I had been holding the remains of the Righteous in a sort of makeshift Grinder. They would reincarnate daily and need to be killed again to become "goop" that retained their power suppression abilities. Anna had used it to protect me from a Command core before by using some shielding incorporating it.
This time, I didn't have time for the subtlety, so I simply bathed myself in it.
"Sabotage"
The beams struck our shields again, but my willpower stayed intact. It was then that a large section of the Military deck blew itself apart. Candice. I'd had my drones and the bombs scattered about the ship on every deck except Engineering to minimize the risk of just such an occurrence until it was time to teleport them below. I might be protected from the compulsion, but the mind of my human drones weren't and Candice had detonated one of the devices.
I took manual control of the others and teleported them and the bombs to the guns below. Explosions shook the dome. The entire Powerhungry crew was affected by the compulsion rippling through them. The repair teams were tearing the ship apart and the strike team waiting their moment on the Espionage deck were shooting every system they could, a situation made even worse by the fact that they had Hot Stuff with them.
Shutdown procedures were initiating—Anna and her console. She was trying to neutralize me and destroy the ship. I teleported her into a containment cell on the Research deck and sealed her in.
I engaged the vacuum pumps on every deck but Espionage. The crew couldn't last long without oxygen before passing out. On Espionage I altered the pressure and opened the ramp. The compulsion had already made me angle the ship lower and I used that to my advantage. The strike teams and a repair crew were sucked out, their bodies tumbling out to crash hard against the dome’s surface.
Most of them should have survived that, and I hoped that some distance between them and the impact of the blast would weaken the effect of the compulsion. If not, they were free to sabotage the dome all they wished.
"What is happening, Powerhungry? We are reading multiple hull breaches," Ophelia said, hailing us from the Graven.
"Compulsion blasts of some sort. Your brain may be too underdeveloped to be at risk. But avoid their fire anyway and take out those guns," I said.
"On it," Ophelia said, and the Graven opened fire.
At least that was one part of the plan going right.
"Suicide"
Another blast hit us. But I was protected and the crew was unconscious. This message was different than the last. An intended finishing blow perhaps with our ship already in distress.
A woman who looked to be sculpted out of some sort of liquid metal was emerging from a hatch on the dome below. A whip of metal extended from her wrist and flicked against one of the Wolves, sending him flying off into the jungle.
Another individual with a Power core. I'd thought Lotus was the only one Powered and without the ability to scan inside, I hadn't been able to detect any others.
The Graven took a direct hit from one of the cannons. In response its attacks slowed for twenty seconds before resuming. Was Ophelia resistant as well?
"Are you still with us, Graven? Was my analysis of your tiny brain accurate?" I asked.
The Graven replied, "This is Amy. Hi sis. Ophelia is actually super-smart, but she's kind of compromised so I took over."
At first, none of that seemed to make any sense except for Ophelia being compromised. Then, this sudden stranger being my “sister” did imply some sort of relation to me—and that likely meant I was speaking to the clone of my consciousness. Why the name Amy, though? Friendly tone and incredibly helpful meant she was still influenced by the stabilizer core and probably viewed herself as my opposite.
Or maybe my backwards, if there was such a thing. So A.M.M.E.
It was good to be smart.
"So our entire offensive is now in the hands of a poorly programmed copy. We need to take out whatever they are using to jam our sensors," I said.
"Oh! So you can engage teleportation within the dome perimeter. You're so smart, sis! And we already have sensor data of the blockage from multiple ships and angles within the field to narrow a position. And... got it! I'll have it down in no time," Amme said.
Already I hated her.
The Graven shifted fire to a particular batch of antenna on the dome.
My sensors were started to clear.
I really hated her.
There were no less than four Powered in the dome below. One in weapons control, that must be the Command core. The woman on the roof, core type unknown. One was in what seemed to be a shipping center and the other was in an agricultural section.
That must be Lotus. I wanted all the test subjects I could get, but the plan had already gone completely awry.
I was getting new blips on my sensors. Three ships were incoming.
21
Anna was the one member of the crew aboard the ship still conscious. In the testing cell I hadn't evacuated the oxygen because the shielding there also served as a dampener against abilities. I opened a comm.
"Have you stopped drooling on the floor? Although as bodily fluids go I suppose it something of an improvement," I said.
"I'm sane. Get me out of this cage," Anna said.
Sane was probably stretching the point, but she didn't seem to be trying to kill herself any more or destroy the ship. I locked down the most dangerous bits of her console just to be safe before teleporting her back to the bridge.
"I had to render the crew unconscious to prevent them from destroying the ship. They're much more pleasant now. Most of the ground team is down and under Powered assault. There are four Powered below including our target and we've got attack ships incoming," I said.
"Shit," Anna said, displaying the eloquence I'd come to expect from her. Her fingers were already starting to fly over the keys as she pulled up my sensor data. "Start teleporting the wounded strike team members back aboard. Have the Graven play defense with those ships. Put me near Lotus with a knife and a bag of the nastiest seeds you've got."
I had to almost admire how Anna was at her best in a crisis. Almost. Perhaps if the bar were set higher the rest of the time...?
I teleported her below with a combat knife and a satchel filled with Pistonweed and Sparkseed seeds. I didn't know exactly what she had planned, but I had to trust that she could handle her part of things.
"Amme, we have three ships incoming. That ship you are in has some utility, don't get destroyed," I called.
"We are back to ourselves. We will handle the ship," Ophelia said in a near-monotone.
It was striking how different the unified personality was from either Amme or Ophelia. It made me think that neither of them was actually in control. The dominant part of both personalities had to be the stabilizer orb itself. A problem for another time.
I restored a normal supply of oxygen throughout the ship. It would take some time for the crew to begin to recover. That was fine in most cases, but I needed a few key personnel. I teleported Doctor Batavius and Mechos to the Medbay and dosed them with stimulants.
"I loathe Command cores," Batavius said, sitting up with a groan.
"They are always a problem for those too dim-witted to deal with them," I said.
The nearby bunks began to fill with wounded Wolves as I teleported them in.