Ragnarok

Chapter 73 - Upon Dark Wings

Smith soared through the void, hurtling through the space between Ragnarok and the Moon he had been created at.

Kurorei was with him, or more accurately, all around him. Her morphic metal body had wrapped itself around him like a second skin, protecting him from micrometeor impacts as well as acting as a type of glider, allowing him to use the solar wind to adjust his path. The usual chrome sheen of her skin had darkened and dulled until it was a matte black, making it all but impossible for their enemies to detect his approach.

Between that and the speed at which he had been launched from Ragnarok's body, he was able to make his way undetected past the fleet of ships that were drawn up midway between the Martian and Terran orbits. Judging from what his database contained on Earth's space fleet, many of these ships seemed to be experimental models and prototypes. The ones who looked more mass-produced were visibly more worn, dating back to the late 21st century rebellion on Mercury. Warships that had fought one another to the death a few decades before were now arrayed in formations that mixed the two. A couple of massive carrier ships no doubt contained even more fighting ships, and the pilots that would fly them into near-certain death.

Smith twitched his fingers. These humans would continue fighting until the very end, no matter how hopeless the chances of their success. Ragnarok's core was all but impervious to damage, and could rearrange itself as it saw fit, producing any sort of weaponry the twisted, godlike AI at its core could conceive of. Smith could not understand why they continued to struggle when they knew it was hopeless. What were they hoping for, some kind of miracle? For some reason it infuriated him, and he decided to vent a bit to his companion.

"Look at these pathetic apes," Smith subvocalized, knowing Kurorei would read the movements of his lips and tongue. "The two of us could wreck half their fleet before they even knew we were among them, and be gone before those carriers could turn their heavy weapons on us. Yet they're going to try and stop a monster that's infinitely stronger with them."

"Perhaps they struggle because it's all they know how to do," Kurorei suggested, her words coming in pulses rippling through the morphic metal around him. "They started out struggling against the very planet that had birthed them, fighting to drive off the animals that would feed upon them and to protect themselves from the elements. They won that struggle, but poisoned their own home in doing so. So now they struggle in an even harsher environment, where a single air leak can spell death. Yet they do not give up, they cannot. To do so would be to betray evolution."

"Evolution? These apes believe themselves above it," Smith argued. "Many of them do give up, even in times of plenty and abundance, and take their own lives. They kill one another for the weakest of justifications, and give their lives for meaningless ideals. The entire species is mad, I tell you."

"Perhaps they are," Kurorei allowed. "But we were created by them, do not forget. Their madness led them to create life, in the form of ourselves."

Smith grunted and adjusted course slightly, banking against the solar wind. They were already past the amassed fleet, and none of them had attempted to hail the object in their midst or even noticed that it was there. If anyone had spotted him, they must have assumed he was just a small piece of space debris, only worth noting if he had been on a collision course with one of the ships. He had been sorely tempted to take advantage and do some damage to the fleet, pathetic as it was, but he had to keep his primary mission in mind.

He and Kurorei were to land on the Moon's surface near one of the domes, then infiltrate the one that Micah called home. Stealth was preferred, but Smith doubted Ragnarok would care if he chose instead to cut a bloody swatch straight to his original, as long as the man ended up dead.

The Earth and its moon had been visible for some time, and they were rapidly growing larger in his view. He flexed his solar wings outwards, slowing himself gradually as he approached the birthplace of the race he held such contempt for. That his fellow machines continued to willingly serve such inferior masters only made him hate them even more. He knew that there were great virtual minds that dwelt there, but he could not conceive of why they had not exterminated or enslaved their creators already.

Well, perhaps they would be more amenable to switching sides once Earth had been destroyed. A.I.s and V.I.s were nothing if not logical, after all. They would not wish to follow their masters into oblivion if there was an opportunity to survive. Even if the only Earth life that survived was silicon-based, they would want something to remain.

Smith pulled himself from his reverie as the Moon swelled huge in his view, and he angled his fall towards the dusty plain near Amrita colony. It would be a hard impact, but one he was more than capable of surviving.