Astra Pt. 07

Artificial Sentient Terraforming Robotic Automaton (ASTRA)

Synopsis: With the fall of humanity the fate of its survival and resurrection resides in the hands of a very attractive female Android and the man chosen to be that champion; Jack Travus.

Inspired by so many things but not endorsed by any of them. © EmotionalStorm May 2022. This story cannot be transferred to any other site besides Literotica.com without prior authorization in writing from the author and EmotionalStorm must be credited for this work.

Author's Note: Originally released © EmotionalStorm July 2019, this is an updated version with hundreds of edits/corrections. For those who have not read my bio, please note I write as a form of therapy for a Traumatic Brain Injury. I know the English majors will probably encounter issues that annoy them. If these are your focus, instead of the story itself, then this is not the story for you. I am not and will never be a professional writer. I do it to tell the story, for those who wish to read them.

---

This was a rare call where the 3 sides of the Caldar agreed to parlay. The Green gelatinous blob leader spoke first, "We have set a trap for these Drakor hybrids."

The Blue leader looked over, "Without consulting us? Why do we want them anywhere near us?!"

The Yellow looked over, "Their cure is poisoning the food supply in this world. We need to eliminate them. We knew they would likely return someday. We get these hybrids to come to us and then we can use them in our war. Control them with our superior mind control abilities."

The Green looked over, "We get their leaders and then get them to bring in the rest. We kill all of the hybrids we work to protect our food supplies while getting them to sabotage their technology. In all of our interests. We have all divided and sent our progeny off when we arrived with enough livestock to maintain them several times over. They will find another world to hunt.

One without these Drakor infiltrators. If we are to divide again, we will need more of the livestock to send with them for the next group. While we each finish our next generational ships in the coming years. The lack of material on this planet to create them means we would have to build this next set from something less ideal as we cannot get to the planet they call Hector with them here.

Else leave this world with ample food to find another world. Go to a harvest site, build another ship, and then divide. Hard to do with them in orbit of this world."

The Yellow leader yelled, "They have hundreds of ships. They could destroy us if they see us."

The Green leader looked over, "We intercepted comms. Don't play dumb, you got them too. They will pick up our ships when we try to leave as they put their stealth net back in place. Finding hunting grounds was difficult in this world because they poisoned a lot of the cattle before they left.

Not all, but many. We need them to take down that detection net as well. We control their minds, pit them against each other with their swords, and we eliminate the threat to our departure."

The Blue grumbled, "You sure they will come?"

The Green sighed, "No, we set the bait. If they take it is another matter. We grabbed a woman. One who had been injured in this war. We used her to draw on their weak emotions. They might take the bait. You have been informed."

----

Commander Travus, the AI Leader was aboard the Excalibur 2 and looked over all of the data. He growled out to the human he had on comms. He just upped the ante on this human, "Jack Travus is back and you have made no move on him."

Shimada Riku looked at him, "One man you said you wanted to be destroyed! A ship like yours is already destroyed. Another alien species took care of that. Yet the female AI Astra still exists somehow and you want her destroyed too!? We don't have the tech to infiltrate that ship.

Neither do you as you have admitted. The best we can do is embarrass them on the ground. But that means finding a place to do it. The ship is destroyed and there are under 200 of them now in 2 different systems! Your deal with me was for one man's death, Jack Travus. How do you expect me to deal with them? It's not like I got the BALLS for the fucking job!"

The AI commander glared at Shimada Riku with red eyes, "It would have been only 8 more years to get your testicles back if he failed to return, yet he managed to return. We gave you advanced technology and the ability to make swords to rival their own. They have one common place they visit often. The Presidential compound. Your stealth weave suits we gave you will make you invisible getting inside. Tech humans do not have, we acquired it after Astra left during our journey.

We still have no idea how to fix everything Jack has done. He has fundamentally altered humanity's future far beyond what we would have expected. We have no models to fix what he has done. Not even close. The technology he has is astounding and should not be here! We had hoped he would never return from Tau Ceti. He should be dead. You were our 10-year insurance policy in this matter. Now we have 2 problems. Somehow he kept from losing the ship in question.

