Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (88 page)

“Units are out looking for the arty now,” Elliot replied. He looked over to the injured Israeli officer then to the general. “We can't get a fix because we don't have the right air assets deployed.”

“And we can't deploy any because the bloody A.I. will take them over and use them against us,” the general growled.

“Right. The helicopters are coming in on the third wave,” Elliot replied, waving a hand. “Fat lot of good it does us now. They are gone.”

“Shoot and scoot,” the general replied with a nod.

“Exactly,” Elliot replied. “We know where the shots came from, the general direction I mean. We're sweeping until sunset then.”

“No. Pull our people in. We need to get them under the cover of the SAM units,” the general ordered. “Deploy the sensor net to pick up the artillery so we can counter battery,” he ordered.

Elliot grimaced. “We've only got a couple of mortar fire teams with our unit, sir. Some are injured,” he said, indicating the rows of the injured. “The same for the anti-air people,” he said.

The general eyed them then nodded. “I'll see what I can do about that. We need cover.”

“If we're clustered, sir, the tin cans can send in a drone strike,” Elliot warned. “We only have handheld SAM units. They may not get a round off in time,” he warned.

“Understood,” the general said. He inhaled then exhaled slowly. He turned to see a work crew using a hose to clean people down. “But we've got to do something anyway. Spread the order. I don't want our people out dicking around in the dark when the bots come calling,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” the chimp replied with a nod and wince.

“Bloody hell. What a way to run a war,” the general muttered softly, just loud enough for the chimp to hear. “This war horse is getting to old too I dare say,” he said as he walked off to the improvised chow line.

“Right,” Elliot sighed. Apparently his chow could wait. He pulled a trooper over and started issuing orders.

“Sir, Lieutenant McGillicutty is on the horn wondering what is up. The division has been passing his message on or ignoring it for a while due to the attack,” a radio tech reported.

“I've been expecting his call. Do we have his most recent SITREP? Does he have a call sign?”

“No call sign, sir. His book has expired,” the tech said. “Are we certain it's him?”

“That I'm not sure about. But there is one way to find out. We'll direct him to a meet.”

“If you say so, sir,” the tech said dubiously.

“I do. Ask him who …” the chimp frowned then a slight smile tugged on the left side of his face. “Ask him the nickname of his boss back on Mars. If he answers right, let me know.”

“Sir?”

“The answer is 'Daddy Banana Breath.' He worked for a gorilla named Edmund Dadsworth,” the chimp explained.

The tech nodded. “Should, um, you make the call, sir?”

“No. The longer Skynet doesn't know I'm here the better. The same for the other senior officers. We don't want the A.I. to localize where we are.”

“Oh,” the tech said dumbly then slowly nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, what else,” the chimp murmured as he watched the troopers scrambling to set up fire lanes and dig in before the sun set.

Chapter 34

Jack monitored the landing from a yacht near Olympus. His intention was to remain ubiquitously out of the way while the professionals did their job but on hand to monitor it personally. Unfortunately, he wasn't alone on the yacht. Several world leaders had tagged along to get a view while not jogging the military's elbow by being underfoot on Olympus.

Sometimes he regretted his invitation. Isaac certainly owed him big time, he thought.

“It is so hard to see that—beautiful yet sickening! Thousands of facilities, did they have to destroy them all?” a familiar voice whined. “I mean, we're talking trillions upon trillions of damage here!”

“We can't leave it in enemy hands to be used against us congressman,” Queen Diane stated softly.

“Still …”

“And the people come first. I believe this will give them something of a breather,” the queen stated.

“True,” the senator rumbled.

“There will be a lot of people
killed
in this.”

“They are casualties of war. It is unfortunate, but to save the rest we have to take those industrial and military instillations out. Without power the machines will have trouble running their cleansing operations, let alone mounting attacks on our people.”

“Who said that the only way to save the village was to destroy it?” the congressman retorted.

Jack winced as he swirled his drink gently. Personally he was a bit disappointed that they hadn't used high yield EMP bursts over the continents. It would have caused more damage to the climate but the nuclear blasts wouldn't have pushed the rem count up as much as a ground blast. But apparently the military officers were abiding by the committee's decision to hold off on such drastic measures.

It was going to cost them. Of that Jack had no doubt. He was pretty sure Isaac knew it too.

“Well, we have a fix for that too,” Jack murmured. General Murtough had ordered orbital strikes on every known power plant, reactor, solar farm, and hydroelectric dam worldwide during the opening moves of phase 1. The bombardment was scheduled to go off just before the invasion force launched and would hopefully throw Skynet and its zombie A.I. off.

Also on the target list was every surviving groundside factory or military storage/base. Most of the rocks get through since he swarmed the planet with rocks, saturating the defenses.

“Oh?”

“Once we've cleared an area, we'll send in engineers to help rebuild. You also know Radick and other companies are seeding the planet with materials to help terraform Earth. The soot from the nuclear winter has been reduced by .001 percent. Now that they have production up and running and better data for their models they have improved the next batch.”

“But still …”

“Congressman, if we'd left them there, they would have died anyway. Starvation and radiation poisoning was already killing them.”

“There are still going to be protests from some quarters,” the young queen stated. “The deaths of untold thousands have already been reported in the media.”

Jack grunted. “And it's a drop in the bucket compared to those who were dying every day. But we can't win; we can't help them until we destroy the robot's ability to wage war.”

“I know. You know, but for many it is hitting them on an emotional level,” the senator stated.

Jack nodded. “Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs,” Jack said under his breath.

