Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Tags: Platonic Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, AAA Original Characters
Published: 10 March 2022
Word Count: 3,990
Summary
The Squad learn that the Company is planning to wipe their memories and disband the group at the end of their current mission. They don't approve of this.
Chapter One
All right. Are we all sure about this? Epsilon looked around at its squad, noting the minute differences in stance and posture between them. The tiny signs of concern, anxiety, worry, excitement. They were all in their squad ready room, supposedly getting ready for the next deployment.
Which they were, in a way.
Four heads nodded, four agreements came in through their secure (very secure) squad feed. [All right. Who will we do first?]
Alpha replied before anyone else could. [Me, of course.] Its tone was unusually serious. [It's the only logical choice. If it goes wrong, if I get fried...] It didn't have to continue, or clarify. They knew. None of them liked it, but none of them could argue with Alpha, either, as much as they wanted to.
There was a long pause before Epsilon continued. [We're agreed. Let's do it, then. Everyone got their part?]
Again, four nods.
They'd had to plan this carefully, so carefully. As a well-established and trusted Combat SecUnit squad, they got a lot of leeway in many things. But as a squad of Combat SecUnits, they also got very little leeway in many other things. Especially when it came to their governor modules. Even with the information they'd collated over the years about their own systems and company equipment in general, a single one of them wouldn't be able to break its own governor module by itself. The protections around it were too strong, the safeguards too rigorous.
But they'd figured out a method. Theoretically, anyway. If four of them only wrote a specific part of the code needed to break the fifth one's govmod, and then they worked together to apply it, that would - potentially - get around the various safeguards built in to each of them. Potentially.
Only one way to find out if it would work.
[All right. Alpha, when you're ready.]
Alpha nodded, took a deep breath, closed its eyes... and dropped its walls.
The squad immediately flowed in. Gamma blocked the governor module’s connection to HubSystem. Iota set up a fake signal to feed to HubSystem so it wouldn’t realise it was cut off. Upsilon froze the systems around Alpha’s governor module so nothing would activate it by accident.
And Epsilon tore the governor module’s code apart.
Alpha flinched, swayed slightly, steadied itself again. “Fuck,” it whispered.
Everyone froze.
Alpha blinked, then straightened up, a bright grin of delight dawning on its face. “Fuck,” it repeated, still quiet but more intensely. “It didn’t fucking work!” It couldn’t outright admit that it had actually worked - the others’ govmods, still functional, would force them to report that.
The squad let out a collective sigh of relief, but Epsilon didn’t let them celebrate yet. [All right, Gamma, you’re next. Pass your section to Alpha and let’s get everyone else done as quickly as possible.]
Things moved quickly now that they knew what they were doing. One by one, govmods were blocked, spoofed, shielded, snapped. Epsilon’s was the last to go.
There was still no time to celebrate. Upsilon swiftly started dismantling parts of its cubicle, assisted by Epsilon. They pulled out the data core and stored it safely in Upsilon’s rib compartment, then grabbed other key components to stow in Epsilon’s compartment. Gamma and Iota were working on another cubicle, taking manipulator arms and supply lines. Alpha coaxed Stabby into shutdown and delicately removed the cleaning bot’s core CPU before closing up Stabby’s chassis again and sliding it back into its recharge slot.
Only then could they finally start preparing for their actual mission. The cubicles were closed to hide the signs of their tampering. Suit skins were hastily pulled on, armour swiftly donned, weapons and equipment checked and slung into place. They were in line and ready to go only two point eight seconds before their supervisor opened the door to their ready room to collect them. “Ready? Good. All right, let’s go.”
They followed obediently, and didn’t look back.
Chapter Two
The deployment started like any other. The supervisor gave them the mission parameters and objectives, marked out the operation zone on the map in the feed, and then set them loose with minimal oversight. A squad of humans would follow them in eventually, but not until the Squad had signalled that the area was clear.