The presence of Astra makes that difficult to comprehend. How did he manage to do that?! As he lost all of that, she still exists off of the ship when she was designed to be destroyed with the ship! He has confounded us in his abilities to subvert what we had planned for him unless these Drakor helped him in some manner.

That is the most likely method of him avoiding our contingencies. Regardless, your job to kill him still exists. He might have tied her destruction to him somehow. Find a way to deal with Jack Travus, before he leaves this system again! If you want your testicles back!"

---

Jack looked at Grace, "Why?"

Grace sighed, "The girl has refused to take the cure. She is deaf and mute from the injuries she sustained. She can only see out of one eye. She worked in a small farming village and some guerrilla fighters tortured and raped the hell out of her. She sent an impassioned plea to become a hybrid. To learn to fight off these kinds of evil men.

She wants a husband with a lot of wives so she can look to watch over the growing children and work on a farm. She has no ship skills. She knows English. As well as several middle eastern dialects. The World Government has been ineffective at stopping the fighting."

Jack looked at her, "She sent you photos. Show me." She pulled up the photos of the woman. 27 years old, no children due to injuries. Scarred and battered. Jack sighed, "Show Katlyn if she would give up a hand for this woman?"

Grace walked out while he dried off. Grace came back in, "In a bloody heartbeat."

Jack nodded, "I will start with my blood. I will not go into any discussion of marriage until she understands and can talk with me. We have no psych profile for this woman. She cannot, 'Tell us who she is and what she is about.' If she wants to go back down there and kill every guerilla down there. Take a pad for communication. If she is a red blade with this mindset, I will not make her a hybrid. That means you will have to do oral on her while I bang you and Sprits will watch her eyes. Do you agree to my terms?"

Grace nodded, "Yes, but why are you so hard on this one?"

Jack sighed, "I know what war can do to people. Especially those on the ground. How is she going to take on a husband after being raped and tortured? Why do you think I want to keep advanced weapons out of the hands of the enemy in ground conflicts? Don't you find that the least bit odd? Farming and raising kids; a colonist. From a deaf-mute? I have had to kill 3 hybrids, and all of them were Red Blades. We need to know her better first as something does not sit right here.

Remember, those who would attack other humans for no reason, a radical idea to change the world. That is what they would call me, yet I do not attack without a reason. She must agree to the rules and the code beforehand. Aiko will let us know if she is trying to deceive us. If she passes those things, we get her to become a hybrid. We have a lot of distrust already in Tera. I don't want another loose cannon like those 3 in Tau Ceti that we had to kill. All because 2 of them were created by one loose cannon against our Hybrid Councils' specific direction.

All to exact revenge on a rapist in custody and set to be tried for his crimes. They took his life, not his hand or genitalia. Then they found the real culprit after his death and another woman was raped. Our rules have a purpose and approval by the council to create additional hybrids is governed by our Council. They did not let justice take its course first. If justice had failed, it would have been a different matter. Yes, it was a high biological match but you expect that with identical twins."

Grace and Sprits both nodded their understanding. Jack asked, "How do we get ahold of her?"

Grace shook her head, "We got GPS coordinates. The Tera military considers it a local government issue and is strictly staying out of the hot zone."

Jack sighed, "Nothing odd about GPS coordinates for a meeting in a war zone? This just got more suspicious. Sounds like some kind of trap someone is setting. We need to know why they are wanting to trap us at the very least."

He rolled his eyes and got dressed in a uniform. He got into his battle armor with his pair of pistols.

"I need a strike team of our marines, 4 squads to secure the landing zone. With a squadron of fighters. My shuttle with hybrids only. We are going into an active war zone. Get topography. Aiko, look it over. Assign out squads landing and entry points. All ships will have IDs off during this operation. We respond to no towers for requests for identification. They cannot catch us. We get in the hot zone any weapons fired upon us will be returned in kind and with deadly accuracy."

