Nellie and the Nanites - Bk2 - Ch.22

Chapter 22

Strobelight Nightmare

Moving those outside the village’s walls to the yard took longer than she had expected. It wasn’t a simple case of moving the people alone. No, they needed to have tents, supplies, you name it. The sheer amount of logistics required to keep even a few dozen people alive was staggering.

Lucy immediately flew back to the yard to get things moving, asking for at least an hour before people began to arrive. The nanites were going to be active for that long at least, and Nellie made a note to check with Lucy before they got back in range with the first of the refugees. The last thing they needed was someone getting a look at a nanite swarm and freaking out.

They had never planned on having actual people running around in their yard, so there were a lot of things to be cleared up. Once that was done, they needed to convert one of the hangars into some kind of mass shelter, which meant showers, toilets, beds, cooking areas, mess areas, and more. They needed plumbing. Here she was, Nellie Bonne Chance, former orphan and nascent space Captain, worrying about plumbing.

When exactly was all this going to stop getting weirder?

Nellie was still pondering this question as they loaded the meager belongings of those outside the wall into the cargo bay. A familiar face waved as he came over to say hello.

“Hey, Captain!” Karl-Oti looked thinner than the last time she had seen him, which was wrong. Why hadn’t he put on any weight? “Come to save my sorry tail again, have you?”

“Karl!” Nellie smiled at the shy man. “Help me load this stuff, will you?”

“Happy to!” Karl grabbed a couple of bags from the refugees and handed them to her. In a moment, they had a veritable chain going as Karl passed bags and boxes to her. She passed them to Paren, and Paren tossed them into the corners.

“How have you been?” Nellie asked when they took a short break. She handed the man a HyperDrive, which he drank in a single swallow. That was extreme, even by her standards.

“It was pretty rough the last few days,” he said. He looked embarrassed by the admission. “The Swamp Dogs trampled most of the stuff we had out here. They split round the village, of course, but we had to stand with our backs to the wall just to stay out of the way.”

“What the– Didn’t they help you?” Nellie glared at the figures on the wall. “How come you aren’t still inside, anyway?” She knew she had dropped him off inside the village, and Molly had promised to find him somewhere to stay. Nellie had just assumed he was still inside. A momentary pang of guilt hit her for not checking up on him… but she was so damn busy.

“That’s kind of a long story,” Karl said bitterly.

“We’ll get together to catch up once everyone is safe in the yard,” Nellie said, trying to sound less pissed off than she was. Turning to look behind her as they started loading, she saw a teen brackta with long red hair turn and give the watchers the finger with both hands.

“Suck my tail, assholes!” They shouted as they walked into the loading bay.

Nellie found herself grinning and giving the teen a high five, which might have worked if people here had any idea what the hell that was. They just stared at her hand for a second and then asked if she was okay.

“Fucking kids,” she growled to herself as she stalked into the flight deck. Nellie had made the crucial mistake of forgetting how teens habitually made adults feel like complete dorks. It was weirdly much less fun to be on the other side of her teenage hobby.

Karma, it turned out, could reach out and get your ass all the way across the damn universe.

“Lucy, inbound with the refugees,” Nellie called out loud. She didn’t actually use the comms because there was no point, but she went through the pantomime anyway.

“Roger, Cap,” Lucy’s voice came over the speakers. “Everything will be ready in three minutes. Hangar Two.” The speakers cut out, and Lucy continued talking directly into Nellie’s ear. “I have cleared all signs of nanites and secured the sheds and our quarters. Hangar one now has biometric locks as well. I moved the Pod in there to be safe.”

“Thanks, Luce,” Nellie sub-vocalised the words and smiled. She liked the sound of ‘our quarters.’

“I added showers and toilets at the back of hangar two, the mess and kitchens to the front, and put the beds in between. I also added cameras and two small security drones I knocked up. They don’t do much but stun with a small electric charge, but they should discourage people fucking around.” Lucy whispered.

Nellie nodded and saw the other change to the yard as she arrived.

