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The screens flickered to show an interstellar map of the Pegasi System. In addition, a red location beacon showed up on-screen.
Kainan pointed the Riders’ plan out on the map.
‘Phantasm’s hyperspace engine will get us to the radio coordinates in less than a day. We’ll ensure their position by sending a drone ahead of us. We’ll jump out of hyperspace as close to the crats’ ship as possible. Then we’ll use our cannons to bombast the sucker with a metanoid cloud. The metanoids will paint themselves on their ship’s hull - and then the fun begins.’
‘Fun?’ Selene asked, arching an eyebrow.
‘The metanoids are our true weapon, our payload. One we’ve been developing for years. Kage, please take over, as this is your baby.’
The gruff, bearded man nodded. ‘With pleasure,khosi. The metanoids are laced with a lethal kill code. Designed just for the crats. It’ll take milliseconds for the metanoids to find their way into the ship, through every available nook, cranny, port, hole, chink in the armour and even via their external cameras. We’re taking advantage of the fact that The Technocracy’s machines, bots, grids and even their AI all have high-speed, subconscious encoders built into their visual sensors. That allows them to rapidly decode and encode data within their physical and neural network. After our time with The Technocracy, we tapped into Mirage’s knowledge, searching for a vulnerability in the crats’ decoding software. We found an arbitrary code that could unleash a convoluted attack that would exploit the auto-execution functions of these droid’s encoders. This will direct each droid, AI or bot on that ship to download a malicious file embedded in the metanoids. Once in the network, this file will spread like wildfire, instructing the machines to brand themselves with the malicious code or paste it onto their other systems. The virus should self-propagate at a terrifying speed. Each infected element of the Technocracy will act as an evolutionary catalyst to the virus and cause an infinite number of mutations which would eventually cause them to fail or commit self-termination.’
‘What about The Technocracy’s defences? Their fighters and rattlers?’ Rina interjected.
‘We’ll repeat what we did with the incursion,’ Kainan said. ‘My gunship will provide point defence. We’ll use a combo of the inactive metanoid disassembler devices and metanoid bullets. We’ll fire these from our rail gun and practically chow down on their ships, rattlers and armour.’
‘Will this harm Sheba and whoever else she’s with?’ Selene asked.
‘It shouldn’t, as we’re hoping she’ll be on the main ship,’ Kage said, shaking his head. ‘Once we’re in hailing vicinity of The Technocracy’s ship, we’ll contact Ki’Remi. Our neural node network is more robust at a closer range and less vulnerable to detection. We’ll ensure he gets the same nano virus instructions to begin moving to safety, place her in protection, and get her out of there as quickly as possible.’
‘That should keep your sister safe,’ Kainan told Selene.
‘The plan sounds good on paper, but have you tested it?’ she asked the Riders.
Kainan turned to his brothers. ‘Kage, Mirage, how did the most recent analysis go?’
Kage gave him a chin-up. ‘The captured test subjects responded to the virus with great results.’
‘The captured who?’ Rina asked, flabbergasted.
‘During the coup, we caught a few crats we didn’t think anyone would miss,’ Xion filled her in.
‘Then we infected them with our nano virus,’ Mirage said almost cheerfully.
‘You took prisoners of war and subjected them to experiments?’ Rina choked.
‘Nothing they didn’t do to us. Besides Colonel, have you read the Pegasi War Convention agreement?’ Xion drawled from his screen. ‘It specifically states that we are only to provide fair and equal treatment of human and meta prisoners. The convention does not cover non-sentient, droid base crats. Especially those committing acts of terrorism across the System.’
‘I get that. It still doesn’t feel right,’ Rina grumbled.
‘Oh, bless your bleeding heart,’ Xion taunted.
Rina snarled at him, and he grinned, winking at her.
‘We never said we were Mr Nice Guys, Colonel,’ Xion added, his gaze on Rina intensifying. ‘We’re dangerous when crossed. Plus, we take a no holds barred approach to justice. So if your ethics can’t stand up to it, you’re welcome to walk. But you won’t because, under your straight laced uniform, you’re probably just as feral as we are.’
‘You don’t know the half of it!’ Rina snapped, her characteristic serenity ruffled.
Xion leaned in, his eyes twinkling. ‘Oh, but I’d like to know very much!’
‘Enough foreplay, you two,’ Kainan interjected abruptly. ‘Now that we have the how let’s nail the who. I’ll lead the mission.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Kage said.
‘So will I,’ Riv added. ‘We won’t let you go in alone, brother.’
‘Sante,’ Kainan said quietly. ‘Xion, Zane, please stay on Eden II to keep our ops running. No one needs to know where we’re going or that we’re leaving at all.’
‘I’m also coming, and no one will stop me,’ Selene added.
