Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (116 page)

Enyalios was reaping large numbers of civilians but was expending large amounts of ammunition and energy in doing so. That was weakening the front there until follow-up logistics could make up the losses.

There were still some slipping past the wall, however, despite the concrete and razor wire. Some sections were not easily defendable due to the terrain. Others apparently had tunnels under them. Locals in the area had reversed the flow of smuggled goods and people; they were now helping the people head south to relative safety.

Ares ordered Nike to attack the Marines with her mobile elements to distract the forces coming up through Central America. The spoiler raid would give him time to ship reinforcements and fresh supplies to Enyalios while giving him some downtime to run maintenance on his units. She wasn't ready and said so, but he gave her no choice. She revised her battle plan, sent copies of it to each of the other A.I., and then began executing it.

<>V<>

Roman visited the Central American front instead of the Russian, India, or China front. It seemed the thing to do, the other fronts were still bogged down.

While touring the front, Nike took the opportunity to launch her Yucatan forces in a lightening series of raids on the logistics of the army.

Explosions lit the night sky, alerting the HQ that something was up. Radio chatter filled the airwaves, but jammers blocked it all out. The buzz of an approaching helicopter quickly followed, but it wasn't lit up. The base was dark with a blackout due to standard operating procedures so close to the front, not that it mattered. Nike directed her forces to drop squads of police androids and military droids onto the heat signature clusters to sow maximum disruption and distraction.

Roman came out of his tent as the robots went on a rampage. He saw a tilt rotor craft eclipse the moon briefly as it retreated to a safe distance. Someone with a shoulder mounted SAM took a pot shot at it, but it had active ECM and defenses exploded from its flanks, blinding any who looked it's way. Roman's right hand came up instinctively to shield his eyes from the bright sunbursts.

The missile was fooled into hitting a decoy. Its explosion was another point of light that briefly showed them the craft, a stealthed craft of sharp angles and midnight black.

He didn't have time to count his blessings that the thing had attacked their air defenses and not the base itself. As his arm dropped, he saw a robot firing into a group of running Marines. They were cut down. The robot turned sharply in Roman's direction, forcing him to dive for cover.

A trench was nearby; he fell into it as rounds ripped over his head. He didn't have his shirt on but he had grabbed his pistol. He fired, popping off rounds as his cybernetics steadied his aim and heart rate.

The night-black droid took the rounds like it was walking through a hail storm. Its head jerked as a round hit it on the side of the head. It calmly reloaded and then charged forward. Weapons fires came in on its right flank. It didn't turn, just fired in that direction as it continued to charge Roman.

Roman cursed as the thing leveled its weapon at him. He accessed his implants, and his left arm turned into a plasma weapon. A bolt sizzled out to tear into the robot's torso, tearing it in half.

It was too close, however; the top half fell forward, shooting rounds as it went down. He fended off the rifle, but the robot's free right hand grabbed for his left. Artificial fingers dug into his cybernetic arm, making him stiffen, not in pain but in fear as he felt the thing force itself into his universal jack to hack him.

His HUD fuzzed instantly, code jangled around the edges of everything in his vision. It looked like snow, the clarity his enhanced senses had once had was gone. He started to get a throbbing headache to go with the terror of the situation.

He felt the loss of control of his left arm immediately as the virus got into the sub processors there and took them over. He instantly brought his right arm around to fire into the robot's neck at the collar bone and then under the chin, then turned his own weapon on his arm as the arm fired a plasma bolt in the direction of the mess hall.

He swore again as his left hand fired into his bicep, tearing at his plastic flesh as he tried to use his right forearm to also shove the dead weight of the sparking and twitching robot off of him.

It took the remainder of his clip to breach his left arm and cut something vital to get the plasma weapon to stop. Tendrils of virus tried to make their way through him. “Athena!” he screamed, back arching as he fought the thing off.

“I'm here,” Athena said in his mind, fighting the thing off. “It's a spider not the real virus so count your blessings,” she said as his good hand tore into his prosthetic bicep to disable its power. Something broke and he felt a tingle and pain before the arm fell like so much dead weight.

“I inoculated you before you landed but this thing is persistent,” Athena observed.

He had to fend off his own cybernetics as his body tried to writhe and tear himself apart. “Hang on, almost there. I've cut power … got it,” Athena said. He felt a spasm of relief as his body relaxed almost explosively.

That lead to some fear when his chest didn't rise and fall easily, nor did he have the usual icons on his HUD. He could feel pain in his chest.

“Medics have been summoned, but they are busy,” Athena stated. “I am cleaning out your cerebral implants. You are lucky we're testing this new Wi-Fi setup,” she said.

“Yes,” he rasped as someone came over him. They looked down, saw the bodies and most likely assumed he was dead. The private took off elsewhere.

“Hey,” he said weakly. “Damn.”

“Hang in there, Tyron, you've been through one hell of a beating inside and out,” Athena told him.

“Feels that way,” Roman replied, licking salt from his lips. His left arm was too weak to reach his mouth he realized. He laid there, trying to relax.

He realized anyone else who came down definitely had to have a closed system. The burst transmissions of his Wi-Fi link … he felt fear as Athena grew quiet. Too quiet. “Athena?” He coughed. “Hello?!?”

He could hear distant weapons fire. It sounded like someone was mounting a counterattack. He needed to get back into the game.

“Hang on. I'm resetting the firmware one chip at a time. I just finished with your internal organs,” she said as the icons for his heart, liver, and pancreas appeared on his HUD. “This will take a bit of time to finish,” she said.

“I'm in no hurry apparently,” he said, letting his head rest back into the mud. He felt something oozing in his ears and winced. “SITREP?”

