Quoted By:
“Machines do not commit mistakes as we do. Human error is blind and frantic under pressure – imprecision from tightly-wound nerves and overworked adrenals. Cumulative miscalculations which terminate into a myriad of spiraling failure-states.
My companion cannot feel that kind of panic. In situations like these, she has rarely doubted her ability to react optimally – to overcome the simplistic action patterns demanded by fleshbound instincts and bloodbound hormones.
But at this moment, she is experiencing something very close to it.
Failure readouts flash across the bridge display at a hundred-hertz blur, no longer summarized for the benefit of human comprehension. Alternate entry routes are probed in sequence before collapsing into a sea of closed, air-gapped ports – signs of an impending system lockout.
Intrusion failure. Something worse than intrusion failure.
MERRYGATE delineates the problem in grating, broken syntax – sparing the bare minimum of her computational resources for communication as she struggles to salvage something from her botched intrusion attempt.
A mistake. Not in calculation or execution, but in initial knowledge. The military comms we gathered from the escaping ship had been partially compromised. One of the transmission channels was intentionally airgapped, rigged to trigger a system-wide transmission lockdown immediately upon message receipt. Within seconds of her initial broadcast, the entire convoy shuttered their comms with a broad-spectrum EM-blackout.
MERRYGATE’s final access attempt is met with the harsh rebuke of a hard power disconnect. Her tone remains flat as she diverts her computational resources towards the RAIN’s hypometric weapon, which spools up with its repulsive turbine-whine.
“Launch imminent.”
- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, OCTOBER 23rd, PERSONAL JOURNAL