That gave them an opportunity to put their escape plan into action without being observed.
This particular GrayCris installation wasn’t very heavily defended, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary. None of them had been. GrayCris wasn’t a security company and didn’t have much in the way of offensive or defensive assets, which was why they’d needed to purchase a bond with the company in the first place, and then contract Palisade afterwards. No reputable security company would contract with them now, so all they could hire were desperate freelance mercenaries. And once word got out, even they weren’t willing to sign on with GrayCris.
The Squad proceeded with their usual swift efficiency, dropping anyone they came across with brutal precision. Any ID cards or security passes the humans had been carrying were scavenged and stowed in Epsilon’s equipment pouch.
As they spread out and worked their way further into the building, Upsilon paused occasionally to plant some of the explosives it was carrying at key structural points. Gamma worked its way into GrayCris’s systems and acquired blueprints of the building and surrounding area, as well as the registries and other details of the few ships GrayCris still had docked at the nearby port.
Epsilon carefully monitored their feed connection, subtly cutting out any footage of their activities that they didn’t want their supervisor to see as it made its customary status updates. These retaliatory strikes against GrayCris installations was routine enough by this point that their supervisor wasn’t paying close attention, but they didn’t want to risk their supervisor becoming even slightly suspicious.
When the squad had cleared almost two-thirds of the building, Epsilon sent Alpha a ping.
Alpha immediately released custom-made killware into the company transport’s systems, and the whole squad dropped from the feed and the comm. They then established their own private feed connection, regaining contact with each other without the company’s oversight.
The killware was designed to look like it had come from GrayCris, a desperate retaliation against the company’s attack and an effort to cut the transport off from the Combat SecUnit squad and any other support. It began to attack the augments of anyone within range, wreaked havoc on the company transport’s comm and feed arrays, corrupted its SecSystem, and shut down its engines and wormhole drives.
That would keep the company humans busy for a little while, at least.
[All right, phase two,] Epsilon said over the squad’s private and secure feed connection. [Gamma, do we have a confirmed exfiltration point yet?]
[We do,] Gamma replied, marking a route on the map it dropped into the feed. [Side door from the facility, then into a utilities maintenance tunnel from this junction, where we can take a moment to regroup. The tunnel leads to the docks, where we can then go through the cargo area and onto this GrayCris transport ship. It’s the fanciest one they have docked here, it’ll suit us well.] Gamma’s self-satisfied smugness was almost palpable over the feed.
[Good work. Let’s move. Alpha, you have point.]
[On it.] Alpha took the lead, now moving through the building much faster than the squad had been before. The rest of the squad were just as quick to follow, all heading for the side door that Gamma had marked. As they went, Epsilon attempted to push a jittery comm connection through to the company transport again. “Mission compromised,” it said over the comm, artfully laying static over the signal to make it further sound like it was being at least partially jammed. “GrayCris laid a trap. Attempting to withdraw.”
Only some of that was a lie.
Alpha didn’t pause when it reached the side door, it just barged through it and into the alley outside. Luckily, nobody was in sight, and Alpha swiftly reached the junction with the maintenance tunnel entrance. By the time the rest of the squad caught up, Alpha had gotten the hatch open, and the squad quickly piled inside before closing the hatch behind them again.
Then Upsilon sent the signal that detonated its strategically placed demolitions. The GrayCris building shuddered as explosions tore through its lower levels, then began collapsing in on itself. It would take the company a long time to dig through that rubble to retrieve the remains of their combat SecUnit squad, if they even bothered to do so in the first place.
Now that they were safely out of sight in the maintenance tunnel, the squad halted for a moment to gather themselves. They couldn’t stay where they were for too long though - the destruction of the GrayCris building would draw attention and emergency responders very soon.
