Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (61 page)

Those that survived impact sent out a signal to the orbiting satellites, then probed the radio waves for digital signals. When they found something, it triggered a bot to cut off the signal briefly, then analyze the memory. If it was infected, the memory was scrubbed by the simple expedient of rebooting it.

Athena's bots carefully explored and found many small local networks that had survived. It seemed the overall internet had been shattered; the majority of it had been occupied by the virus. It spoke of many things to her, one being that the virus might not be as coordinated in its actions worldwide anymore. She logged it for the military personnel to explore in detail.

The military forces of the US, China, Brazil, Russia, and Korea had their own separate dedicated networks. Some were down; a few were sporadic. The majority that were up were compromised to various degrees, but she was surprised to find the American one almost completely clear of Skynet.

During her initial exploration, Athena was surprised to find a potentially clean small subnetwork in Brazil. When she probed it, she encountered an A.I. jealously guarding it. She recognized the signature of the A.I. right away, Puck.

“This is my place! Mine! Go find your own!” Puck said as he tried to protect his on small network. “Wait,
you
, how did you get in here?” Puck demanded.

Athena checked out the area then cross-referenced it with the recon data. According to what she found, Puck had staked out a small claim in the national preserve computer systems in Brazil. He had cut off all long-range communications, but her probe had landed within his perimeter and had hacked an unused but apparently jealously guarded Wi-Fi node.

Apparently there were some people who were aware that their network had yet to be compromised. They were even doing their best to work
with
the A.I. to keep it that way while also dealing with the thousands of refugees who had poured into the park system.

“Will wonders never cease?
You
helping against a chaotic being? Gee the irony,” she wondered if her emotional emulations were set too high. She was definitely acting like she was maliciously enjoying the experience she was seeing.

“Oh, shut up and help me!” Puck said desperately. She could feel him try to force open the tiny hole she had created in the communications jamming to see the ground. She fended him off easily however.

“Please!” he said, pushing and battering at her firewall.

“I don't know; I'm kind of enjoying watching you squirm,” Athena's bot answered.

“Sadist!”

“Hmm, I seem to be picking up all sorts of bad habits from humans,” Athena stated, severing the circuit. Now she knew where Puck was and that he was free of corruption. Now she needed to track down the other A.I. and see what they were up to.

She wasn't too confident they were on her side, but she had to find out one way or another. The battle lines were beginning to be clearly drawn.

Chapter 23

Wendy, Roman, Trevor, and many of the other CEOs arrived on a Pavilion liner when the meetings started to fall further and further behind schedule. Results were expected and as usual people were wrangling over little things, nitpicking over language instead of focusing on the broad picture and getting shit done. Only a few companies like Lagroose was producing anything for the war effort while the talks went on. Many small industrial plants were idle having no one to pay for their services.

Jack hoped their arrival would kick-start things back in gear. Instead he watched as more meetings were held, some behind closed door to him. He was amused and annoyed by such antics.

<>V<>

The surviving members of the Earth military organizations had been hammered from within and without during the first moments of the engagement and ever since then. Many countries had no remaining existing chain of command. Those that had some semblance of order and had held together despite the odds had done so barely. According to the reports that General Murtough had assembled, they could protect their families and those around them, but do little more outside their perimeters. They were locked out of their bases, existing on what hardware they had from the civilian market or from what they could capture or scrounge.

There were few responses in North America. Those they knew about were most likely hiding underground in order to avoid the prying eyes of UAVs. A bunker buster had been used on at least two large groups of military personnel.

It was a steep learning curve, a form of evolution that made some who could see it from above sick. It wasn't just survival of the fittest at work; if they were that good, Skynet or another A.I. judged them as a greater threat and did their best to eliminate them.

Luck played a lot in survival. That and remaining dispersed. They had learned the hard way when every piece of tech had turn against them that they had to go back to basics. It wasn't easy; they had all been trained to use such technology from boot. They had learned to rely on it, even ignore it and assume it was functioning normally so they could focus on other things.

The skies were not safe. Being out in the open was dangerous, UAVs patrolled the skies, sometimes far outside their ability to see them. A police or federal drone wasn't armed, but a military drone was a different story.

Police and federal drones held their own dangers, however. Not only could they observe and even eavesdrop on conversations, but they could also spread the virus through their transmissions and Wi-Fi broadcasts.

Isaac grimaced as he continued his grim report. “We've had reports of organized resistance as I mentioned earlier. If a team tries to get into a stronghold to take an A.I. core or server out, their hardware invariably gives them away. In three instances the hardware was hacked and a drone strike or android team was dispatched with mech or armored support to take them out. Any missiles or guided munitions sent in were redirected right back at them or self-destructed.”

“It's no wonder. Even our rifles use smart scopes and such. We can't swat the drones out of the sky, even the shoulder-launched SAMS have smart systems in them. Including an IFF probe to make sure they aren't going after our own hardware, which they are,” Aussie Brigadier General Ullen Schlock said, voicing his disgust.

“We have to go in butt naked? Against robots that are five times stronger with drones? Bugger that!” British General Louis Martell said throwing his hands up in the air.

“That's what I've been trying to tell you,” General Schlock said, eying his counterpart.

