War Factory: Transformations Book Two by Neal Aher Read Free Book Online

one hemisphere of the planet and would then proceed to traverse the next hemisphere. Ahead of it, even though it would be slowing, it would compress the atmosphere. As it closed over the second hemisphere in a steadily shrinking circle approximately centred on Carapace City, the pressure would ramp up and up. The effects, when that final circle closed, would be catastrophic, akin to a multi-megaton detonation. Carapace City and all those inside could not survive this.
    “Drone,” Sverl instructed. “Tell those remaining that they must get to the eastern edge of the city as fast as they can.” Sverl sent precise coordinates.
    “Uh?”
    “Four hours is the limit to how long I will wait.” Sverl paused for a second. “I’m sure most of the shell people will come when they know their destination.”
    “Oh, I see.” After a pause the drone continued, “You won’t be able to save them all.”
    “No, I won’t,” Sverl replied, as his dreadnought hit atmosphere hard enough to send him stumbling, before turning over to descend to the planet on fusion drive.
    GARROTTE
    The Garrotte ’s AI realized something had merely allowed it to believe it was in control of its systems. Now, as it transited U-space, it knew that all the essentials—weapons, defences and the drive—were completely beyond its reach. Its earlier inability to function and internal blindness clearly had nothing to do with the quantum effects of two ships trying to materialize in the same place. Now those problems were back and at least half of its mass was completely numb to it, completely dark—an area suspiciously focused around its mascot, that antique space suit.
    “Whadda you want?” it asked that darkness, but the darkness again refused to reply. And, of course, Garrotte had a good idea of what, or rather who, that darkness was.
    So when had it taken on this uninvited passenger? During Garrotte’s encounter with the Moray Firth above Masada, Penny Royal was down on the surface of the planet. However, that was human thinking and, to a certain extent, the thinking of AIs like itself, predicated on the idea that an entity was a single unit at a single location. Penny Royal had turned itself into a swarm robot and could divide itself up. Evidence existed that it could also manipulate U-space and project itself or elements of itself across that continuum. In fact, plenty of evidence suggested that Penny Royal was quite capable of existing in many places at once. Garrotte now suspected one of them to be a place aboard where there were no scanners and no diagnostic links: the inside of that space suit. It seemed the AI had found the one small weakness in the attack ship’s defences. The black AI had U-jumped inside to the one place Garrotte would not detect it, and when it had done so was unknown.
    Beyond the fact that the AI was here, the precedents were more than a little worrying. Remembering the paralysis it had suffered after the crash with the Firth , Garrotte feared that Penny Royal, or its influence, had already been aboard at that point. This suggested that the black AI had predicted events and set up its escape route some time before Isobel Satomi’s transformation into a hooder war machine and her arrival here with her three warships. Garrotte did not think itself capable of such precision , nor was it sure such capabilities lay within the compass of any lesser AI than Earth Central itself.
    Unless, of course it’s breaching time, using time travel . . .
    No, that wasn’t somewhere the Garrotte wanted to go, and it reflected on how if it had a sphincter, that part would be loosening about now.
    “So you’re not going to talk to me?” Garrotte asked.
    Almost as if in response to the question, the ship began to surface from U-space, and Garrotte wished it had kept its metaphorical mouth shut.
    The moment the Micheletto’s Garrotte returned to the real it went straight into chameleonware mode, faster than was usually possible, so