Fall of Reincarnation

[ARM]

---

A day in history, fall of Reincarnation

ARM was told it was impossible, that they would all die for nothing. They proved everyone wrong. For eight days, the Core fleets were united as one, a force to be reckoned with. They battled with the Corsairs over and over again, beating them down every battle. After each battle, the Corsairs had less and less resistance as their fleets dwindled and their lives lost.

Core's forces, and allies contacted one another, and made preparations to attack the base. Their allies, Phoenix, also had a say in assisting in this matter. They took many major preparations for this attack to be successful, as they didn't want to chance a loss. Walls of battleships and fighter screens were deployed over and over again, until the base was no more.

With a major loss of a base in the Omicrons, the Corsairs presence in Omicron Delta will lower. Which in return, will raise the presence of Core dominance once again.

---

[Perfect Gentleman]

"AIX-099 operator reports. Drone status is as follows: systems - calibrated, weapons - calibrated, combat protocols - calibrated, power core and defense systems - functioning. Ready to launch the drone."

"Roger that operator, permission to launch the drone granted."

The drone soared into Omicron Delta space. When the Archer Inc. ran into huge financial difficulties after the Mars Battleship incident, they were left with two choices: disperse to different divisions of the Core and eke out an existence there, or risk what they had and make a fortune. The state of the company was tense, as no one wanted to throw away years of research on Gammu AI that had led to what it had led to.

And the research had led to a real opportunity for a small group of programmers to create a combat neural network and attract investors to that, rather than the subject of subjugating Gammu AI. In fact, the members of this corporation were against the idea of Gamma AIs being slaves to the Core and following orders, but what could be done: their influence was negligible, and so there was no point in vocalizing what was going on. Their job was to study the principles of AI in depth and try to make their own analog.

Yes, these drones are devoid of their own consciousness. Yes, they wouldn't make great conversationalists, but the battle at Omicron Kappa after the loss of Mars had shown the effectiveness of their first working sample, which had increased their funding, and with the money they'd gotten they'd started working on the wreckage of the drones they'd recovered from that battle. The corporation realized that mass production of such drones could bring them a fortune. Their logic was quite simple: what is the point of an intelligent AI if an “empty” shell capable of performing basic tasks and handling it efficiently is enough? It doesn't matter to the customer whether the AI can communicate like a human or not. All the client needs is to accomplish tasks.

And they have an opportunity not only to prove the effectiveness of their developments, but also to test the vitality of their corporate policy in action. If AIX-099 attracts investment not from private Sirius individuals, but right “here and now” from outside groups, it will prove that the customer base is interested in further cooperation, and all this really makes sense. In fact, Archer intended to kill two birds with one stone. No, not two, three! And Reincarnation will be their starting point to greatness or... Collapse.

"The drone assumed a stable orbit around Nauru planet. Activating standard protocols, all prepared messages are ready to be sent, the Drone will be able to carry out standard communications and perform typical combat tasks. Permission to transfer control?"

"Permission granted, you are free to transfer the control straight to drone intelligence core."

Pressing a couple buttons put the Drone into automatic flight mode. The operator watched the ship's operation for about 10 minutes. What's his next move? Drone chose the direction to the fleet, according to the priority task of the Reincarnation siege. As soon as the man was sure that the device was working as planned - he reported it to his superiors, and he put the keyboard aside and decided to make coffee. Yes, it was a crucial day for the entire corporation, but it was deep night on this side of the planet, and if he didn't get a cup of coffee, he would just fall asleep at the control panel. When he returned, he continued to watch the Drone. It was closing in on the fleet. There were more and more Signatures, but not enough distance to make contact. And then the Drone reached the desired location.

A huge number of ships. An unimaginably-serious fleet, capable of crushing stars, had gathered today to destroy the Reincarnation. Intelligence reports indicated that the Corsairs were also pulling their considerable forces to the station to inflict damage, but reports indicated that this was not the first day the Core had prevailed. However, it was unwise to underestimate the warlike disposition of the corsairs. If the corsairs were something insignificant - they would not have been able to succeed on all fronts around them. However, the larger the Empire, the closer it came to extinction. And this was confirmed by the recent news about the battles in Sigmas and Teta, as well as the operation in Kappa, where, in fact, AIX-099 had undergone its “baptism of fire”.