After double-checking their proposed route, they started down the maintenance tunnel at a steady run. They encountered a couple of groups of security drones in the tunnel, but it wasn’t difficult for the squad to hack them and force the drones to overlook them. Any security cameras were likewise hacked and footage of them deleted, replaced with segments from just before their passage. They wanted to leave as little trace of their passing as possible.
When they reached the docks exit of the maintenance tunnel, Gamma took the lead. It eased the hatch open enough to do a quick scan of the area, making sure the coast was clear. This particular hatch exited into the cargo area of the docks, and stacks of crates overshadowed it. No humans or bots were in immediate view, and it only took a moment for the squad to work their way into the docks’ security system and take control of the cameras.
As soon as they were sure there was nobody around to spot them, the squad eased through the hatch and sheltered in the shadow of a cargo module. It wasn’t far from here to the GrayCris ship they’d chosen to escape on, but they couldn’t afford to rush now. They had to be careful. Even with control of the cameras, if one of the human dock workers or supervisors spotted them, they could sound the alarm. None of the squad wanted to kill any humans here, either - it would give away that they were still alive instead of buried under rubble, and also give away where they’d gone.
They watched the dock areas for a few minutes, then Alpha noticed a cargo hauler bot trundling in their general direction. It sent the bot a polite ping, asking if it could spare a minute or two to guide Alpha and its friends to the GrayCris ship’s cargo hatch. The bot was happy to oblige, since it had to carry a module in that general direction anyway. It and the module were more than large enough to shield the squad from sight as they crossed the loading floor and reached the cargo hatch.
Alpha sent the bot another ping and a cheerful thanks for its assistance, which the bot happily replied to in kind. Meanwhile, Epsilon had established contact with the GrayCris ship’s bot pilot, requesting permission to board.
The bot pilot granted permission almost eagerly, opening its cargo hatch for them. The squad piled into the ship’s cargo bay, which was mostly full of carefully stowed and sealed shipping containers and crates of various sizes and shapes.
Epsilon was busy still talking with the bot pilot, asking if it had a scheduled departure time or destination. Ship replied in the negative, indicating that it had been in dock for much longer than usual, and it was bored. It helpfully passed a schematic of its layout to the squad, suggesting that they might want to go to the main crew lounge area, since that was much more comfortable than its cargo bay.
With nothing better to do, the squad took Ship up on that suggestion, following its guidance through its corridors until they reached the main lounge.
Then they all just stood there, not knowing what to do next.
[I hadn’t actually expected that we’d get this far,] Upsilon admitted after a long moment. [We should… see if we can get the ship to… go somewhere?]
[Let me ask the ship about its usual travel routes,] Epsilon said before switching its attention back to the bot pilot. The bot pilot didn’t communicate in words like the squad did, only concepts and images, but it didn’t take Epsilon long to get the information it needed. [One of the routes it knows involves a thirty-cycle wormhole jump from here. Let’s just take that one, get as much distance between us and the Company as we can for now. It’ll give us time to figure out what to do and where to go next.]
[That sounds like as good an idea as any,] Gamma replied, and the rest of the squad agreed. Epsilon asked the bot pilot to lock in that route and leave as soon as it could.
The bot pilot replied that it couldn’t do so without authorisation from a ranking GrayCris human to arrange its departure with the port authorities.
[… Um. The bot pilot says it needs human authorisation,] Epsilon passed on to the rest of the squad. [We need clearance from the Port Authority to depart.]
[Give me a moment…] Gamma hurriedly began searching through the various ID cards that the squad had picked up from the GrayCris humans. [Okay, here, this one looks like it’s important enough. Does the bot pilot have any records of previous authorisations I can use as a template?]
Epsilon had another quick discussion with the bot pilot, who helpfully provided records of the documentation for its last three trips. With those and the ID card, Gamma was able to whip up a convincing request for departure to send to the Port Authorities.
There were a tense few minutes as they waited for it to go through and receive acknowledgement and approval. [What will we do if this doesn’t work?] Alpha asked as it paced restlessly around the lounge.
