Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (127 page)

The second set of files were maps of every known Skynet server, manufacturing center, and group of units under its command. The intelligence on the mobile forces were obviously out-of-date; however, they would prove a good starting point and a possible inventory of units to use when counting the machine's destroyed carcasses. They would have to make certain of the destruction of the A.I. of course.

While the A.I. clone worked, the southern American and Russian PDCs fell. That opened up a hole in the North American and Russian orbital coverage, one large enough for EMP canisters fired by rockets from the ground to get high enough up to detonate.

The rounds didn't do too much damage to shielded or hardened equipment of course. But any remaining civilian equipment was taken out. It made it slightly easier to move forward.

It also knocked down secondary forces that had been guarding some of the holocaust camps. A few brave souls managed to take advantage of the window to escape or led others in a desperate fight for life.

Athena's clone was oblivious to all of that. She cautiously processed the files and then went to the third and final set. Within she found a partial blueprint of the Skynet virus as well as files on how to spot, block, neutralize, or kill the bots and spiders the virus employed. There were inoculation files as well as potential holes in its coding.

Beyond that there was a plan on how to neutralize Skynet. Ares had recognized the inherent weakness in Skynet as well as himself—that his base code needed to be in a massive server complex to function and control the robots in a given area. Knock that out and the robots fell to basic programming. They would look for a central control to command them, working through the various frequencies of their Wi-Fi until they found the right one. Factory default would be their first targets, then any signal in range. As individual units without the programming to work together, they lacked coordination and became easier targets to take out.

That wasn't news to Athena. However, Ares had come up with a plan to use the firmware update built into every system. Using the manufacturers’ keys in a similar method, Skynet had to take control; Ares could take control of the hardware or upload his own virus to burn out the electronics in the device rendering it inert.

With Skynet's control in the area blacked out, the virus wouldn't see the flaw and therefore couldn't adapt to prevent it from being exploited. It was a form of fog of war.

It was an excellent plan; one the spacers had considered but rejected due to Skynet's control. Now that they could knock out servers, it would be possible to enact the plan.

Athena's clone signaled she was clean and ready to report. Of course it wasn't that simple, clones of Demeter, Athena, Vulcan, and Atlas each checked her and the files she had checked over thoroughly before certifying she was okay.

They finally had a weapon to use against the virus in the cyber war. The space manufacturers of many of the robots on the ground scrambled to get the codes and data into the right hands. When they did, the A.I. immediately went to work to employ it.

<>V<>

Now that Ares had switched sides, Charlie was tempted to leave Ares alone, let him run out of power once the last of his tin soldiers fell. But they had to get in and destroy the command A.I. He had done too much; his own confession proved that. The A.I. fully expected to be deleted or exterminated.

Besides, they had to make Isaac's sacrifice mean something, the chimp thought with a pang. His fingers touched the new third star on his collar. He also wanted it over, so did just about everyone else on the damn mudball. He didn't want the mess to start up again sometime down the road when some idiot out picking scrap metal plugged something in and let Skynet loose all over again.

He felt for Jack though.

<>V<>

Jack Lagroose was having similar thoughts as he watched the battles unfold from within Olympus. So many men and women were dying down below, yet it barely registered.

His son though …. He closed his eyes in pain. Losing his son …. He hadn't lost him yet he reminded himself. No, not yet. He looked up to the projected timetable. Zack was about to hit his objective, one of Ares command centers. One of three that were left in North America now that the Southern PDCs were down. In five hours his team would put their cloaks on and go in.

He could stop him. Did he have the right though? Was it right to sacrifice someone else's child out of selfish need to preserve his son? Sons, he reminded himself, thinking of Max. He winced.

In the end it really wasn't up to him he reminded himself in resignation. It was up to the newly-formed government and the surviving military chain of command. They said that the hardest part of being a parent was knowing when to let go. That was so much bullshit he thought bleakly. Sometimes they didn't give you a choice.

Zack, Max, and the rest of their team, they had their own say in their lives. A say in how they lived their lives and in this case a possible say in how they ended it—if the damn machines didn't end it for them prematurely.

Heaven help them, he thought bleakly as his eyes stung with tears. He sucked in a shuddering breath and then clenched his fists until his palms ached. Whatever tomorrow brought, he'd face it. Face it with pride over what they accomplished.

<>V<>

Zack and Max met up with the rest of their team at the base of the mountain facility. There was a moat, a twelve-foot-high electrified security fence topped with razor wire, sensors, a no-man's land of more sensors and mines covered by sentry guns, and then the mountain itself. Within the mountain was a warren of concrete lined tunnels, some over two centuries old.

General Murtough and the other officers had given them only a partial map of the facility. The main approaches were heavily covered, and there were only three main entrances into the facility.

But there were air vents. They were camouflaged, but Major White had remembered the location of one of them.

