The explosions ca unannounced, or well, not that much of unannounced as could be when you know there are several air-to-air missiles coming your way .
Which isn't that much when you think about the data coming in from your radar screaming red alerts. Not that it surprised Ale that much.
"Main Core! Keep shooting them flares! We need to redirect the missiles away!" Ale complained as she pulled at a lever to her side and with a strong yank she fixed the lever in that position.
She would burn through her stock of flares faster, but the amount of missiles had turned into a ridiculous amount. It almost made her think that the enemy jets had an unlimited amount of missiles, which was a real possibility if one took into consideration mana core shenanigans.
Speaking of...
[Flare count will run out in 5 more seconds. Action is advised.]
"I know!" Ale scread back as she swerved the small plane to the right in an almost 90° turn.
An advantage to her current form of travel was that she didn't need to worry that much for the safety of the pilot, that is to say, herself. She only needed to ensure the structural integrity of her pod to remain stable after all.
A single hit would end with either the liquid that was keeping her safe leaking... Or with internal damage to herself as the liquid would continue being solid, aning she would start to hit walls at several G's of force.
Which was not sothing she wanted.
"Main Core! How much ManaMana will it consu for to refill the flare stock?" Ale asked as she started to pull up, she wanted to see if she could get almost near the 50km mark again.
It would burn most of the fuel she had, but at least at that speed the traditional engines would barely work, if work at all.
aning that with so luck the missiles would beco useless, which would allow her to worry about at least one less thing.
[At least 17 units of ManaMana would be needed to refill the flare stock, which would grant the host another two minutes and twenty-three seconds of non-stop flare use.]
That... wasn't that bad.
[Another 10 units of ManaMana will be needed to refill the fuel tank.]
Wait...
[Furthermore, another 10 units of ManaMana are needed in reserve just in case the glider suffers from more damage.]
"... How much mana do I have again?" Ale asked as she felt cold sweat on her back.
[Host Currently has 27 Mana Units.]
"And you want to use 37. We don't have enough ManaMana." Ale cursed under her breath, neither Alexa nor her had ever tried to ga their ManaMana. It wasn't needed that often after all.
They could get by with what they had, and never had to use that part of the system, at all.
And that had co back to bite her at their mont of need. She would need to add that to her list of things to do when they got back.
"Reserve the ten mana units for repairs and five units for fuel." Ale started easy, "Only create flare as they are needed, also, if possible use the [Banked Storage] material-"
[Banked Storage is currently unavailable, host needs to be able to interface with her physical body to access it. As thus it is unnoperable at the mont.]
"Dang it!"" Ale cursed as she hit the controls in front of her, "Where does that goddamned restriction even co from?!?!?"
[Unknown.]
It... was annoying, another restriction now?!?!?!? Why now?!?!?
[Warning, enemy fighters have descended from orbital insertion. They have lock-on in host plane.]
"Screw the restrictions! Leave one unit of ManaMana available, pull the rest towards fuel and flares!" Ale cursed once more as she floored it. At this altitude she couldn't depend much on the lift from her wings, actually these were very much a disadvantage at this point if anything.
But she couldn't discard them, that was part of the scenarios lossing terms, she needed to keep the glider in one piece as possible.
"Orbital insertion enemies are cheating!" Ale scread as she dived straight down.
If those enemy fighters ca from orbit they would be unable to do this, the delta V would kill their aircrafts. Unlike Ale, she didn't have a copious amount of delta V from the orbital insertion movent.
She would probably be unable to get to her target now, since she would need to burn even more Mana to get extra fuel and regain altitude. But like this it would be impossible for them to attack her.
[Incoming.]
"HOW?!?!?" Ale turned her head back even though she had access to the data from her monitors, but it felt needed.
Sure enough, one of the enemy aircraft had fallen from orbit. The friction from the uncontrolled re-entry had destroyed most of the aircraft, but even like that, it managed to unleash so shots from their [Gun Emplacent]
Which also got destroyed a few seconds afterwards.
"Evasive maneuvers! Use the directional thrusters!" Ale pulled at the levers as she tried to get out of the way, only for the enemy aircraft fly past her and barely miss her by a few centiters.
[Warning, shockwaves compromising the host's ability to control aircraft detected.]
"I noticed!" Ale said while she turned to the controllers, "Do we even have sothing... I know! The connectors for the heatshields! Can we deploy sothing from there?"
[Possible.]