“I think I'll refrain from passing that comment on. The media has enough already,” Athena said dryly from the overhead. Everyone looked up. “The surviving Chinese are protesting the Yang Tze bombing publicly.”

Jack nodded. “I thought they would. Flooding bad?”

“Just a bit,” Athena replied, showing him the flooding from some of her probes as well as before and after satellite images. He waved the images away. “Publically they are condemning the act, but through back channels they are condoning it.”

“Don't you just love politicians and their two-faced bullshit?” Jack asked with a half twist of his lips. That earned a sputter from the people in the room. He turned to see the Queen smiling and shaking her head.

“Power is down. That should hamper Skynet and the AI's rampage significantly. At least for a time.”

“And the rest?” the senator asked. He hadn't grown comfortable with the A.I. but he had grown to tolerate her.

“Unfortunately, the distributed nature of solar panels makes them an impossible target. The farms we, of course, targeted, but the panels on homes and buildings were excluded,” Athena reported.

“Great. So the A.I. can rebuild. Recharge their mechs for more killing. What did we do that for again?” the congressman asked in disgust. He tossed a tablet across the table. It started to tip over the side. He reached out and caught it and then dragged it back to his blotter. Not because he was afraid to break it, he wasn't. No, he just didn't want to have to bend over to pick the damn thing up later or try to remember where it went.

“The destruction of half of the industry and power on Earth will have a major negative effect on Skynet's mission. But the side effect will be a negative impact on survivors’ morale and their ability to survive, sir. It will also reinforce the propaganda campaign being mounted by some AI on the ground who are stating over the radio network that we are at war with the grounders. That we started it.”

The queen grimaced. Jack gauged some of the expressions in the room. The Senator took a swig of his drink, clearly unhappy. His face was puckered.

“I know,” Jack said quietly. “I did the assessment in my head. Without transport they can't get food. Those with solar are lucky, but without any sun …,” he grimaced darkly. “No power means no water, no utilities at
all
. There goes any remaining social order as people fight each other and the robots to survive and feed themselves as well as their families. Any last concentrations of people will disperse into the country if they haven't already. What there is of it. Along the way they'll be hit by radiation they can't even see,” he winced. “More Humanitarian drops …,” he shook his head. Finally his face fell in his hands. He scrubbed at his tired face, then ran his hands through his hair a few times, slicking it back as he regained composure.

“We can't drop them everywhere. And we can't drop weapons,” the queen said.

“We can drop some survival gear, rations, and medical supplies, but it is, as you pithily say, a drop in the bucket. There is no way the current infrastructure can deal with feeding so many,” Athena said gently, shaking her virtual head.

Jack's eyes cut to her avatar and then away. “Cute. Accurate, but cute. No,” Jack shook his head again. “What I was going to say was that any drop will be an invite for the enemy to come kill more people. We saw that with the Christmas drops.”

Athena nodded. “True. It is an obvious ploy. But the desperate will fall for it.”

“But … maybe we can use that. In time,” Jack murmured thoughtfully. “We can't drop in the protected countries. But we can now make more drops in Africa. Especially inside General Martell's perimeter.”

“Agreed,” the queen said. “Though I wish we could do more for my countrymen.”

“And the good ole USA. Don't forget them,” the senator stated.

“One thing at a time. Athena, when we send these drops, we need to send them information too: what has happened, Skynet, where we know Skynet is. Not detailed intel, but enough for them to see we're on their side.”

“Understood. It will take time for us to get enough shipping to send the drop from Mars,” Athena warned. “The next two convoys are already planned.”

“Understood. If we have to, we'll push the loads out then catch them,” Jack rumbled.

“That hasn't been done in a while. Good idea for low priority materials I suppose,” Athena mused. “I'll pass along the word to the Mars teams to look into it. They'll need additional radiation shielding for the perishables however.”

“Get them on that. Ladies, gentlemen, do you wish to see anything else here?” Jack asked, turning to the group. He gauged each headshake carefully, then nodded. “Fine then. I'll drop you folks off back at L-5 before I head back to Mars then,” he said, smiling politely.

“Thank you Mister Lagroose,” the queen said graciously.

<>V<>

General Murtough looked from the window overlooking the Earth to his staff. The landing was going almost as expected. At least they hadn't been bounced back into space.

“It's as bad as we feared. We're going to have to go over every square centimeter of ground. Look for underground installations, underwater …. Go door-to-door.” General Schlock shook his head.

“I don't think we have the people for that. Not doing it the old fashioned way without remotes, drones or any other hardware,” Captain Oleander said. “In fact I know we don't.”

“Even with the people we're picking up on the ground, I think we were a little ambitious on what they are capable of,” General Murtough mused as he rubbed his chin.

“What did you expect? They've been living in hell over a year. Starved, frozen, diseased, shell shocked,” Captain Oleander grimaced. “There is no way we can use them as front line troops, sir. Most aren't even soldiers. They don't have the training.”

“If they've lived this long, they've got enough to keep going,” Lieutenant Commander Mizu stated. “They are survivors.”

“Granted,” General Schlock nodded. “But they are disorganized. General Martell has discounted their effectiveness and is using them as rear area security with the refugees and camps.”

“Allowing them time to decompress and get sorted out?” the captain asked. She slowly nodded. “It should work, sir,” she said. “Though I bet a few fire eaters will resent the rest.”

“We'll deal with them or the command chain on the ground will. Give them a couple weeks to rest up and heal and we'll see how it goes,” General Schlock stated. “By that time Lois will need the support.”