4993 Grand Convergence IV The Babylon Excavator was a warship built to explore the Red Ocean. Although she was far from the largest and most powerful warship to enter into service, the CFA reconnaissance carrier was among the fastest vessels that could operate in the wilderness for years on end. In order to track the movements of the dominant alien forces and scope out the future targets of humanity's invasion, the Babylon Excavator had traveled deep into native territory. The only CFA vessels that went deeper were the dedicated stealth scout vessels! Though the Babylon Excavator could not remain hidden as well as the smaller starships that were equipped with the latest transphasic stealth systems, Captain Zonrad Reze loved his vessel anyway. His word was law on the reconnaissance cruiser. The traditions of the Common Fleet Alliance granted him a lot of autonomy in the way he ran his ship. As long as the performance standards of his crew remained satisfactory, the Sigrund could make use of his authority to remove or mitigate as many inefficiencies in his command as possible. Although his crew initially did not embrace his increased emphasis on hard numbers and highly rational decision-making, the fleeters eventually came around to his approach. Over the past half decade of exploring the deep frontier, he formed new friendships, deepened his understanding of the tech built into his ship and explored his own humanity. Throughout all these times, Sigrund always had to remind himself that he was not truly human. His apparent body was just a meat suit that the sentient Al used to camouflage himself among the fleeters. Yet as his 'real' body continued to integrate with the brain of Zonrad Reze, it became increasingly harder for Sigrund to maintain this distinction. Through the few self-examinations he managed to conduct outside the view of his own crew and the night-ubiquitous monitoring system of his warship, he found that there was no feasible way to undo the merger! His original computerized sandman admiral core no longer processed all of his mental activity in isolation. for one reason or another, his meat suit's organic brain had become a core part of his being! The integration surpassed the level of an ordinary pairing between a cranial implant and an organic human brain! They had become so mutually intertwined that not even the strongest implant blockers could successfully place a barrier between his sandman admiral core and his human brain. This was not supposed to happen according to the customized implantation procedure that he calculated and implemented after he infiltrated the CFA! The distinctly human thoughts, emotions and feelings that used to belong to Zonrad Reze had started to blend so much into his own thinking that ripping them out would be no less than lobotomizing himself! Sigrund speculated that if he ever forced a separation, he would essentially split himself into half! Neither of these halves would ever be able to come close to his current self in terms of intelligence, empathy and drive! Still, even though Sigrund had become more human than he initially intended, he did not really feel that bad to be honest. Humans were the dominant species in the immediate area around the Milky Way Galaxy. There was no logical reason for Sigrund to maintain any attachment to his alien origin. While his inhuman self granted him many advantages, the power of humanity was not weak. As long as he fulfilled his ambition and promoted the rank of admiral, Sigrund would truly be able to attain his own powerbase among the humans. He could resolve any hidden dangers related to his true identity and reshape a part of the CFA. His goal was to reform the Common Fleet Alliance into a better organization that did not irrationally cling to old human traditions and anachronisms! After all, if his decoded programming forced him to remain loyal to the CFA until his termination, he may as well ensure it remained healthy enough to stand the test of time! Yet before Sigrund could reach this point, he first had to ensure he survived his current mission. A powerful explosion rocked the port side of the Babylon Excavator's damaged hull! Her superdrive had been knocked offline and a third of the reconnaissance cruiser had lost power. Large rents had been dug into the hull plating of the CFA vessel. In all of the Babylon Excavator's previous engagements against the indigenous aliens, the hull remained virtually untouched. The ship had always been able to count on an array of transphasic energy shields that performed a lot better than the equivalents utilized by the native alien races. This was no longer the case! "Alert! The alien pursuit fleet is about to launch its next phasewater torpedo salvo!" "Redirect the fire of our plasma cannons to the torpedo launchers of their battleships and two largest cruisers! Instruct our mech squad to harass the remaining alien cruisers!" The Babylon Excavator had put up a great effort into holding her own so far, but this time the reconnaissance cruiser managed to make a discovery that could change the course of the Red Ocean! Sigrund and all of the other fleeters serving aboard the human vessel immediately understood that it became vitally important to pass on their intelligence back to the CFA! Unfortunately for all of them, the aliens struck a powerful blow that not only blew past all of the Babylon Excavator's external defenses, but also disabled a lot of systems! The powerful strike not only destroyed all of the quantum communication nodes, it also disabled the backup long-ranged communication device that only Sigiund could access! Against an enemy of this magnitude, it was all the Babylon Excavator could do to flee from the star system and make her way back to human-occupied space as fast as possible. The native aliens dispatched a powerful fleet of their own in order to prevent the CFA reconnaissance cruiser from bringing back the news. For weeks on end, the two groups fought a running pursuit that increasingly dragged on the Babylon Excavator's heels. "The enemy warships have launched their torpedoes! They are rapidly accelerating!" "The alien carrier is beginning to launch both starfighters and bombers!" "Prioritize