“Not good. It was a raid. The craft that dropped them was a stealth number. Most likely a V-222G model. There is no hot wash yet obviously, but I wouldn't be too surprised if they find that the thing flew in low from a direction no one was expecting, possibly even spoofing the IFF of a friendly unit to get in close.”

“On the ground?” he rasped. He felt something twitch in his left leg, then his right.

“Losses are mixed. The robots had surprise on their side of course, but that has ended. They only had low numbers and limited ammunition, which was also fortunate. However, they seem to be scavenging for weapons, ammunition, and power quite handily.”

“Damn,” Roman muttered. “Gotta figure out where they came from and hit back,” he said, closing his eyes. He felt dirt hit him in the face. His eyes opened. He noted the pair of people talking nearby and coughed. When they didn't react, he coughed again, louder, then cleared his throat. That got them to stop and look around.

“Yo, a little help here?” he called out. That got them moving. He could have sworn he heard Athena chuckle as they jumped into the drainage trench to help him out.

No, he had to have imagined it.

<>V<>

“You certainly had a scare,” Jack said gruffly when Roman was linked to the communications six hours later. He sat up in his hospital bed as a nurse wiped at his face with a towelet. They'd tried to bypass the triage protocols to get him sorted out. He wouldn't have it. He'd insisted he'd been okay, so the surviving medical staff had focused on those who had been more seriously hurt.

Sometimes he regretted his magmonious off the cuff reaction. That usually ended when he saw the carnage the damn robots had inflicted. They'd definitely given them a lesson on how to run a raid. It had been very effective since the robots hadn't expected to survive the experience.

“I'm fine. A bit worn, probably screwed up all my factory warranties, but hey, I'm alive.”

“Funny,” Athena interjected.

“Well, you are being medivaced with the wounded as soon as possible,” Jack said gruffly.

“Jack …”

“I mean it. We need you here damn it. We can't lose you.”

“Jack, I'm an officer too—a general. We know the risks. I've been in security … Christ,” he leaned back, seeing the nurse purse her lips in annoyance. She ducked her head away. “Sorry,” he muttered. “But it's been a long time,” he said, “over a century.”

“I know,” Jack replied. “Get your ass back up here when you can. Fighting this hand-to-hand isn't how to win it.”

“Well, it's not the way I'd prefer at any rate,” Roman replied dryly. “We need to work on the cybernetic problem. Either plug the jacks or disable them somehow. I thought shutting off the Wi-Fi was enough but obviously not.”

“Right,” Jack grunted. “I'll let you think about the ways and means while you rest,” he said.

“Lucky me,” Roman replied, laying back to relax as the girl finished getting leaves out of his hair. “I need a shower.”

“You need rest. You've got some broken ribs. Your spine has taken damage as well.”

“Funny, I didn't feel it,” he said.

“That's because your cybernetics spasmed and snapped the spine,” Athena told him. “I managed to block your pain receptors.”

“Oh. So I am fracked up,” he said, looking down at his toes. He wiggled them. “They work though,” he said.

“Yup. Piggies still there,” Athena quipped. He snorted. “I'll tell Trevor you didn't end up like him after all, but close. You need to relax.”

“Right. Relax. After that,” he said gruffly.

“I could ask the doctor for a sedative,” the nurse offered helpfully.

“Pass. I'll … do paperwork or something to pass the time until they fix what's broken.”

“You are being evaced to orbit. Spinal damage is beyond a field hospital, General,” the nurse stated.

“Oh. Shit,” Roman sighed.

“The good news is, you survived. Now use what you've learned,” Athena stated.

“Athena?”

“Yes?”

“Not helping. Much. Thanks though for saving my ass though,” Roman said softly as the nurse went to the next patient. He looked over to see a chimp moaning softly as he cradled the stump of his arm. He closed his eyes to block out the pain, wishing he could do the same with his ears.

“You're welcome,” Athena said softly as his respiration slowed.

<>V<>

“Roman
is
okay?” Jack asked Athena. “He's not sparing me details?” he asked as he watched the lights below. They had pinpointed where the attack had originated. Tumagar's intel had been accurate, just not acted on in a timely manner. That was now changing as orbital weapon platforms fired KEW strikes onto the Yucatan peninsula. They were certainly adding plenty more craters to go with the remnants of the one that had killed the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago.

He turned away from the flashes to look at Athena's holographic head.

Athena seemed to shrug. “As okay as he can be in a MASH unit. His spine is broken, two broken ribs, the arm, cybernetic damage …”

“So much for the inoculation,” Jack muttered darkly.

Athena let out a raspberry sound over the speaker, startling him. He looked up. “You of all people should know no system is perfect Jack. And a vaccine is one of those things. The virus adapted. It was also different than the previous versions.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. It didn't go and try to hack him with the usual port opening tools it has in its inventory. Of course, it was already inside his defenses by accessing him directly. I believe Skynet is evolving. It is learning just as we are. It has most likely learned that its previous toolbox of tricks have been found out and we've taken steps to block them, so it created new ones.”

“Yeah. I feel for anyone who had to go through that. And the zombies we heard about …,” Jack shuddered.

“I know. Fortunately for Roman the antivirus protocols and software suite I created for him slowed the virus down. That is why he wasn't instantly killed.”

“No, just a lingering death if you hadn't interjected yourself. Thanks for that, in case he forgot and double from me.”

“You're welcome. He's welcome, and yes, he thanked me. It was risky. He is lucky I was monitoring the situation from the communications array, and that the robots hadn't taken it out.”

“And we are all lucky they didn't set off a backpack nuke or something. I'm wondering if they are out or something.” He scowled blackly. Caesar's forces had outrun their anti-air units again, which was why the damn stealth jobs had gotten in so easily. They'd only had a couple backpack laser defense systems set up along the perimeter and some shoulder-fired SAMS. Hopefully they learned from the damn experience and kept it from happening again.