A single figure stood alone within the confines of the Command Center, he was garbed in the Uniform of a Coalition Captain, yet the sleeves of the Uniform were cut short, only reaching his elbows for ease of movement as well as revealing his left arm being mechanical, silver-coloured 'fingers' clasping his natural hand in a calm gesture as he merely stood there, his head was covered by a peaked cap with the Hammer and Cog on the front.
He patiently waited for several minutes before a distorted masculine voice sounded over hidden Communications Speakers.
"T.A.L.O.S. Start Up Sequence Initiated...Stand By."It simply stated while the Captain nodded all so slightly, his unshaven face merely gazing at a console before him as it slowly came to life.
"Start Up Squence Completed, establishing Battlefield Control with T.A.L.O.S. Controlled Coalition Gunboat...Link Established. Location: Omega-52, Sevastopol Station. Current Status: Refueling.
Identifying Current Interface User using Visual Sensors within T.A.L.O.S. Compound....Identity Confirmed, Base Commander Captain Ben Warner. Welcome Commander."It stated as Ben simply nodded.
"Thank you T.A.L.O.S."he responded coolly, the Captain calmly analyzing the readings from the console. T.A.L.O.S. was the successor to B.A.A.L as it as significantly more advanced due to discoveries in various technologies put out by further research of the De Gaulle as well as improvements on the AI Itself. No longer did an AI Core need to be put onto seperate ships, all Coalition vessels now had a direct link to T.A.L.O.S. on JiangXi which acted as a Battlefield Advisor as well as a connection to the Coalition Database to streamline searches.
It had it's own personality like B.A.A.L. however, but it was still subservient to the Coalition and for what it stands for. A Hologram of the AI appeared to be hovering in the center of the room, gazing around with what seemed to be unfeeling 'eyes' as the holographic representation focused on Ben.
"Internal Scanners of the T.A.L.O.S. Facility confirms that the Work Crews have departed and the Commissariat has stationed a substantial Security Team to the base, the Work Crews are being intercepted by the Security Teams for Memory-Dismantlement of the Project and related information." It stated calmly, although Ben could see the ghost of a smirk on it's face as it gazed at him.
Ben gave a small nod, almost as if he did not care and continued to look over the readouts, leaving T.A.L.O.S. to handle queries from various Coalition Users, Ben was in essence the 'Administrator' of the AI, but that did not mean he was nolonger a Combat Pilot as he could take direct control over T.A.L.O.S. controlled ships and as such 'join' the battle.
The Complex they were in was different from most Coalition Bases, it's architecture was not based on Coalition Designs, but was that taken from the database of a Phantom Computer Terminal who had taken it from yet another race unknown to them. Still it suited him and the base well enough and it helped make the base feel bigger than it really was. It had Four Levels, the first level being containing the Elevator to an abandoned factory on the surface in one of JiangXi's contaminated zones, a security office and entertainment services for the security detachment.
The Second Level contained the Living Quarters for the base personnel and not much else, the Third Level was the Level the AI Command Center was on as well as a large Computer Archive which was classified to all but Commissariat and those approved by the Premier, the Archive was kept on a seperate Network from the T.A.L.O.S. Network to ensure security and could only be accessed on site.
The Fourth Level contained the AI Core Intelligence as well as a maze of Public Network Archives that were connected to the T.A.l.O.S. network for Coalition Personnel to browse through freely, unlike the Classified Archives it could be easily accessed outside of the facility through any Computer Terminal.
It was sparsely populated due to it being deep in the Contaminated Zone and as such being quite isolated from the Coalition's Civilian Population, the worst they had to deal with was infrequent Mutant incursions into the area and somehow managing to activate the Elevator, never getting past the first level. Ben smiled softly at that thought as he took manual control over the T.A.L.O.S. Gunboat and started to perform diagnostics upon it's systems.
Ben Warner smirked as the Refueling was completed on the Gunboat, he input orders to head to a set of Coordinates, for he had a special task for T.A.L.O.S. Turning away from the console he looked to the Holographic Representation of the AI, a smirk remaining on his face as he looked at the Coalition marvel with confidence.
"T.A.L.O.S. , what is the status of the Data Retrieval and Containment Unit here on the base? Is it prepared to receive the Artifact Code-Named Archon?" he asked, the AI took a moment to respond, it's tone when it did was almost malicious in it's intent, yet it was not aimed at Ben.
