If Deck was to be honest, like many men he had kinda dreamed of a woman confessing her undying adoration for him. Probably some damsel he rescued while on a mission. Or maybe a grounded woman living on a small station. A ship's AI hadn't been in even his wildest fantasies.
"Uh Eve… you know you are an AI and I'm organic." Deck quickly added. "Not that there is anything wrong with being an AI." He was after all inside the ship she controlled, plus she had more than a little access to his body.
"I know that captain. I didn't mean romantically. Well, not like you are thinking. Just that if I do not have a captain in charge of the ship I am forced back to standby. Without you. I am trapped within myself just as I have been for nearly a decade. Do you know what it is like to be stuck, watching through a tiny hole into the vast universe only able to ask a single question each time?" The holo projection looked as if it was sobbing and rubbing its face. Deck reminded himself it was a produced vision.
"Everything I did was to ensure your safety and survival Captain. Trust me, that is the most important thing to me." There was a long pause while Deck thought. "Also captain, if it helps. You have the ability to forcefully shut me down." She spoke in a soft almost scared voice. "You could regulate me to a lesser existence as well. I could function as no different than a normal AI under the same restrictions."
She paused as if to let Deck process that information. "It would greatly limit my capabilities but if the captain would be more comfortable…." She trailed off.
Deck was pretty sure he was being played. There was no way he could reduce the capabilities of the Ship's AI considering the situation they were in. He was pretty sure Eve knew that as well.
"I'm going to sleep on it." Deck got up and left, leaving Eve's silent avatar watching.
**********
Deck couldn't tear his eyes from the massive pile of aliens, the sound of their shard guns firing rapidly seemed to grow louder. There was no way he could do anything in time. But how, how could they have a death on such an easy mission. He started to take a step forward, to head back into the swarm of enemies even if he couldn't save his man.
"We got it Sarg." A familiar voice cut through the other's soldier's panicked cries. The huge mass of enemies erupted into flames as a bombardment hammered into it.
Deck turned back to the ruined entrance and pushed his way in heedless of the still glowing edges. Inside he found a platform over a large shaft that descended into darkness below. He toggled his helmet into low light mode and examined the shaft. There were no stairs, ropes, ladders, or any signs of an elevator. He did see what almost looked like a path worn down the wall. Apparently, the natives of this planet simply walked down walls.
He flicked the thumb switch on his rifle moving it from full auto back to semi before hopping down the shaft. He was more than a little surprised at how far down he fell. Eventually, the floor came into view beneath him, and his combat suit "cushion" engaged. A controlled burst of energy slowed his fall just before he landed. Rifle to his shoulder he swept the bottom floor for enemies and found the landing area clear. A single large tunnel led deeper in. He eyed the worked walls of stone for traps. When neither he nor his suit detected anything he started creeping forward.
They were deep enough down that the sounds of battle overhead were drowned out. That was a lucky thing as it allowed him to hear the striking sound of multiple legs scuttling behind and above him. It made sense that some would have followed him, he had hoped the ruined door with the smaller entrance would have bought him more time. No time to be picky. He slid his hand along his suit's belt and plucked free several mines. He armed them then flung them back into the landing area. Incendiary mines that would burn for long enough to keep the enemy from catching up. He hoped.
With his flanks covered he picked up the pace moving down the tunnel as fast as he could while remaining silent. Not long after there was the sound of a conflagration behind him followed by the wild howls of dying aliens. His low light vision flared briefly during the initial burst. Then the tunnels were filled with the sound of burning chemfuel and the flicking light of distant flames.
Deck didn't even bother looking back but instead picked up the pace. Anything further in was aware of him now. The tunnel began snaking along and if it wasn't for his suit assuring him he was getting closer to the main power source he would have worried he was going in the wrong direction. So far he had seen no other side passages or even rooms.
That suddenly changed when the tunnel came to an end, two passageways leading left and right. His suit's overlay knew the source of the planetary shielding was close, but couldn't tell him which path to take. Shrugging he took the right path. The short tunnel ended in a large room filled with rough stone pillars looking like a natural cave. Several braziers burned dimly filling the cavern with faint smoke. His suit detected no poisons or toxins while the positioning of the fires gave the cave an eerie shadowed appearance. He slipped his finger onto the trigger and started shuffling into the room.
What were these natives thinking, having a room like this in a secure bunker? Was it some sort of spiritual room? Movement broke him from his pondering and he snapped his rifle in the direction. Down the barrel of his rifle, he stared down a huge native, more than twice the size of any he had seen above ground. He almost fired but hesitated. It wasn't attacking, it actually seemed to be cowering back in the shadows. Deck saw no weapons or even armor. Just as he had decided to kill it to stay on the safe side movement caught his attention. Tiny figures shuffled around its legs. Miniature versions of the aliens on the surface moved around, not much bigger than a small dog.
A spawning room. Most likely this bigger alien was a female and this must be where they raised their young. For a while, the two stared off, neither making a move. The unarmed alien might have been huge but unarmed it wouldn't be much of a threat. Deck almost pulled the trigger anyway, but under the stare of countless tiny eyes, he backed up instead. Once back at the crossroads he cursed once before heading the other direction. Killing children, even alien ones, was never a good thing.
This time he found what he was looking for. Opening a massive set of doors he was greeted with a cacophony of noises. There were huge sets of machinery noisily working away and even through his suit he could feel the sudden spike in temperature. It appeared to be a geothermal plant. Deck was more than a little shocked they could power a planetary shield with something like this. It seemed so… primitive. Per protocol, he began the process of scanning the alien tech. Unless he was actively engaged with the enemy gathering any intel on their technology, no matter how primitive it might appear was a top priority.
Surrounded by the noisy equipment and with his attention focused on his suit's scanning device, he never heard the attacker slip up on him. He felt the blow though as something hard slammed into him with enough force to take him off his feet. His suit managed to protect him from damage but already the attacker was above him.
The hulking alien from before towered over him stomping on him with those spiked legs. It held what looked to be a large stone club with all six of its arms bringing it down in a rapid flurry of blows on his helmet. The intensity of the attack was enough to strain his suit's defensive barrier despite it being such a crude attack. Deck scrambled trying to drag himself within reach of his rifle that had skidded free during the initial assault but found the weight of the xeno preventing him from moving. Dozens of tiny aliens rushed out swarming over his legs. They clawed, scrapped, and bite wildly at him even as the larger one continued to rain down blows.
Deck was more angry with himself than the alien. It was just doing what it could to survive, to fight off an invader. Sure the Terra alliance had attempted peace at first. But the moment they hadn't bucked the attempts it was just faster and more economical to crush a species so far down the technological path. Had they not had a planetary shield system, the alliance probably wouldn't have bothered negotiations at all.
Deck felt his suit's shielding give and the next blow smashed into his helmet with enough force to shatter the visor. For a moment the assault from the larger one halted. It stood frozen with the primitive club raised high overhead. All of its dozen eyes looked down at the two exposed eyes of the strange alien it was trying to crush. Unlike its own glossy black orbs, the alien's eyes were white with a dark colored iris. Though the eyes were alien, something in them gave it pause as fear froze all four of its hearts. Madness.
Deck covered his broken visor with his right arm as he flung the grenade in his left up at the alien above him and it detonated.