Lights had never been a huge priority for the group, as they pretty much didn’t need them. They had a few, of course, to at least look normal. Now, that had changed. The Yard blazed with lights on the walls, facing in and out, and on the buildings. Hangar two was wide open and light blazed within.

They came into land and funneled everyone into the hangar to get settled. Fortunately, there were no accusations of theft when they handed out the gear they had brought from the village. They seemed to be a really tight group. She could see it in the way they moved, staying together and helping each other constantly. No one even complained about the lack of privacy. They each had tents or similar in their belongings, but no one seemed to be in a hurry to set them up. They all headed for the beds straight away.

There were some arguments about who slept where, but it was like watching siblings argue. No one ever got too angry, and a few ended up wrestling around and laughing.

When Salem pushed in a grav sled of supplies, she and Baz worked together for once and started making some food; there was a flood of people to help.

Nellie waved a can of HyperDrive at Karl-Oti and got him to come and sit down with her. She really wanted to know what had happened to him.

“Everyone seems to get on well,” Nellie said as they both drank their coffee. It was a bit of a lame opening, but it worked.

“Yeah,” He smiled. “Great group of people, really.”

“Normally, I’d expect people to be arguing and fighting in a stressful situation like this,” Nellie prompted.

“Oh, we did.” Karl laughed, “At first, anyway. We just kind of had to rely on each other, you know?”

“Tell me about it?” Nellie asked as casually as she could.

“I don’t want to get the villagers in trouble or…” He hesitated. “I’m sure they did their best.”

“Fuck that!” The teen slid in next to Karl. He, and it was a he, had very pronounced scales, a long tail, and green reptilian eyes. Slim and with that lanky, awkward build some people got after a big growth spurt. His mismatched clothing gave him a bit of a punk rock look that he pulled off well. “They kicked us out and tried to make us slaves, Karl. Fuck ‘em. I hope they get eaten.” He sniggered. “And not in the nice way.”

Karl put his head in his hands and sighed tiredly, but Nellie laughed. What? It was her kind of humor.

“Captain, this is Jo-Ban,” He frowned at the teen who scowled back. “JoJo, this is the Captain. A little decorum, please.”

“Oh shit,” He grinned. “You the Beacon? Sweet.” He held out a hand. “I’m Jo. Never JoJo.” He glared at Karl for a second. “I got all the details on the evils, get me?”

“Sure,” Nellie nodded. “Nice to meet you, Jo.”

“See, man?” He grinned at Karl, “Is that so hard?”

“Please don’t encourage him,” Karl groaned. “His mother calls him JoJo, so we all do.”

“Hey, my mum can call me anything she wants!” Jo-Ban said with a sniff.

“As long as she doesn’t call you late for dinner, right?” Nellie said with a grin. It was a terrible joke from when she was a kid, but it always amused her.

“Huh?” The two men looked at her like she was speaking another language.

“Never mind,” Nellie said, wincing internally.

“You’re weird,” Jo-Ban said with all seriousness. “I like that, see ya!” He dashed off as the first food came out of the kitchen. “Hey, Karl! Tell her what’s been going on, or I will!”

“That boy is an excellent argument for contraception,” Karl said with a frown.

“Stop changing the subject,” Nellie smiled. “Tell me what’s been happening over there.”

“So, yeah,” Karl looked a bit uncomfortable, “It was all about space at the start. I was kind of helping out at that point, you know. There were so many people in the village that people had no room to move about. It was causing fights.” He took another drink and swallowed hard, “Someone suggested letting people go for walks and stuff outside, burn off energy kind of thing. Well, it worked. When people were out, there was more room inside. It kind of snowballed from there.”

“Go on,” Nellie prompted when he seemed to stop there. “I just want to know what happened.”

“It’s kind of my fault,” Karl slumped in his seat, “I was the one to suggest the walks, and when everything got so much better, I just thought…”

“Why not have a few people stay out there for a few days?” Nellie guessed.

“Yeah,” He sighed. “It seemed like no problem, but then a few more people arrived…”

“And the few days got a lot longer,” Nellie nodded.