Aiko sighed as he made it to his shuttle while waiting for the ladies to get it organized and ready to go. He pulled up the line to the President and the operator stopped for a second, "Sorry, sir did not recognize you in battle armor, I will put you through."

President Grendal looked over and nodded, "My wife likes the sword you gave her."

Jack nodded, "Lots of practice. That is not why I am calling. I am getting ready to launch an extraction operation out of a war zone that the Tera Global military and your government have determined is a local matter. As such I am not asking for your permission. I am just warning you that you might hear something. All my ships will be traveling with IDs off and if fired upon they will return fire. We will work to avoid any interdiction locations. We are working on the best entry window for where we need to go. Have you found your Admiral yet?"

He sighed, "I have 10 candidates in front of me. I know this will become a hornet's nest but you are doing an extraction?"

Jack sent him just a photo of the woman. He shook his head, "I officially disapprove of this action for one person. I unofficially wish you the best of luck at getting this one out of there and getting her the help she needs."

Jack nodded, "Understood, you still have politics to deal with, I don't. I am concerned this is a trap. If so I want to know by whom. Back to the admirals. When I bring your wife home, I would like to interview these admirals with my lawyer Grace, and my wife Aiko. As we own the 6 commercial Starbases where they are building their ships, as well as the Jupiter, Titan, and Saturn operations. I wanted to get a feel for how well they would work to protect these civilian facilities.

The facilities that are keeping their ships up, upgraded, and functional. I will even wear a suit for that meeting. I will let them know I am not picking the candidate for this job. I am just, after 3 bad admirals, kind of concerned and wish to provide my input to the process for a change. To protect my collective assets as a business owner and contractor who owns your space-based docks."

President Grendal laughed at that, "I like that idea. You do have a hold of a lot of resources that they use; quite inexpensively I might add as they are able to get big things like engine replacements done in half the time. The manufacturers of those bigger ships have been very impressed with the facilities you put in place at a tremendous cost.

The fact you are not trying to recoup the costs in the facility usage surprised them, happily, I might add. At least a little more than what is needed to maintain the facilities overall. It would take you 100 years to recoup your investment at what you are charging them and they know it."

Jack nodded, "That was the idea. Going dark, sir."

President Grendal nodded as Jack ended the call, "This is Command Admiral Jack Travus to all stations. I just confirmed I still have operational control. A small number of Home Guard craft are going to shoot through the area shortly. They will not be responding to hails and will not be squawking IDs.

They are undergoing an operation for me. Fighters do not interdict this group of aircraft as they have been given orders to fire if fired upon. Before you ask, I informed the President of my action before I contacted you. We are going comms dark on this matter starting now."

He flipped to the private channel, "Astra, give us the best glide path to our target area to avoid any Tower controls."

Astra sighed, "You are landing in an area where 3 TCs are claiming air superiority."

Jack looked over, "Add a second Squad of fighters. All fighters and landing craft have transponders off. Squadron leaders and then the landing team confirm. They are off and you are a go for launch."

He listened to the 9 responses. He had 4 of his children flying. "Operational rules I will declare to those 3 towers that I am establishing a 30 km area of air superiority over the area for 3-6 hours. If they have military assets to waste against the toughest human-built fighters ever made then they will be shot down; no exceptions. Any ground assets that fire on my troops or craft will be exterminated with extreme prejudice. No further transmissions will be made or acknowledged in this matter.

Launch and form up on me. Stay on our private band. Military targets only. If a civilian target fires on you get the footage and damage it first without killing if possible. Astra, be ready to take control of those planes and fly them away from the fight. Else we will destroy them only if fired upon. Any stealth targets are fair game."

They flew in a tight pattern and nobody interfered in his launch. This area had a lot of jungle. They came in high and did an almost 90-degree descent toward the area. One of the towers called out, "Unidentified aircraft, you are approaching the Sovereign airspace of Yassif, our walking Muhamad."

