literature

\storynamehere\ Ch-1 Part-4 (Fettered Flight)

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"It's fine MORI, I just…" Something on Riza's screen caught her eye…"What's that?" she asked as the unidentified object came hurtling forwards towards her small craft as it floated as light as a feather in the gentle Jetstream.

"Eyes out" Riza said. MORI extended the telescopic probe mount on the top of the craft and a plethora of holographic views blinked up in front of Riza. Her eyes darted over the radiographic, thermal, infrared, radar, and electro-magnetic scanner sweeps to get a better view of what the small object was.

"How interesting…" Riza said, her inner scientist taking over.

"Umm… Riza?" MORI's tone gathering urgency by the letter.

"It's almost as if…" Riza was still captivated by the small device hurtling at her craft in its pre-planned trajectory through the Jetstream.

"RIZA! UP!!" MORI screamed in her head.

"S**t!" the mercenary Riza strangled the control wheel with both her hands and pulled up.

Scree!!! The small craft protested as it was torn from the calm, relaxing trajectory it had been on. Riza scanned her eyes over the sensor screens in front of her as the alien probe drifted out of view behind the clouds.

"How interesting…"

"What?!" MORI blared in her head. "I'd much rather be with the mercenary than the scientist next time we are in a life-threatening scenario" Yep. He sounded pissed.

"I'm sorry MORI. It's just… that was a satellite!" After so many years of living together MORI could forgive her quite easily. He knew that even though when they were together it was usually him and the mercenary Riza, at heart she was a scientist. A small, insect-eating, bioluminescent, pyrophiliac, curious, mad scientist. But then again, he was a self-looping algorithm that had been created from one part neural-processor, one part spinal interface, and one part brain tumor, so he really wasn't in a position to complain about his current host.

"That is absolutely brilliant! The uses of this planet's Jetstream must be almost endless! I mean, if a satellite can be suspended in it, think of what else it could be used for! How close to the ground does it reach?"

"Unknown: I was unable to get accurate readings while we were spiraling towards the ground at such velocities"

"What do we know about this planet?"

"Well… there's... air. And I'm pretty sure there is a terrestrial surface. But I cannot be sure from the data that has been gathered so far."

"So… we don't even know if there is a ground."

"Judging by the blast created by the UNFS Atlark as it crashed, there is SOMETHING down there… we just don't know what it is."

"Well… that's just great. Wait, there must be something; if there is a satellite, there must be a sentient and at least minimally advanced race on this planet..." She trailed off; they were both thinking the same thing.

"The question is, were they advanced enough to be the cause of the Atlark's crash..." MORI finished for her.

"Do we know where this planetoid is?"

"Negative… "

"Weren't you connected to the UNFS Atlark's AI… what was her name? Scyla? Weren't you talking to her before the crash?"

"Yes, but I emergency ejected from the SHIPNET to get back into your head in time; any and all data from the conversation I had with her was lost."

"Hmmm…"The mercenary kicked in, "We'll need to find where we are in space. Prep the eye; I'm going to the upper stratosphere to get a better view." From the stratosphere, MORI could calculate their telemetry based on the stars, and they had a better chance of shooting a distress beacon towards where someone actually lived. Riza also wanted to stay on the move; she was on an alien world, surrounded by alien probes floating through an alien atmosphere. And one can never trust an alien.

"You know… we could always just ask for directio-" MORI stopped. He saw the glaring look she was giving him. He hated it when she did that. She would make a menacing, disappointed face on a reflective surface, and she knew that MORI would see it through her eyes. It was the only time anyone looked at him, and from the sanctum of his ethereal existence as a mathematical algorithm floating in an augmented cranium, the small moment of being glanced at, of being touched by the real world was the truest meaning of hell. Whenever Riza felt pain, MORI could shut it out. Whenever Riza was sad, or angry, MORI could shut it out. Even when Riza would inevitably die, MORI's connection to the mercenary's neural processor meant that he would not die immediately along with her. But when she looked at him through herself, and her deep, predatory eyes looked through him. That was hell.

"Forget that I asked." MORI should have known better than to ask that of Riza. Than to ask that of any Katabatan. No Katabatan trusts an alien. No alien can be trusted.
//?Part of a written collab I've started with :icontinfoil-man:


/* His...
Prelude: [link]
Ch1Pt1: [link]
Ch1Pt2: [link]
Ch1Pt3: [link]
Ch2Pt1: [link]
Ch2Pt2: [link]
Ch2Pt3: [link]
Ch3Pt1: [link]
Ch3Pt2: [link]
*/

/* My...
Ch1Pt1: [link]
Ch1Pt2: [link]
Ch1Pt3: [link]
Ch1Pt4: [link]
Ch2Pt1: [link]
Ch2Pt2: [link]
Ch2Pt3: [link]
Ch2Pt4: [link]
*/
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