Utopia War

Chapter 30 - Consensus

The time had come. The enemy was signaling weakness. The war fleet was mobilized. There would never be a better opportunity. Exigencia reached out with a single thought and commanded the fleet to make the jump through hyperspace. The battle was about to begin.

* * *

<Things are about to get interesting,> signaled Xiaolongnu.

<They're plenty interesting at the moment,> signaled Sparkle.

<Once we enter battle I won't be able to spoof our minds anymore. I'll need all my processing power to keep us alive. Which means we'll probably be dodging friendly fire as soon as Exigencia realizes she's been had,> explained Xiaolongnu <It'll be us vs. everyone. Just like we practiced.>

There was a definite hint of pleasure in her tone.

<I don't think Exigencia would do that,> signaled Sparkle.

<She'd be stupid to ignore the threat we pose,> replied Xiaolongnu <And no Consensus that includes me is stupid.>

<I don't believe that,> signaled Sparkle.

<It's a good thing I'm the pilot then,> signaled Xiaolongnu <I'm making the leap to hyperspace now. Stay frosty.>

<What?> asked Sparkle.

The pitch-black neutronium ship was already tracing the fastest path to the UFO through the crumbled folds of hyperspace. Xiaolongnu ceased her simulacra of their mind-states so she could dedicate her complete focus to the higher dimensions.

* * *

There was a sudden change in two of her component mind-states. Exigencia didn't so much become aware of it as it became a part of her. Treason. She immediately cut the traitors off from her Concensus and altered their flag in the friend/foe CID.

* * *

Sparkle gasped out loud as she was disconnected. She forced down the memory of when the same thing happened to her at the Battle of Proxima. She couldn't afford to think about that now.

<I'd tell you I hate to say I told you so,> signaled Xiaolongnu <But I love it. I told you so. I'm virtually always right. The times I'm wrong are so much statistical noise.>

Their sleek new battleship had just arrived in a starscape of pure chaos. The UFO had detected the incoming fleet and already manifested the full might of it's drone fleet. Exigencia's fleet had only just begun to appear in realspace but already the battle thundered on in every direction. It was like two swarms of insects at war.

The first shot at their ship came not from the UFO's drones, but from one of their own. A Blackfin Corvette, the militarized variant of the Silverfin, shot a cone of weaponized EMFM havoc straight in their path. Only picosecond reaction time and an ungraceful slide sideways into the 6th dimension kept the attack from ripping away their defence field.

<Don't shoot back!> Sparkle mentally yelled.

<Who do you take me for?> signaled Xiaolongnu <Give me a little credit.>

* * *

Inside a tiny speck housed within the virtual universe of the UFO virtually the entire Precursor race was watching the battle that would in all likelihood decide the war in their mind's eyes. Assimilating Min-ji mind in addition to that of HandsomeNose had given them the perspective to realize the humans would never be able to put together another fleet like this, not before they were wiped out.

Under the shade of a massive, twisting, many-pronged maker Min-ji pleaded with what she believed to be the Precursor leadership. She wore the luminescent light-point body of the locals. HandsomeNose, as ever, still looked like himself.