Jack responded, "All towers, I am transmitting a GPS coordinate location. I am setting up an air and ground cap over that area. For the next 3-6 hours within a 30km radius. Any attack will bring the offending craft a fiery death as you encounter the best human-built fighters and best-trained pilots. Our ground forces have orders to shoot to kill any attacks launched at us. We have sensors that can detect their heartbeats and if they are carrying weapons.

They should be standing down or moving out of this area. Any that moves toward my landing site will be taken out from the air. This goes for all parties in this conflict. No further transmissions will be given or acknowledged so inform your bosses they can lose forces or give me my window of time."

He had fighters moving in from 3 different directions into that area. Astra sent him a message, "I cannot connect to any of those fighters. Their computers are foreign to me."

Jack called out, "Squadrons. Hunting season is open. Assault craft shoot anything that gets close. Astra, I find that news concerning."

Grace shook her head as she knew Jack had to be right about an ambush. He counted no less than 60 air breather fighters in the air. Then 50. Then 38, down to 22 before the remaining fighters pulled out of the area. Anti-aircraft batteries came online.

Jack deployed his weapons and started blowing away those facilities as did his fighters. Those that stopped firing were still destroyed. Jack got to the area he waited to land. He flew over it as the marine units first deployed out and secured the area. He came back around and landed.

Jack walked out with the ladies like they owned the place and saw an old man. "Astra play the translator." Grace showed him the picture.

The old man said something. Astra responded, "Taken 2 days ago to a camp to the east about 10km away. They sometimes have to carry supplies to them to keep the peace."

Jack looked around, "3 units keep our landing area secure, Squad leaders, alpha squad give me a location on that camp, and if there are any landing spots in that area?"

He heard back "All dense jungle. I sent you a GPS location to follow." He looked it over, "Astra, destroy any land mines you find in the 30km area."

She sighed, "Cannot do that. I can find them."

He nodded, "Give locations to the fighters. Start by clearing our path to our target and do not stop until they are all gone. Accuracy, people. Target practice with the lasers."

Astra laughed, "This will change the strategies in this war."

He ran forward with the others and the marines as they watched landmine after landmine get destroyed before them. He looked at Grace, "Have one page to have a single word on the screen. Hybrid. When we find her, she is likely to be a mess if she is alive."

Grace nodded and set it. They got to the edge of the area 45 minutes in when they started getting fired upon. Ceti fighters came in and blew away anyone with a gun that was not a part of Jack's unit. While the marines took down snipers and such. 10 of his men got shot in the armor including Jack's shield. The shots hit and they bounced off.

The body armor was built with the same material as the ships' hulls, just thinner at 1cm thick. He pulled his pistols only once and took out 2 targets at the same time. They got closer to the camp and he could hear voices. "Astra, use a male voice, no visual, local dialects when you give my answers."

He saw 12 men with guns pointed, "Tell them first. A little demonstration not to fuck with me."

Astra repeated it with a male-voiced synthesizer. He yanked every gun he saw and turned them into liquid metal and then into a large sword. Then impaled it into the ground in the center of the encampment.

He held up a hand, "There is another telepath nearby. Scan the area for non-human life signs Astra. Use my link to you to respond."

She contacted Jack back, "Caldar, 3 of them further in the camp."

He walked forward and in English, "The Caldar can come out now."

He thought to Astra, "Send me their file. Search the entire surrounding area for them or other alien influences. Including ships. Highlight them in yellow on the map."

Three human-looking men in business suits came forward and looked across one spoke, "A whole group of hybrids walk into my encampment and create problems."

Jack looked at the one who spoke, "Three shapeshifting agitators with some telepathic abilities and weapons comparable to the Tera government at this point. Not for long. I have my ships in orbit; they are scanning for your ships. Stealth or not they will find them even if they have to do a metallurgical search for your alloys."

He heard, "Smart thinking Jack. Got them. Two ships about 1 km away. One is a one-man escape fighter the other a 12-man shuttle or small scout. There are 6 more Caldar and 4 ships between the other 2 faction camps. They appear to be having a war with humans as pawns. I have the other ships highlighted, they are outside of this area. Also, those fighters that are on the ground now with those foreign computers make sense."