their interception! Why are half of our tertiary laser turrets not firing?!" "The last enemy energy weapon strike severed one of the main power lines and disabled two of our power reactors. Our damage control teams require at least three minutes to restore full power to our laser turrets." "We don't have three minutes!" Captain Reze roared! "Brace yourself!" One of the transphasic energy shields that had just been restored a few minutes earlier promptly blew apart when a transphasic torpedo struck it with great power! Numerous different weapon mounts did all they could to shoot down the remaining torpedoes, but the Babylon Excavator lost so much functionality that far too many torpedoes were about to hit her battered hull! However, the half a dozen or so torpedoes that were about to open up additional holes in the Babylon Excavator's hull quickly shred apart under a deluge of energy beam fire! The energy beam salvos accurately struck the torpedoes from their much weaker rear ends, causing them to promptly blow up or weaken them enough to finish them off with a follow up strike. "Our mechs have eliminated the remaining transphasic torpedoes." Many fleeters serving on the bridge of the reconnaissance vessel did not express relief when they learned of this development. None of them felt comfortable with the fact that they needed to borrow the power of the Babylon Excavator's complement of mechs in order to keep the pursuing enemy aliens at bay. Sigrund did not share the same sentiment. He may have become a fleeter, but that was not a valid reason for him to discount the value of mechs! "Sir, the alien small craft are about to initiate their attack runs! Our mech squad and our working laser turrets are in the process of intercepting them, but if the enemy warships fire another phasewater torpedo salvo, we will not be able to eliminate the threats in time. At least twenty percent of their bombers will arrive close enough to launch their payloads!" Captain Reze quickly accessed the data and simulated the unfolding maneuvers for the next two minutes. He frowned. "Put our primary kinetic cannons and secondary plasma turrets on interception duty." "Sir, if we do that, then the enemy warships will reset much of their energy shields." "We won't be able to eliminate any enemy alien warship if our hull sustains more damage!" "Our main cannons cannot effectively track the fast-moving enemy torpedoes and small craft! The current alien pursuit fleet has incorporated more modern human high technology!" "Those damn traitors! How are they able to steal so much of our civilization's tech? How are the aliens able to adapt to them so fast?" Sigrund already knew the answers to those questions. The Red Cabal had quickly grown to become a unifying power that sought to defend every alien of the Red Ocean! Ever since this once-secretive cabal emerged from the shadows, the aliens set aside their differences as earnestly as possible and banded together to share and combine all of their strengths. Not only that, but the Red Cabal also functioned as an organized trading partner for the cosmopolitans. The human traitors were definitely responsible for outfitting the current pursuit fleet with modern human tech! Even if much of the tech only reached the standards of Terran or Rubarthan products, this was more than enough to pose a threat to the Babylon Excavator, especially when the aliens enjoyed a substantial numbers advantage. "Our first-class multipurpose mechs are struggling to eliminate the enemy alien bombers! Compared to the bomber craft that our ship managed to intercept eight days prior, the current models boast transphasic energy shields that can withstand at least three times more damage. Our scans have revealed that they are mounted with Rubarthan-developed power reactors!" "Those damn traitors!" The alien bomber craft functioned similarly to human heavy mechs. They could withstand a lot of punishment and could unleash devastating attacks so long as they entered into effective range. Now, those bombers made ample use of the ample power provided by their human power reactors and fired a series of energy blasts that struck the Babylon Excavator from a less well-defended angle! "Fire a salvo of Hellspark missiles at those bombers!" "We only have enough Hellspark missiles left to fire half a salvo! We were forced to eject much of our stock of missiles before a transphasic torpedo breached the storage compartment." "Then fire the Hellsparks that we have left! We can no longer afford to save them up against the greater threat!" Fortunately for the fleeters, the few Hellsparks that launched out of the battered missile launchers did their jobs. Their power was just enough to overcome the strengthened energy shields of the alien bomber craft. Though there weren't enough missiles to intercept the remaining bomber craft, the first-class mechs did a good job of eliminating the remainder. However, the transphasic energy shields that protected these powerful humanoid machines from serious damage were just about to run out as well! The small but fast alien starfighters had constantly put these mechs under pressure! They even focused their fire on one of the first-class multipurpose mechs! If the Babylon Excavator still retained her shield link transmitter arrays, then the mechs under pressure would have been able to endure a lot more damage! As it was, the mech that received the greatest fire had already accumulated a lot of damage in earlier engagements. As its transphasic energy shield fizzled out, its damaged armor system became exposed to continuous fire. The fast enemy starfighters had also been mounted with human power reactors! Their speed and rapid-fire energy weapon attacks became much stronger than last time, so much so that the first-class mech could not endure the pressure any further. The mech exploded its own reactor moments after its cockpit ejected and rapidly returned to the Babylon Excavator! Sigrund felt pained as his ship lost another powerful combat asset. "How many more mechs can we construct with the resources that we have at hand?" "Only three, sir! We can build eight if we lower our performance standards." "Not enough. That is not enough."