“We started to have trouble getting fuel for the space heaters, and it got really cold,” Karl said. “A few people asked to come in, at least during the day for a bit, to heat up.” He swallowed, “A few days after that, one of the groups that went in was pretty connected to one of the cities, and they, well…”

“They never came out?” Nellie guessed. “Molly sent some others out instead, right?”

“How did you know that?” Karl looked surprised.

“It’s pretty basic stuff.” Nellie gave him a sad smile. “The richer or more connected take the best stuff for themselves, and the poor or alone get pushed out. Literally, in this case.”

“That was it,” Karl said. “The other groups outside started to sort of bid to be allowed inside. This one group traded some of their belongings for a couple of hours inside at night,” He shook his head, pushing his plate away from him, “Molly thought that was unfair, so she came up with a new system. We had to work to earn time inside the walls.”

“Bitch,” Nellie ground her teeth.

“They pushed some more people out as well,” Karl said, “And suddenly we had to earn our food as well.”

“Enough,” Nellie said angrily. “If you tell me more, I’ll turn that place into a crater.”

She opened her mouth to say more but was interrupted by an icon flashing on her HUD.

Movement… the Abomi-Toads were here.

===<<<>>>===

Lucy was feeling frustrated. It was a feeling she was becoming worrying familiar with. Her personality subroutines had been growing like crazy lately. She spent a second running a diagnostic sweep, but everything was running as it should.

Maybe frustration was just a normal thing when dealing with so many flesh-based beings. That was a frustrating thought. Was frustration a feedback loop? She checked, and the short answer was… yes.

Thankfully, the universe had provided an outlet for that frustration. She tied her senses into the feeds from the sensor drones, added the synthetic’s feeds, and then made sure their new guests were safely locked in Hangar Two before she took control of the three shuttles and flew them into position over the yard.

She ran a final check of the laser arrays while she moved her body onto the wall with the others.

Baz gave her a wave as he cocked his rifle and checked his pistols. She was trying not to think of him as HER synthetic. She had played a big part in making him, well, him. That made it difficult not to favor him slightly. Paren was setting something up of her own on the tower closest to the horde, so she sent a quick scan that way with one of the scouts.

Her eyebrows rose when she caught the readings for a laser turret. If she had known what Paren was doing… but thanks to Nu-B, she never got so much as a hint from the teen. She was both proud of Nu-B for being a good AI for Paren and irritated that the little shit dared interfere with her connection to Paren.

She waved a hand, and the three shuttles formed up in a line a few feet in front of the walls.

“In range in five, four, three, two…” She clicked her fingers and turned the lights off in the yard. There was no need to actually click her fingers, but she was picking up bad habits. It was kind of nice to show off a little.

“Fire!” She whispered, sending her voice to all of their group at once.

The darkness was split by the flashing lines of laser fire as the arrays on the shuttles activated and hissing lines of light cut into the charging Toads. They stemmed the tide for a second or two before they began to overheat, and she drew them back into a support position above the walls. The cooling and recharge wouldn’t take long.

In the meantime…

“All units, fire at will!” Nellie yelled.

The night lit again with flashing laser fire. The rhythm wasn’t as smooth as the well-coordinated laser fire she had managed with the shuttles. Her vision began to blur slightly as the various feeds were lit at different times, but it was enough for her to track the target boxes filling her vision.

She fired with quick, deadly accuracy. Each flash hit a vital organ or instantly killed the creatures. The rifle started to heat in her hands until the gentle glow of hot metal cast a delicate pink glow on her cheek.

Dropping the rifle, Lucy drew her pistols and reveled in the joy of twin guns. No longer restricted to a single firing arc, her arms blurred as she unleashed volleys of fire into the mass of squirming darkness pushing forward.

One by one, they called out of ammo.

She holstered the glowing pistols and waved the shuttles forward again.

“Everyone, change out your power cells!” She called as she controlled the shuttles, rotating the one firing to buy extra time.

===<<<>>>===

Nuns, even weird renegade French ones, were kind of big on Hell. The whole concept and vivid descriptions thereof were a frequent topic of conversation. A couple even made a game of coming up with the worst description of Hell. The winner got a cookie after dinner every Sunday for a month.

