Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (121 page)

Chapter 50

Six armies of humans and Neos marshaled themselves for the final push on Skynet, Ares, Zhukov and other A.I. The Marines were aware that they were in a battle for their lives, potentially for all life on the planet. What they were about to face would be far tougher to hit and take down than Africa and South America.

But it had to be done. And quickly.

Lagroose Industries and Star Reach rushed to get more antimatter to the Lagrange points. However, their haste meant corners were cut and a cargo freighter lost containment. A dozen crewmen died when a brief sun was lit in their bowels, tearing their ship apart, and driving the point home that antimatter was highly dangerous and unstable.

Jack Lagroose was more concerned about the loss of the antimatter than the lives. He knew in the back of his mind it was callous, but every milligram of antimatter had suddenly become a precious commodity. Losing some at the critical juncture they were at could spell the death of all life on Earth. Potentially all life in the solar system.

Counter nanites were rushed through design and into production. Barrels of them were quickly made; it was far easier for the spacers since they had nanites already in their manufacturing centers to use. The counter nanites were designed to seek out other nanites without an IFF and tear them apart.

But
only
nanites. Trevor's people had to create a kill switch similar to a genetic kill switch as well as a means for them to communicate without allowing Skynet to infiltrate and reprogram them. Unfortunately, they remained untested on the battlefield.

Many hoped that would remain that way.

Zack's teams were inserted onto the ground to work their way through the lines and to their targets. Each human and Neo pair had surgically created kangaroo pouches throughout their bodies for the matter/antimatter bombs, plus the initiators. There were even hyper capacitors to power small force emitters to ram the two materials together and direct their blasts.

Each of them had been altered into super soldiers to enhance their mission survival ratio and therefore chances of success. Hardened reinforced bones, stronger muscles, enhanced senses, better organs … the list went on and on. They even had micro actuators and artificial tendons woven into their muscles to enhance their stamina and strength.

Not much could be done about their skin but they had been given a micro thin layer of plating or flexible material that could help with blows or even stop a bullet. None of them wanted to test it however.

Getting through the robot lines was tricky. Fortunately, the orbital bombardment had obliterated a good section of troops forcing their retreat from the Rio Grande. Fording the river wasn't easy, but they managed to get coyotes who were helping people to cross the other way to let them return on their boats.

Each pair carried a backpack stuffed with gear. They would use the dog's pack up first, freeing the dog up to allow them to roam and act like a normal canine as they got closer to their objectives.

As they walked they encountered groups of refugees going in the opposite direction. Many attempted to get them to turn around. It took a bit of patience to explain that they had other ideas in mind.

A few refugees asked to join them. Boomer was tempted to allow them; they could use the help. Zack, however, stood firm; they needed to move quickly and quietly. The refugees were given maps to help them get through the shattered robotic lines to supposed safety as well as code words to let the troops know not to shoot them.

Each team—four humans or apes and four canines—were given a specific target. Some were overlapping targets in case one team failed to get to their objective. Once a day they sent a whisker laser upward to let command know their situation.

Boomer shook his head as he looked over to his new partner Thumper. He'd tried to get the dog to agree to another name, but the dog wouldn't have it. Besides, it played off of Bumper's name, and it was appropriate. The dog was something of a ham; if you scratched an ear just right, that back leg would thump like nobody's business. It became an evening ritual to do that along with playing fetch with a battered tennis ball.

“It's strange that we haven't run into any robots. No patrols …”

Boomer pointed upward. Zack frowned before he caught on. “Oh.”

“Most likely everything was headed to the Mexican border or to the facilities. Ares probably has shit stashed in nodes to attack as well,” Boomer rumbled. Zack grunted. After a while they fell back into companionable silence.

It was tempting, oh so tempting, to fall into their network and communicate that way, to exchange thoughts. However, it was also highly dangerous; there was too much of a risk that some bleed over, however slight, would get out to something receptive in the area that could then alert the A.I. of their presence. So, they refrained.

<>V<>

Once they were in the desert, undercover Neocoyotes were allowed to work their ways into the area. They moved out, foraging on the land and dead bodies and reported back their findings over encrypted links.

More Chimera and human Franks entered the war during what all considered the hardest of battles. Unfortunately the super soldier attitude many harbored going into the conflict got many killed.

Although just about any genotype was fair game, the geneticists had learned early on that mammals did the best. They transitioned to sapiency better, were easier to care for and interact with, and had a similar mindset. Experiments with species such as parrots, other smart avians, crocs, and other species were cut as funding went to the successful lines.

No species that had been a beast of burden or food animal other than canines had been uplifted to sapiency. There was no need for a walking, talking horse or cow. Combat called for predators and omnivores.

Chimeras, Franks, and Neos who had been born prior to the war were cautious; they had learned to temper their enthusiasm by playing VR games for years. Those who had been born after the onset of the war had been driven through their growth stages by hormones and growth supplements to get them ready for war sooner. They'd had a much shorter time to adjust to their bodies and to learn what the veterans had learned. But those who did survive did their best to pass on their hard-earned knowledge to each fresh wave that came in behind them.

Ursines had realized that they were invulnerable to small arms due to their implants and massive frames, but that it doesn't meant they are totally protected. “You don't have to be stupid about it,” Sergeant Po told a troop each time they were brought in. The Panda's platoon had the highest ratio of mission success but also combat losses however.

Here and there some forces stood out above the rest. The Bruin Squad, a squad made up exclusively of Neoursines, managed to break the siege line in Tijuana Mexico but at terrible losses.

<>V<>

“Think they'll be dumb enough to buy this?” Private Parker asked, looking at the bait. The squad was split into two groups with another squad a hundred meters back. The bait was a pair of robots they'd downed and left out in the open.