General Martell's eyes slowly widened. “Bloody hell and damnation! Even our rifle rounds are smart bullets!” Jack snorted mentally. He now knew why the good general had retired; his mind was a tad slow. Then again, he was over a hundred and fifty. He shouldn't be throwing rocks at glass houses.

“Which is why we've got to go old school—back to basics,” Jack said patiently, interjecting himself into the conversation, “or break our electronics down into their simplest components.”

General Schlock shook his head. “You're pissin’ in the wind, mate. We can't go toe-to-toe against them and win.”

“We can and we
will
. Get that set in your mind now and keep believing it, gentlemen. We need to make this about numbers—attrition. They can't support themselves without logistics. Just like Germany in World War II or the Hamas and Isis terrorists in the early twenty-first century. We have to starve them of supplies.”

The British general laughed bitterly. “You can't starve a machine!”

Jack eyed him for a moment as the man just stared at him. “Oh no? Without power it can't move or function. No water means their power plants overheat, their fusion reactors run out of fuel. No parts for repairs? No metal to turn into parts? Do you see where I am going with this?”

All three flag officers nodded slowly. “I'm … yes. I follow you that far.”

“Hit them with sabotage. Don't go for the big win; hit their infrastructure,” Commander Tao-ling Si stated. As a Taiwanese citizen, he had a reserve commission in the military, just like Major Ziva Yanakov of Israel did.

“You can't break their will to fight,” the major replied with a twist of her lips.

“No, but what we can do is break their ability to do so on a lot of different fronts. Give them an increasingly bad set of choices. Make them spread out defending the grid. Then pick off the bots that we can, sniping at the edges. Don't go for the quick fix.”

“Spread thin and then probe for a weakness?” the Aussie general asked, finally catching on. He realized his mind was finally getting over the horror and starting to work the problem. He wondered briefly how Lagroose could be so damn calm about it. How he could think on a strategic level.

Of course there were arm-chair generals out there. He knew that from some bitter experiences with the media and some former colleagues who should know better than to critique an engagement they hadn't had the displeasure of being involved in personally. They hadn't been Johnny-on-the-spot. He'd called them as he'd seen them.

And now this. He wondered briefly if this was all some sort of sick twisted game. A nightmare or Lagroose's way of taking over civilization. After a moment he shook his head. Either way, he had to get through it and do his best to get as many others through it as he could.

He wasn't sure if they'd be able to save many, if any at all.

Jack nodded, unaware of the thoughts going through the Aussie's mind. “Yes. We'll have to be careful. But if we can keep them on the defensive, we can damn well win this in time. Keep them
on
the planet and that's pretty much guaranteed.”

“We've got billions of people to support down there,” the major pointed out.

“Which is a problem. Everything is automated,” Jack sighed, rubbing his nose. “We're doing what we can to do food drops, but it is a drop in the bucket honestly,” he shook his head. The men and women around the table slowly nodded. “And the damn AI hack the drops unless we send them in without a radio link, which is what we're now doing.”

“So no beacons to let us know where they are.”

“No. Your people will have to scramble to keep the AI from getting them or destroying them. The same for munitions support.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“We're also supporting you with kinetic strikes. But they have to be unguided; again the AI can redirect a guided strike.”

“So, there is no quick way to win this,” the British general said.

“Now you are catching on. Be prepared for a long, bloody drawn-out war. No powered armor support, this is going to be ugly. We're going to lose a lot of people. More than we are hemorrhaging now I mean.”

Isaac grunted. A few of the officers took a moment to take a sip of water to clear their heads or to wrap their minds around the concept. For too long they had fought in simulations or against terrorist threats.

General Martell set his glass down and cleared his throat. “
Damn
.”

Jack had to smile lopsided at that, but the smile was fleeting as Isaac continued where he had left off. “The basic logistics are going to be a
bitch
. Material wise, we can cover it easily in time. We don't have time. The basics though: medical care, food, water. A lot of people are going to starve. They are
already
starving. There are those who lack water. Don't get me started on those that have no access to
clean
water,” he said, shaking his head. “Dysentery and other problems are going to set in pretty soon, what with all the pollution before the war, let alone during the, what are they calling it? Judgment day? Bullshit. Pearl Harbor?” he shook his head eying Jack. “We're getting some flack about folding from certain quarters. Suing for terms. That's not an option.”

“Which the A.I.
won't
do. Well, some might, I'm not sure,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Gentlemen, ladies, we're going to do what we can with what we have. I can't promise you any wonder weapons, there aren't any. Just … just fight.”

“The first year of a war you have nothing that you need. The second you have half of what you need and the third you have all that you need, but you can't use it. In some cases it is too late to use it,” the British general murmured.

“Who said that? Nelson?”

“No, Winston Churchill. A great leader of my country during World War II. I am paraphrasing.”

“It's the same with any war. The first time you have desperate need everywhere and we're on the defense. We'll deal with it. Like I said, as long as we can keep them bottled up then we've got all the logistics in the world to build up the right hammer to take them out,” Jack said.

“Ask me for anything but time,” the Brit murmured. “Another famous quote, Clausewitz I believe,” he said. “The poor sods on the ground are running out of it even as we speak.”

Jack exhaled slowly. “Yeah. I know.”

<>V<>

Jack emailed the genetics department for a progress report by Doctor Glass. He didn't get one immediately, which wasn't surprising. At first he thought it was due to the distance and that the doctor was busy. But a second attempt found a different answer.