prior. No sooner had he finished the list, the nav system kicked in.

"Waypoint is 10k away"

"Oh great! Time to turn my scanners on and start surveying." Daniel said as he sat back down.

The scanners turned on, and immediately set off the red alert. "Hostiles detected"

"What the hell?!" He reran the scan. Five Wilde ships. "This is different." Turning Autopilot off, he grabbed the controls and started to steer away. No sooner had the ship reached its 180 degree turn, four more ships popped up on the radar out of thin air, directly in front of him. "Not again....." Having experience with what he calls "The vile of the universe," Daniel powered on his weapons, and launched two torpedo'€™s, Followed by his main weapons. "Two down, seven.......wait what??" Ten more ships, including two gunboats. "Oh no, ohhhhh no. THINKKKKKK!!!!" His ship shaked violently as the Wilde's guns hit the Recyclers hull directly. "Thruster............Kill engine!!" All power shut down as he drifted quickly into space. Turning the ship around, he started firing and praying. All the Wilde ships stopped suddenly. Turning back around to the way his ship was traveling, he noticed a sparkle a bit above him.

"Wilde, they are all the same. Boundary issues..." Torvalds thought to himself as he started toward the direction of what he saw. The ship moved slowly with the scanners using full power. "Nothing...." He kept going, hoping something would show up. Instead, he saw it again. This time a bit to his left, but he had his eyes fixed on it. Turning the ship slightly, he headed towards the object. 3k away........2k........989m......

"An AI Drone. Why didn'€™t it show up on my scanners? Hmmm...."

Daniel turned his ship around, and backed up slowly to initiate his tow beam. A modified tractor beam designed to pull heavy objects and keep them at a distance. He thought of this idea one day as he was mining, and didn'€™t have enough room for all his scrap metal. Very useful at towing a net with about 20 more units of scrap.

He proceeded towards his house on Leeds. Thankfully, there was no traffic out, so the travel back was done in no time. He loaded the drone onto his Border Worlds Transport. He was getting ready for a long trip. A trip to a place frowned upon by most.....

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"Course set. Lodeve Space Port, Languedoc System," the console reported to him.

"I really shouldn't be doing this. Arbiter Jack Crow, the leader of the Junker's Congress, doesn'€™t like AI's or the Gallic Junkers." He thought. But, the history of Daniel goes far back beyond the current times in the Congress. Only a standing Congressmen for roughly 3 months currently, he was a Congressmen a long time ago. In those days, life was simple. Junkers didn't have as many worries. He did his research for Vladimir Tinkerbell, and was looked highly in the Congress. But the Congress was small at that time, and different alliances were kept. The Harvester units were active, and.....hell.....Junkers were about the only ones that didn'€™t have to worry about the AI ships that harvested HUMANS!! Not only that, but the Junkers were still on fairly good terms with Gallia.

But, everything came crashing down. Gallia declared war, basically disbanded the Junkers. The Harvesters.....just disappeared. Jack had taken over at the point of the Harvesters going offline, which in turn upset him highly and changed his view on Artificial Intelligence. Daniel had suffered a crash before Crow had taken over the congress. Not exactly sure what happened in the years he was gone, but these were the records he could dig up. But it didn't change anything for him. Set in the views Tinkerbell bestowed, he proceeded to do his own work under the Congress' radar.

"Freelancer Alpha One Dash One, This is Cordes Outpost. Please state your intentions or we will open fire!"

"That means I reached the mine field in Orkney" Daniel Thought. Bringing his ship to a halt, he responded, "This is Daniel Torvalds. I am on my way to Lodeve Space Port."

"Roger that Freelancer, You are cleared to proceed."

In a short time, he reached where he was going. He was meeting an old buddy of his, Sean DeLuca. An associate with ties into everything about everything. The go to guy. Fortunately, only a select few knew this guy's secrets. Daniel happened to be one of the lucky few.

"Danny Boy! Long time no see, pal! What can I do you for today?" Mr. DeLuca said in a heavy French accent. Despite his origins in Gallia, Sean speaks English quite well, having taken courses on Leeds where Daniel is from.

"Hey, Sean!" Daniel said with enthusiasm. "I have something I want you to look at. It's in the hold of my BWT"

They proceeded out to Torvalds ship, exchanging playfully snide remarks to each other. It was obvious the two had known each other a long time. Sean walked up to the drone in astonishment. "Daniel, what are you doing with this?!"

"I found it during a patrol. Didn't appear on scanners, and seems dead to me. That'€™s why I am here. Figure I would see if you knew about these at all. You know where I've been..."

"Well, a lot has gone on my dear friend. The Harvesters went offline...." Sean brushed some of the space dust off the side of the ship. "Look here. 'Harvester Unit # __' Seems it's a Harvester unit that never got programmed with a FTGW Directive, or a unit number. Where did you say you got this again?" Taking a walk around the ship again, he looked stunned.

"As said, a patrol. I was going around Newcastle, and......this. Ran into quite a bit of Wilde ships beforehand too. Barely escaped but thankfully they must of been protecting something, they didn't follow me. Gonna have to go back and see what was there after I'm done here." Torvald said.

"Honestly, I can't help you. All I can really tell you is after the Harvesters went offline, Humans started building AI ships for their own purposes. The Harvester units on the other hand, you may see flying around. They all have assigned numbers though. As for this one, you're going to have to take it somewhere else, Danny."

"Alrighty, thanks anyway Sean. I'll stay in contact with you, and let you know my progress." Daniel said as he headed for the Bridge of the ship.

Sean walked back to the bar, as Daniel undocked from the station. Debating where to go next, he started thinking to himself. "Harvester unit.....no number, not online. No Directive, protocol......nothing. If I can figure out how to get this damn thing on, maybe I can put it to use. Have it do my dirty work for me. Of course, I'm going to have to have it fly 'under the radar' cause of the Congressmen. If they knew what I was into, I'd probably be kicked on the spot. Ughhhhh where do I take this thing......"

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Dr. Bernard Vincent, one of the leading scientists in Gallia. His breakthroughs have lead to some of the best technology in existence. Of course, he exaggerates his stories a bit. But, he is the only guy Daniel knows that "knows his stuff." Working out of Calais Research Facility in Picardy, Dr. Vincent is able to conduct tests that no other can.

"Mr. Torvalds, Bonjour ami! It has been a long time since I've seen you. Why didn't you contact me before coming out? I am quite busy." the scientist said curiously.

"I had to stay on the low. I have something in my cargo hold that I want you to check out. It's.....different. An unmarked Harvester unit, with no power. I want to see if you can get it going again."

"Are you insane?! What if it comes on and ends up killing everyone? No. I will not partake in this." Dr. Vincent yelled as he walked away.

"Just one look. Don'€™t make me mention what happened in IDF...." Daniel said with a slight grin. Watching the doctor stop suddenly, he knew that Bernard would help.

"Fine......I will look. But THAT'S it. Only look. I'm not touching that thing."

As they entered the mooring deck, Dr. Bernard told the guards to exit. Torvalds led him to the Drone stuffed in the bay of the Transport. The doctors'€™ eyes widened as his mouth dropped. "Daniel, get this thing away from here now.....Don't bring it back either"

Daniel was amazed at his friends'€™ rejection. He did what was asked though, and left the station. He headed back to Newcastle, where he had a small outpost set up for his patrols. Wondering to himself whether to trash this thing, or try getting it running somehow, there was a huge explosion from the front of the ship.

"EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY!!!!! I'VE TAKEN A HIT!! WHAT THE HELL?! WHO DID THAT?! EJECT, EJ**$*#*!(%&&!$(......................................................."

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