Intelligence

Not Too Late

Operator Velox

"Alright, I'll keep it quiet," I reassure Evo.
"As will I," the engineer adds.
"Excellent," Evo concludes. "My body was shielded as well, but with the point blank detonation, it's been temporarily shut down. It'll revive shortly. How's Boost?"
Boost. I had forgotten about Boost.
"She's gone, Evo. She got wiped by the EMP."
"Nonsense," he replies, much to my surprise.
"What?"
"As a security precaution, your AI are to delete themselves to avoid capture. In my chest cavity, there's a shielded backup unit that you and Reach's AI have been updating live. If we can extract Boost's latest backup, we can rewrite her. Resurrect her, in a way."

"Unfortunately," the engineer says, inspecting the cube-shaped mechanism, "we lack the facilities here to extract your AI from his backup drive."
"So, that's it then? I'm not getting Boost back?"
"No, you can get her back, but it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder. You need to break into a Saclarian tech lab. Scouts found a forward field lab in the forest to the north. Take the drive and your empty chip, clear the area, extract your AI's latest backup onto the drive, then destroy the lab. The armory will provide you with the means of destruction."
"It's gonna be even harder since I can't use my stims."
"Not so fast," Evo comments.
"Haha, good one," I say sarcastically. Now is not the time for puns.
"Okay, that was unintended, but funny. What I'm saying is, I'm an AI, you need someone to run your stims, my body is temporarily out of commission. Let me be your companion AI in Boost's absence."
Truth be told, he's the only one I'd allow to replace Boost.
"Okay, let's do it."

The engineer inserts Evo's chip into my helmet, and my HUD finally restarts.
"Jacking into your system," he reports in my helmet.
"Finalizing connections...and..."
Done. Can you hear me?
Loud and clear.
Excellent. One quick test run...
Breathing deeper.
Muscles tense.
Ready to fight.
Then it stops, bringing on a wave of exhaustion.
Sorry, might have overdone it a bit. Let me pull some info from your armor and I'll have accurate dosage information. You should get some rest.
That sounds like a great idea.
I'll be ready by the time you wake up.