As they opened fire on the toads, Nellie knew they were all wrong.

If Hell existed, and she was more partial to the non-Christian versions of Hells, this was as close as most people would get to seeing it before they died.

The lights plunged the world into pitch darkness, their own night vision lighting everything for a split second before they started to fire. Night vision shut down as the lasers cut into the darkness.

Her Hud lit with a target, and she fired. A thin beam of yellow light from her rifle struck a Toad directly through the mouth, and it dropped like a stone. The dark swept back in as she stopped firing, but it was enough for her HUD software to target another. Nellie fired again.

All around her, the lasers fired off, and the tempo quickened. Nellie held her breath as the darkness cracked into a strobe-lit nightmare in neon colors and absolute blackness. The Toads appeared almost frozen in each flash of light.

It was a nightmare made real before her eyes, and as the rifle heated itself in her metal hands, Nellie felt adrenaline flood her system.

By the time her rifle was too hot to fire, she was grinning from ear to ear, and she dropped it to fire off her pistol with a whoop of joy.

“Venez le chercher, salauds!” Nellie roared over the wall at the mass of dead flesh and sprayed the area ahead of her with laser fire without bothering to aim.

A few seconds later, Baz called that he was out of power for his guns, and Salem and the others followed suit.

She stood and gasped as she found her own pistol empty. Her eyes flicked over to Lucy, whose arms moved in a blur as she was lit by the constant stream of fire she was putting out.

Nellie was uncomfortably aware she had never been more turned on in her life.

The shuttles roared forward and opened fire as they all scrambled for extra power packs.

===<<<>>>===

“Newbie, get ready!” Paren called as the Shuttle fire started to slow. She had not yet used her new toy, as she wanted to wait until it was needed. She got a flash of a thumbs-up icon on the HUD Newbie had installed for her and grinned as she stood back from the wall and took her place behind the turret she had modified.

“Shuttle arrays overheating!” Lucy called. “How long?”

“I need another minute for our weapons to cool!” Nellie called back.

“I’ve got something. Permission to activate combat mode?” Paren called.

Nellie and Lucy just stared at her.

“Well?” She asked.

“Granted,” Lucy said, getting a look from Nellie.

“Activating Combat Mode,” Paren grinned as it felt as if ice was poured into her veins. “Initiating Combat, Mode Five.” She slammed her gauntletted arm into the hole in the center of the turret. “Now, Newbie!”

She heard a chirp from her AI as he climbed onto her back, and the turret shifted.

She jammed her other hand into it as her muscles hardened and her nanites connected to the modified laser turret. The barrel split into three, and she felt Nu-B jack into the collection of power packs.

She had spent a long time modifying this design, and it had taken even longer to get all the parts for it.

Paren stood, and the turret came with her. It was a part of her now, and the three barrels began to rotate as she took a single step to the wall and propped on foot on it. Steel stabilizers shot out and connected to the wall, and she climbed up, leaning forward and over the edge as her vision lit with target icons.

“Shuttles out,” Lucy pulled them back. “Fire at will!”

Deep inside the machine, Paren’s hand clutched the trigger and squeezed.

The first barrel spat a laser, then rotated, the second fired, and then the third. In less than a second, they moved in a blur as the whine of the stolen Fed tech was almost buried between the hiss of expelled coolant and the gasp of the compensators.

Paren started to laugh as she dragged the turret in her hands left and right, cutting apart the toads by the dozens. Nothing survived as she burned through ten power packs and the turret's internal power in less than five minutes.

Just as the power indicator flashed to empty, she leaned back and scanned the darkness. Nothing moved.

Silence reigned as she deactivated combat mode and shook herself free of the turret, which would have to be rebuilt before it could be used again.

“They’ve passed,” Lucy called, and slowly the lights came back up in the yard.

Paren turned to see the rest staring at her with blank shock.

“What?” Paren asked with a smug grin. “Did you think I was building teddy bears in that shed or something?”