The Hegemonia: What is seen cannot be unseen

“Ugh...” he said, slowly picking himself up off the floor of the pod. His mouth felt dry and his stomach was completely empty; about a quarter of it in a yellow-gray puddle on the floor next to the cryo-pod. His entire body aching with disuse, he slowly stood up and found he could no longer see.

“Computer, status report”

“Current status of body: Screamer

state: critical

Eyes at 10% effectiveness

Plasma Caster: 5% effectiveness

Internal factories: offline

On board batteries: 10% capacity

Maneuvering nodes: 0.25% effectiveness

External armor: compromised

Internal superstructure: heavy damage

Artificial limbs: .75% effectiveness

Mental facilities: Exceptional

Primary power conduits: damaged

Secondary power conduits: compromised

Tertiary power conduits: Satisfactory

Internal Organs: Stable

Purification Systems: Off-line

Immune System: Off-line

Status of ship: Ark

External Armor: Compromised

Shields: Off-line

Weapons: Off-line

Sensors: Online

Reactor: Online

Computer Core: Online

Life Support: Compromised

Artificial Gravity: Offline

Primary Power Conduits: damaged

Secondary Power conduits: Satisfactory

Tertiary Power conduits: Compromised

Quaternary Power Conduits: Offline

Primary quantum core: Offline

Secondary Quantum Core: Online

Sublight Engines: Offline

Hyperspace Engines: Offline

Primary Radiation shield: Offline

Secondary Radiation Shield: Online

Internal Superstructure: Satisfactory

Point Defenses: Damaged

Main Mechwarrior Repair Depot: Online

Maneuvering Thrusters: Online

Communications Arrays: Damaged

System Status: Satisfactory

WARNING: SHIP HAS BEEN BOARDED, EMERGENCY CRYOSTASIS THAW INITIATED”

“Think you can lead us to the Repair Depot, I think we could all use it”

“Audible and visual directions will be given once Thaw has completed, standby”

“I feel like hell, the least you could do is hurry”

“I am going as fast as is safe”

“And my batteries might run out by then”

“Ship is on minimal power until boarders are dealt with”

“What about internal defenses?”

“Most of the intact defenses are in this section, remaining defenses are insufficient to deal with intruders”

“And the crew?”

“The remaining crew have been captured and are held planetside, you four are the only friendlies on this ship”

“great, just great”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Once  you're done thawing them out, activate the closest internal defenses to them and prep the depot for use, I want you to guard that depot until we are repaired”

“Affirmative”

“How long have I been out”

“Omega Lance has been in Cryostasis around this planet for 1,353 years, 5 months, 2 days, 7 hours, 5 minutes and 53 seconds”

“Holy hell, no wonder we're so badly damaged, what happened to our pods?”

“Pod locks and hinges failed, emergency procedure stated to keep subjects in stasis until crew or self-repair procedures could circumvent or repair the damage”

“Obviously something happened that prevented them from completing their task”

“Correct, the natives on the planet Biome 02 are extremely xenophobic, and an incident aboard a human airliner involving their capital's tower pushed them into war, there was no warning, as the captain put it, until the shots started coming”

“Just like 9/11/01”

“Yes, the means were the same but the target was different”

“What caused it to crash”

“Sabotage”

“What?”

“The maintenance crew was bribed to 'overlook' a cracked impeller blade, made worse by a unicorn repeatedly striking the impeller with his sword”

“What did he look like?”

“White coat, blue mane, the locals call him Blueblood”

“That son of a bitch”

“The sabotage was found out only after the airliner crashed, by then it was too late to repair the damages it caused, the locals firmly believed we were planning an invasion and made the decision to conquer is before such a thing happened”

“And we didn't stand a chance...”

“We did not, our technology was being influenced by the radiation the locals emit”

“And so we were forced to fight hand-to-hand”

“In which they excelled at, not to mention they had the range advantage”

“Obviously you found a way around it”

“Affirmative, unfortunately I need neutronium, a resource only found on this planet, to immunize your team”

“How much do you have right now?”

“Enough to make you immune to the EMP effects of an average one, their rulers are a different story”

“Much more powerful?”

“Their power is that of an average unicorn, but multiplied by a factor of ten to the ten-thousandth”

“So their EMP is that much stronger?”

“Correct”

“Damn, well, gonna see about avoiding them for now”

“I am currently working on improving the EMP shield, but I lack the neutronium required to fully protect you from the effects of being in their immediate area and will require frequent absences from their presence”

“Anything else?”

“Yes, I took the liberty of upgrading the hardware and software of you and your team's bodies, but you need to access the depot to acquire the upgrade”

“And our mechs?”

“Having nothing to do for over a thousand years gives you quite a lot of time do make any improvements, and when your an AI such as myself, you get quite a lot of time to take the mechs apart, and put them back together while also scanning the parts for any way of improvement”

“And?”

“I believe that the Lunar body orbiting the planet has sufficient materials for me to continue researching; it is filled with unknown elements”

“Ok then, once we're done, can you maneuver the ship into an orbit around the moon?”

“Already done so, I will make sure that your plasma caster is modified to cut into the Lunar surface to collect samples, do not worry, I will reset the frequency of it once the samples are retrieved”

“Couldn't you do this... I don't know... before you woke me up?”

“I have been limited on resources, and I have already attempted to mine on the surface”

“What did they bring back?”

“Interesting results, something on the surface is preventing wireless transmissions from reaching the drones there, I have preprogrammed several of the remaining ones to mine the moon, those are the ones that came back with samples”

“So, we clear this ship out, you set us down on the moon to collect core samples and set up a base camp if possible, while also magyver some way to send a transmission down there?”

“That is the current objective for you”

“Alright, we'll need a few Signal Buffers set up for orbit around the moon, a scanner, and a wireless transceiver for ground-work”

“The requirements are being prepped and loaded into a shuttle. Once the intruders are taken care of the shuttle will be ready for launch”

“Excellent...”