"Deploy a system of air brakes!" Ale said as she saw the mana counter go lower, that would hurt later, "Deploy the air brakes as soon as they are made and use them to stabilize the path!"
Ale would use these to control her descent and regain stability, with so luck...
[Warning, enemy aircraft incoming, more orbital insertion trajectory detected.]
[Warning, enemy fighter jets have reconvened to host position. It is deed to be impossible to surpass the scenario at this point.]
Ale turned to look at the projection of the radar, sure enough, she could see new enemy fighter jets coming to her position, possibly with the infinity missile bullshit.
From outer space she could see more and more space planes coming to her in kamikaze trajectory.
"That is a ridiculous and over-the-top waste of human resources." Ale said as she let go of the controllers, "I call bullshit on the scenario, it wasn't winnable."
[Host asked for a 'Hardcore hell level scenario that will make curse injustice at the heavens.' And so, that was what she got.]
Ale groaned at her past self's decisions as the VR environnt faded away, returning her to the normal scenery of what was happening.
"I was bored okay, we have been flying in a straight line while avoiding the other flight courses." Ale grumbled.
The past half an hour that she had been fighting for her 'Life' was a VR environnt created with the assumption that hostile planes would attack her, the scenario started easy.
At first it was a single plane against her of the sa design as her pod. Dealing with the other pod had been easy enough, she made both pods stall and then used hers as a ramming bat against the other pod.
Then she rely fixed hers with spare parts and watched the other crash against the ground after it lost control.
Afterwards the enemy planes slowly started getting better till she was flying against fighter jets, which was... funnily enough easier than the previous stages.
Since those were faster than her, she did, however, need to mind the air-to-air missiles. Which was easy enough as soon as she found that her pod had a compartnt that could be repurposed for flares. Then she used the material for the nutrient paste that was being fed to her into flares.
The best use for nutrient paste anyone could make, if she was to be honest.
[Do you wish to upload the record of the flight battle into the Saintsworths server?]
[Y/N?]
"Why in the seven hells would I do that?" Ale asked, confused, "What could possibly be the reason I would have to expose myself like that?"
[Data can be censored to hide host peculiarities and rely as a way to display her prowess against other Saintsworths. As an extra, this data can be used to improve the design of future flying pods that could be used by Alexanders Saintsworths.]
...So she could do it to help Alexa's older brother...
"Upload it after sanitizing all the uses of nanites. Adjust the settings so it seems like I have infinite use of flares and mute all my interactions with you." Ale said after thinking for a few seconds.
[Editing content...]
[Uploading...]
"Also, send a copy of the original file to Alexanders and another to . Ensure the file format can be opened in a normal way." Ale added afterwards, "If possible do it from the point we took off from the Drake One."
[Acknowledged.]
Ale nodded at that, she would use the data later for a loading screen, brb screen and a ending stream scene. It would get her a few extra views if nothing else, Ale was already nodding at her plan.
If anyone asked... Well, it was amazing what you could get with connections and the right core user with access to editing tools and 3D software.
Heh.
And while thinking about that, Ale noticed there was a red blip on her dashboard, that was... new.
"What's that Main Core?" Ale asked eyeing warily the thing, after what she had gone through with the scenario that Main Core cooked up, she was wary of the shenanigans that were ensued.
Ale had tweaked so of the pre-recorded answers and given it more of a fake sassy personality. It was a guess if it would follow the sa path as the forr Main Core. Ale honestly hoped if it ca to that it would not decide to lobotomize itself. That had been a very bad week.
[Reminder for host that she is about to approach communication distance with target city.]
Already?
Ale turned to look at her dashboard and pull out the map, sure enough she was a couple kiloters away from Columbus, Ohio. Soon enough she would be able to communicate with...
No one really, since she didn't have the correct codes to link back to Hephaestus' Forge. She sohow doubted [Elder] would be happy if she tried to plug her mask into the main Saintsowrths antenna.
So that was that.
Either way, soon Ale would need to start to seriously think about it, she... didn't have clearance to land in any airport... Nor knew if she should even try to do that, her glider had parachute and landing legs, besides landing wheels if needed. But while it had a small profile... it was no bicycle.
So it wasn't like she could just touchdown anywhere she wanted, Alexanders had said that she wouldn't be shot down from the sky as soon as she ca into range of the city defenses.
Which was good, albeit confusing.
The man had refused to elaborate on that, and Ale wasn't sure how to get to ask for more confirmation, Main Core had no data on that and the Saintsworths data server had not provided any answer. As far as she could tell, the data on that was restricted, sothing about protecting the new heirs so they didn't get on the other side of the walls.