“Apparently so,” Caspiana said ever so softly, ears flicking. “I hear bots approaching. A lot of them.” Caspiana like Leopora were on loan from the Thundercats, Lieutenant Peitro Valenko thought. He owed the colonel for loaning them to him for the week while Berny recovered and the brass found another warm body to replace Ashley.

“Shit.” Parker said entirely too mildly.

“What? This is what we wanted, right?” Leopora demanded, checking her sniper rifle once more. The small camera built into the front of the gun was great for allowing her to see around corners or to snipe from cover. But the damn thing got gunked up all the time. “We're ready to rock, right?”

“Don't be so eager,” Caspiana said. She looked over her shoulder to the others. “At least a squad. Some heavies as well,” she said.

The gorilla corporal grunted, hefting his primary weapon. “Got just the thing then,” he rumbled in a bass voice.

“Hold off on that. We've only got two shots left,” the grizzly sergeant ordered, looking at the gorilla.

“Ah, you hog all the fun,” the gorilla protested as the grizzly hefted his Gatling gun. For anyone else the damn thing would have been a heavy weapon unit for a fire team. A Neo could heft it no problem, even without implants.

“They are coming,” Caspiana breathed, ducking down. Chuckles the chimp ducked down behind the low wall behind her. The others followed suit.

“Shoulda done this from the building,” Chuckles whispered.

“Will you shush?” Caspaina growled, eyes glittering as she turned to scold him. He shrugged the scolding off. She could see his fur was rising however. He made a show of sealing his lips and throwing a key away. She glared a moment longer then went back to her watch.

“A maintenance bot is moving in; it's kneeling to assess the drone,” Leopora said over the link, using her sniper scope as a periscope. “The others are sort of hanging back.” They had a hair-thin fiber optic link that connected each of them to allow them to communicate. None of them liked to use the method because it was a pain in the ass to remember not to vocalize.

“I think they are getting a whiff of us,” Leopora said.

“Heat signature,” the bear signaled. “Couldn't be helped even with the cloaks.”

“Then why …,” Chuckles started to ask.

“Because we are the real bait,” Parker said shaking his head as he realized the inevitable.

“Sucks to be us,” the gorilla said over the link.

“Ignore the maintenance bot. Leopora, take on the command bots in the front row. The rest of you pick your targets carefully,” the grizzly ordered. “I'll hang back for someone my size to come along.”

“Just drone workers and … oh, got one, now two construction workers in line. Now some stripped-down gynoids and androids … some drone troopers are standing on the corner.”

“Frack. Hate those. They are heavily armored.”

“They've got the heavy weapons too. One police mech way in the back. I can see …,” Leopora leaned slightly to see around the corner of the two-meter tall wall. Her movement disturbed some of the gravel and debris however. It fell onto a plate of metal making a distinct rattle and thumping sound that made them all wince.

“Shit.”

“Sorry,” Leopora said over the link. “Ah hell, here we go!” she said. They'd wanted an accurate account to know what they were up against, but that wasn't going to happen. “We've been made!” she said, taking on the command bot in the front row just as the maintenance robot began to repair the bait drone they'd left out.

“Rock!” Caspiana and Parker snarled out loud, popping up to fire at their targets. Immediately weapon fire was returned. It was fortunately small arms fire, so they ducked down under the safety of the concrete wall to wait it out.

“Two down,” Caspiana said. “I took out the Yellow mech,” she said.

“No, it's armored. Gotta hit it with tasers in a joint,” Chuckles said as he brought up his minigun.

“Save it,” the grizzly started to order but the chimp was already squeezing the trigger. The gun ripped into the front row, tearing apart the gynoids and androids. They were flung back as smashed parts and bodies.

The chimp wasn't carrying much ammo, however, so he quickly ran dry. “I'm out,” he said, ducking back under cover. He, like their lone human Parker, was wearing urban camo, full marine kit. The rest of the squad wore more personalized outfits. He felt something hit his helmet. “Damn it.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, ricochet I think,” Chuckles said, rubbing his neck. That was going to be sore later he thought as his hands went back to his weapon. He yanked open Velcro sealed pouches to belt more ammo together.

“Cover fire,” Parker growled as the enemy fire slackened. He popped up to fire into the nearest veteran trooper. The drone trooper was a bastard to take down; you had to hit it just right in a joint to get it to freeze up. Parker's infantry rifle couldn't do the job.

That wasn't the only thing that had his attention however. His eyes went up briefly as a familiar sound cut through the weapons fire. “Got eyes in the sky and a wasp incoming,” he said. “Wha oh! Plasma!” he snarled, ducking down and rolling away from the wall as the campaign veteran drone leveled its long box-like weapon.

The weapon was linked to the massive backpack it wore. The backpack made it cumbersome, mainly because it had been overloaded with ordinance and parts on top of the power pack. But it gave the drone a much more powerful punch.

Plasma slammed into the wall, superheating it. The rock fractured and began to glow.

“He's recharging,” Chuckles observed, seeing the red heat and waving air around the barrel. “And he's brought friends,” he snarled as the grizzly stepped up. The grizzly swept his chain gun from left to right and then back again, hand paw holding the trigger down. He ran through the entire ammo box in less than five seconds, but the depleted uranium-tungsten-tipped rounds did the job.

The veteran drones and police bot with its own Gatling gun were torn apart in the murderous fire. Small arms and other fire came back in return however. Some of the small caliber rounds tore into his body. He ignored it. A couple ricocheted off the ammo box. He snarled when a .22 round hit his skull above his right eye. It gave him an instant headache, but his hardened bones held. He did close that eye and squint a bit in pain.