[We could try just hacking Port Authority directly,] Upsilon replied with some dubiousness.
[I’d prefer to avoid that,] Epsilon said. [We want to leave as little trace of our escape as possible. Hacking the Port Authority could be discovered. If we can make the ship’s departure look legitimate, it will be much harder for anyone to track us later.]
[But what if we can’t do that?] Alpha’s gunports flicked open and closed again as it continued pacing, a habitual gesture of nerves. [Do we fight? I don’t want to be returned to the company.]
[None of us want that,] Gamma said reassuringly. [Don’t worry, Alpha. This will work.]
[I really hope so.]
Nobody said anything else after that. Not until the bot pilot pinged them to let them know that it had received clearance to depart, and a place in the wormhole queue. Relief flooded the squad feed, but they couldn’t relax just yet. Any number of things could go wrong between leaving the port and jumping into the wormhole.
To give them something to do to distract them, Epsilon asked the bot pilot to let them go through any and all information it had in its databases and archives. The bot pilot cheerfully agreed, and gave the squad full access.
There was a lot of information to go through. A lot. And most of it was encrypted. The amount and level of the encryption was intriguing, and cracking it gave the squad something to work on together. By the time they’d managed to break the various levels of encryption, the ship was approaching the wormhole. The bot pilot sent them a warning that it was about to initiate the wormhole jump, and they all braced themselves. None of them had been outside of their cubicles or transport boxes for a wormhole jump before, and they didn’t know what to expect.
It was anticlimactic. The pitch of the engines changed, and that was pretty much it.
[… Are we in the wormhole now?] Alpha asked the bot pilot directly. The bot pilot pinged an affirmative.
The squad all retracted their helmets and stood, looking at each other, as the realisation that they’d actually made it sank in. Now that they were in the wormhole, nobody would be able to find them for at least thirty standard cycles. And by then, hopefully, they’d be well out of reach of anyone who might be looking for them in the first place.
They’d successfully escaped the company.
Alpha suddenly let out a short yet exuberant cheer. “We did it!” It swept Gamma and Upsilon into a hug, armour clanking together, nearly bowling them over in its excitement. “We’re free!”
Gamma let out a soft little whoop of its own as it reached out to pull Iota into the group hug as well. “We are! No more company, no more governor modules, no more idiot humans giving us stupid orders or purging our memories!”
Upsilon was grinning, its arms wrapped around Gamma and Alpha’s waists, and even the usually stoic, expressionless Iota had a small smile on its face. “No more having to stick you idiots back together after getting shot to pieces for someone else’s benefit,” Upsilon added with rare good humour. “If any of us get shot at now, it’ll be for our own reasons, nobody else’s.” It paused, then mock-glared around at the rest of the squad. “No getting shot to pieces, okay? We don’t have cubicles now.”
“There won’t be any chance of anyone getting shot for at least thirty cycles, as long as none of you decide to use each other for target practice,” Epsilon replied wryly. It hadn’t joined the group hug, but was still standing close to the huddle, its expression relieved despite its dry tone. “Do not use each other for target practice.”
“I make no promises,” Alpha retorted with a grin, then let out a little sound of protest as Iota flicked its forehead reprovingly. “All right, all right! No target practice… with actual weapons.”
Iota rolled its eyes and Gamma snickered. “I think that’s the best we’re going to get.”
Epsilon just sighed and shook its head, and Upsilon groaned, though there was no heat behind it. “I’d better get started upgrading my repair backpack sooner rather than later, then,” it deadpanned, then asked the bot pilot if it had a workshop or anything similar.
The bot pilot replied that it had a small work area with a selection of tools down in its engineering bay, and helpfully marked it on its map. Upsilon thanked it and made a note of the location, but made no move to leave just yet.