There was a ntion about a heir going to the other side of the walls and getting int oa scuffle with the gafauna, if Ale was to be honest, she suspected said heir to be Alexanders.
The man had a few screw loose inside that head after all.
"Do we have visuals?" Ale asked looking forward, she... had lowered the rendering distance to use that processing power for the dog fight, she didn't need to see far away while fighting things near her after all.
[Shifting rendering distance, focusing processing power forward.]
And as soon as those words ended, Ale could see the city at the distance, and a gigantic wall surrounding the city.
Ale had gone out of her way to ensure she would not co near any city on her way back, mostly because there had been a note saying that she may get attacked by any city that wasn't under the Saintsworths regi.
She did not want to deal with that. So she kept to herself and planned a route that got her away from those problems, which was part of the reason why she had been playing with the VR Environnt, she had too much free ti and little to nothing to do with that said ti. Nothing to do when you didn't really had a reliable connection to the world wide net, that is to say, internet.
Apparently the gafauna would lock into said connections if given the chance, so to prevent such problems Ale had needed to isolate herself from the net, the horror.
"Do we have anything from the city yet? They should be able to detect our plane right?" Ale asked looking at her diagnosis and monitoring devices.
[Received handshake procedure.]
[Correct credentials verified.]
[Sharing flight path.]
[Local AI has asked for landing and offered these options.]
Ale saw the log go on and show a few options, most of which were Saitnsworths facilities and then a couple public airports. Ale wasn't sure if she should even consider these, she had planned to fly this thing high up and then consu the whole thing with her nanites once she was out of radar range. Then just free-fall and deploy a parachute when it is convenient.
But now? Now that she knew there was so options... The things did change.
Had Alexanders planned sothing?
Then again, the man had said she would find out when she arrived... hadn't Ale actually monologued about this already? She had right.
Man, these error counts were not good for her logical processing powers.
Now, what to do...
[Incoming transmission through secure channel.]
Ale had secure channels?
"Incoming Saintsowrths craft, please acknowledge and provide flight plans." There was a woman this ti on the other side of the line, Ale even had a video feed open available to see her if she wanted.
Which... now that Ale knew it was possible she was curious so she opened the video feed, the other side was a blonde woman, Ale felt that she knew her, but was coming blank...
No wait.
"Weren't you the receptionist at the Saintsworths building?" Ale said now that she rembered, she was there when Alexa had been with Miriam Eversoul.
"....You et my sister." The woman said in a dry tone, "Now, flight plans?"
Right, flight plans...
"I... am not really sure." Ale answered with a shrug, "Do you have scheduled for an airport or sothing?"
"...*Sigh*..." The woman sighed into the mic, actually move her face forward so the sigh was heard loud and clear, "I can get you space in any airport of your choice, if you want to park in a street that can be arranged. You have the clearance of the big man. So anything is available, be it a public park, a hospital, a daycare... just pick a building, any place you wish to crash into is open for you, just give us at least a five-minute warning."
That was... interesting.
"Two questions first." Ale asked, this put a few things into perspective, if she could crash into a building... "Can I use this line to call soone in the city? And how long do I have to answer?"
"I can give you the requried clearance, usually this is frowned upon, but since you have the big man clearance they can go eat dirt if sooen wants to complain." The woman smirked, Ale guessed this one was probably going to throw all the problems from this into Alexanders, which... was kind of understandable? "As for ti limit, like I said, give at least five minutes before you crash into anything, at your speed... I guess around half an hour?"
Ale could work with that, "Okay, then let make a few calls first and I'll have an answer soon." Ale said nodding to the woman, who nodded back at her and ended the call from her side.
[Received data packet.]
[Checking data...]
[Found data key and certificates.]
[Found address and way into local city network.]
[Open private channel?]
Ale could see a new set of options, a few private channels that she hadn't seen before and a long list of adresses she could call, besides so options in case she didn't know the actual address she wanted to call.
"Call Vulcanus." Ale said as she started reading through the options.
She decided that it would be easier to get Main Core to manage that.
[Dialing...]
[Connection established.]
[Handshake protocol engaged.]
[Opening channel.]
"[Rhapsody, long ti no see.]" The call connected easily enough, and soon Ale was seeing the projection of her boss.
It was ti to pitch the idea to the man, the legend, the man trapped in the machine. How to go about it though.
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