Suddenly, the Drone began to spiral out of control.

"Operator, what's going on down there? We're losing contact with the drone, confirm immediately!"

"I'm already dealing with it. There are too many Core ships, a huge number of incoming teams. The drone simply doesn't have time to process everything at once. Permission to disconnect them?"

"Granted."

"There's another problem, now I have readings that AIX-099 is consider them as hostile ships... Yeah, that's because they've lost contact with it and pointing guns. We need someone who can take that drone under control and align orders to it."

"Give us a moment, keep watching for it and be ready take hand-control!"

"Roger that!"

Paper rustling on the backside. Time ticked by in seconds. The operator heard talking to someone. Although the pause lasted less than a minute - time stretched on for an eternity. Suddenly, an order came from the other side:

"Establish a connection with the Lockdown ship, it will issue orders to the drone. Set a lock on the use of weapons until incoming signals from Lockdown are received. Do you copy?"

"Yes, I do, commands recieved, sending them to AIX-099... And... Yeah, now it's fine. Drone is working well and getting commands from WV-Lockdown, weapons unlocked, and it's not marking as hostiles anyone else."

"In the battle at Omicron Kappa, the drone was receiving commands from a single Core battlecruiser, and this prevented it from deviating from its established course. Here, there are many Core ships, and it was receiving commands from literally all of them. This is a gross error on the part of our programmers, we will deal with this later."

One problem less. Now the drone had to work according to its tasks. Having reached Lockdown, AIX-099 began to wait for further orders. Coffee was no longer needed: the situation that had occurred had given a horse dose of adrenaline to everyone in the corporation, including the operator. Sleep had disappeared. The fleet began to move. It seemed that everyone was assembled, the climax was approaching. However, everyone was counting on the drone to behave as it had during the operation in Kappa. Now we just need to see if it can handle it now. The distance to Reincarnation was decreasing with each passing second. And then, like a huge storm, the drone's sensors began to receive new signatures.

"My God, HQ, do you see THIS?"

"Yes, we do, too many of them. How does AIX-099 feels?"

"Fine, receiving orders now. Drone receives first combat orders, prepares to enter battle."

"Copy operator, keep watching."

Flashes. Combat. The scale of the clash was incredible, but the drone seemed to be doing its job perfectly. Operating in formation, it continued to receive orders, one after another, either providing support or intercepting large enemy vessels and participating in operations to besiege them. Yes, the weapon was not capable of damaging Reincarnation, but it was quite capable of thinning out the ranks of the defenders. When the last corsair ship was blown to pieces, the attacking fleet took up positions and began shelling the station. Reincarnation began to take incoming damage, and the operator only watched the drone's systems and found that it had done quite well: although there was little ammunition to continue the fight, it still held out until the end.

"Command, requiring for permission to order AIX-099 get back at Nauru. Fight is over, it seems."

"Granted, operator. Set command for drone to get back home."

The rest of the time passed like a dream for everyone. Although the results were intriguing, the hard work and the corporation's state of limbo over the last month did not allow for any conscious work on the drone. When the repair and technical inspection of the drone was finished, everyone went home. It had been a hard day, very hard, for everyone. No one wanted to discuss today's battle, despite the satisfactory results. The corporation's management sent all completed orders to the appropriate employers, and then simply chose a waiting position.

And in the morning...

"Guys, look!"

"What's there?"

"Employers. They paid us for that siege."

"Let me see- Jesus Christ!"

"Do you understand what it means?"

"It worked... And we're rich..."

"And we're rich!"

"GOD DAMN IT WE'RE RICH!"

It was a particularly bright and idle morning on Nauru for a small corporation that had risked everything and gotten everything. Archer Inc. had seized their chance. The "Liberty dream" was right under their feet. And they had reached for it.

To be continued...