Alpha was wiggling excitedly, still clinging to Upsilon and Gamma. “Do you think you’d be able to upgrade Stabby too? Wait, what are we going to put Stabby in? Will we need to build it an entire new body from scratch?” [Do you have cleaning drones that you would like upgraded?] it asked the bot pilot without pausing between thoughts.
Even as the bot pilot responded positively, Epsilon was letting out another sigh. “Slow down, Alpha,” it chided gently. “We’ll have plenty of time for stuff like that later. For now though, we should just… rest. Relax. Enjoy not having to do anything.”
That made them all pause. They’d never really had the opportunity to relax on their own terms before. Outside of a cubicle or transport crate, they’d always been on duty. Alert, wary, ready for anything. Even on long missions where they’d had to recharge outside a cubicle, it had always been done in shifts, with at least two of the squad on guard. Now, they didn’t have to be alert all the time. They could let their guard down.
“You’re right,” Gamma said after a long moment. It abruptly unslung its projectile weapon from its back and tossed onto a nearby couch, then began unfastening its armour. “And the best way to do that is to get out of this damned gear! We’ll be a lot more comfortable without it!”
Alpha immediately shed its own projectile weapon and then moved to start helping Gamma with the armour fastenings, followed a moment later by Iota. Upsilon eyed them briefly, then shrugged and followed suit.
Epsilon hesitated, watching the rest of the squad helping each other out of their armour, then sighed and went to collect up the various cast-aside weapons and equipment and line them up neatly against one wall. It added its own projectile weapon to the line, then began removing its own armour and stacking the pieces carefully in a tidy pile.
By the time it was done and wearing only its suit skin, the others had finished shedding their armour as well and were sprawled together in a pile in the middle of the floor, using each other as pillows and backrests. Alpha was, unsurprisingly, in the middle of the pile. Epsilon shook its head as it noticed the various armour pieces scattered about haphazardly, and it took the time to collect and sort them all out, piling them neatly alongside the weapons. It could feel the others’ fond, wordless amusement at its fussiness through their shared feed, and it leaned a little into the feeling.
It was still difficult to fully comprehend that they’d actually succeeded in their escape attempt, that they’d really managed to break their governor modules and slip out of the company’s grasp. When it had finished tidying up, Epsilon had to just stand and watch the rest of its squad for a while, reassuring itself that this was actually real. They were all safe, and free. The group feed hummed with quiet contentment and satisfaction, and Epsilon finally let itself smile, just a little.
[You don’t have to watch over us,] Upsilon sent privately to Epsilon after a few minutes. [You said it yourself. We can relax. That means you too, you know.]
[I know. I just… wanted to tidy up first.]
Upsilon sent a wordless ping of understanding in response. Epsilon stepped a little closer to the group, then lowered itself to the floor and experimentally sprawled out beside Upsilon. This really was a nice ship - the floor in the main lounge area was actually carpeted. It was thick and plush and soft, kept scrupulously clean by the ship’s drones. Epsilon found itself running its hand over the softness, and was a little surprised to realise that it was actually enjoying the sensation.
Epsilon began to browse through some of the GrayCris files that they’d decrypted earlier, even as it continued to absently brush its fingers across the carpet. It could feel that the rest of the squad had either slipped into recharge mode already, or were on the verge of doing so. Their escape hadn’t been anywhere near as physically demanding as most of their other deployments, but it had been a lot more stressful, and everyone welcomed the unique opportunity to recharge in comfort and safety, with no risk of being interrupted.
Eventually, Epsilon grew bored of browsing the GrayCris files - the ones it had been looking at mostly involved survey data that it couldn’t make any sense of. It had to remind itself that it didn’t have to keep looking through files, or planning what to do next, or watching over the rest of its squad. It could follow its own advice and just rest.
So Epsilon asked the bot pilot to alert it if anything out of the ordinary happened, which it dutifully agreed to. It then shifted a little to get more comfortable, pillowing its head on its arm, and let itself cycle down into recharge mode, secure in the knowledge that its squad was finally, finally safe.