"The DRCU is functioning, once Archon is retreived we can proceed with the Data Decryption, be warned the crystaline nature of the Artifact may not be wholly compatible with our current level of Technology and may potentially destroy the Artifact rather than delve into it's Data Archive Captain Warner." It replied, Ben nodded before moving the ship through the Jumphole to Omega-5 and setting a course for Wilde Territory.
After 20 Agonizing Minutes it finally reached the Omega-58 System, the visual feed slightly distorted due to interference from the Gate's unstable state.
Weapons Fire errupted from all over, he spotted Wraiths and even 'Scorpion' Drones slowly closing in on the AI-Controlled Gunboat.
Nodding to the AI he barked sharp orders.
"Set course to dive through the belt, try to lose them if you can until the Ion Storm Arrives, once it passes retrieve the Objective and escape at maximum speed before more Wilde Arrive." He ordered the AI, watching the Interface Feed as the AI started to cruise away from it's persuers, dodging weapons fire and the occasional piece of large debris that would slow them down significantly until it reached the edge of the belt, the Wilde Patrollers finally given up thinking they wouldn't return.
Ben sighed and nodded to himself. Now they must wait for the Ion Storm to come and cover they're tracks long enough for them to acquire their target...He could only hope this plan worked.
Ben Warner was in a good mood, he finally had the last peice he needed. In the palm of his hand rested a small sphere, a small Nomad Power Cell that would be crucial to this project, the glowing blue sphere fit almost perfectly in his robotic hand as he admired it. The DRCU was currently housing an Artifact that would be powered by this Cell. Shaking himself out of this thoughts he walked over to the DRCU and slid the Cell into it's proper section, almost immediately the previously dark Artifact started to glow softly. T.A.L.O.S. started to sift through the un-translated data in an effort to locate any particular patterns and symbols that would speed up the decoding process, his Holographic avatar silent as it focused all it's attention upon it's current task.
Ben returned to the console while this occurred and pulled up several 'Sections' of the data, looking through it himself, while he could not help in the translation he couldn't help but admire the complex language of the Nomad's creators.
Archon, the Artifact they were connected to, was a simplistic Data Storage Matrix, a purple crystal octagon that was about as wide as the palm of his organic hand and as high as one of those small action figures he used to play with as a child. Around the outside aside from the top and bottom a silverish metal surrounded the crystal, giving it a simplistic yet special appearance so he would be able to tell it apart from other Artifacts.
Looking at the A.I he calmly asked"T.A.L.O.S...What do you make it it?" he asked, the Artificial Intelligence paused in it's De-Coding process for a moment to answer with what seemed to be a sneer and slight sarcasm in it's tone."The Language itself will be difficult to translate without any known translated texts to derive from, as such it will take me time to process through it all, your questions are not helping the process go any faster Commander."
Ben sheepishly nodded and turned back to the console, just staring at the alien symbols as they flashed on his screen.
Warner sighed as T.A.L.O.S. continued to sift through the data, here and there he could see partially translated text, but much of it was still garbled by the alien's complex language. But it was at least progressing, slowly but surely.
Ben was also sifting through the data, looking at what seemed to be star-charts included in the artifact's data matrix, but everything was marked in the Alien Language, he had to identify what he could from memory, Omicron Alpha was the easiest to identify, Malta's symbol was glowing softly, signifying a place of importance to the aliens obviously...Why it was important was however still heavily encrypted and would take weeks if not months to decipher. Shifting to the next map on his screen he was hard-pressed to identify it, but after very careful examination he deduced it to be an older map of Omicron Minor, the current home of the Order.
There was a wealth of information hidden in these files, but it was nearly impossible to make anything out due to the language barrier that stumps Humanity, leaving the translating up to minds much smarter than their own, Artificial Intelligences like T.A.L.O.S. were perfect for the job, T.A.L.O.S. was based on technologies from it's predecessor BAAL as well as technologies taken from samples of the now missing 'Phantoms'. Ben, while trusting his A.I. to do the job was always leery about the loyalties of the highly intelligent computer system, every passing moment allowed it to evolve beyond it's capabilities as it was always learning, always adapting. It was one of their best technologies to date, but beneath he felt lurked a danger they had not anticipated...Still he felt safer knowing that it had three 'Kill-Switches', one in the Commandante's office, one in the T.A.L.O.S. facility itself and one in His Watchful Eye's office....
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