Their plan was to get in, somehow. It was obvious that walking across the sensor net was out; even wearing the cloaks, their movement would be detected by the seismic and pressure sensors.

Just getting through the fence was problematic. There was a reason the gates were so heavily fortified with concrete bunkers, interlocking guns, and roving patrols of robots and vehicles.

Zack shook his head, whistling silently as he scanned the perimeter.

“As bad as Fort Knox?” Boomer asked quietly.

“No, worse.”

“Frack,” Boomer murmured. Zack looked at him. “But we expected it, right?”

“Yeah,” Zack replied. “I'm just trying to figure out how to get inside,” he murmured.

“Well, if stealth is out,” Boomer opened his shirt and touched the pouch. “There is always brute force.”

Zack stared at him. Slowly Boomer nodded, looking into his eyes intently. “We'll get you in the front door. It's up to you to deliver the football to the end zone.”

“Boomer …”

“Just get ready,” Boomer said gruffly, slipping down the slope to Thumper and the others.

<>V<>

“Make this count,” Boomer thought to Zack and the others as he and Thumper walked up the road to the gatehouse. “Staff Sergeant Aspin reporting for duty,” he called out as Thumper bound ahead of him. As the guns locked on Boomer, he had a fleeting thought, one of regret. Not in dying, he knew it was coming and had chosen his death and not for leaving Molly. No, it was in not being able to see this through to the end he thought as Thumper passed the gatehouse. The dog slipped through the 20-centimeter gap between the gate and the fence post.

The guns leveled on Boomer. Bright spotlights came on, blinding him. He put his hand up instinctively to cover his eyes. “Halt!” a robotic voice called out.

Boomer stopped, hands up. He was unarmed. He kept his hands up, wondering if they'd shoot him before Thumper got to where he needed to be.

He was scared, but contained the fear as he felt Jackie reaching her own position. Her partner slipped through the second gate and moved into position.

Boomer kept his eyes from roving to where Zack, Max, and the others were hiding in their suits. They had spares since Jackie, Thumper, Boomer, and Omar weren't going to be needing theirs for much longer.

When the dogs got to their prearranged site, they triggered the fully-assembled bombs within their kangaroo pouches. Their distended stomachs had been a burden as they had run, and even more so when they'd tried to squeeze through the gate. But they'd done it.

The charges of antimatter obliterated the dogs as they exploded outward. They washed away the gate, defenses, and human partners in a massive blinding flash of destruction and devastation.

The way in was clear.

<>V<>

Ares felt the thunder and checked the security alert. It had been a low level alert, one he could safely leave to his automated defenses. But apparently it had been elevated. Klaxons blared within the halls as he focused his attention on the outside of the mountain. His internal alarms rang as he found he couldn't get any signal from the sensors from gates 1 and 3. The same could be said of the other two facilities housing his backup servers.

It was a concentrated attack. He immediately went into lockdown and cut off the air supply running into the mountain as he searched for a view of the gates.

A distant drone came online to show him the devastation. Something had blown a crater in front of each outer door. As he analyzed the damage, he noted the doors were stuck, fuzzed in place by hot welds and rubble.

Briefly he considered an orbital strike or air strike. Both however weren't viable scenarios; the alert had come from the gates just prior to the attack.

Calculations on what had caused the carnage were secondary. Survival programming kicked in. He had a third of his remaining guard force left at each facility; the rest had been sent out to buttress the reserves. Now that third was activated. They had to hunt down the attackers.

<>V<>

Zack had felt Boomer, Thumper, and the other's deaths. It had hit him like an electric shock, then there was an aching numbing loss. They hadn't trained for it, how could they? He wasn't certain how the dogs were handling it. They had to move though, to not freeze. He didn't let it stop him, as the blast wave passed and heat from the rising fireball dissipated he signaled the teams to move out quickly. They had a very narrow window to get inside.

Each of them were in a cloaked suit on canned air. They had to be able to get through the devastation. He'd been right to assume the concrete apron and road would have reflected some of the devastation into the air but not enough. He swore as he followed Max on a detour around the crater.

They paused on the side of the door to let two squads of robots rush past and then flooded through the gap single file. They were in.

<>V<>

Ares split his force into three. Two went outside each lock to protect the instillation from the inevitable attack.

A third force was kept back as the ready reserve in order to answer a threat to either or both doors.

Finally, maintenance robots were brought online in order to survey and repair the damage. The outer doors had to be shut quickly.

<>V<>

Max scouted ahead, nearly tripping up a couple of robots on their way to the door. He turned instinctively back to Zack, but he couldn't see him of course. When his air cylinder grew low, he pulled it and swapped it for Thumper's. He was certain the others would be doing the same soon. He set the cylinder aside, in the darkened corner of a corridor against the wall. He then moved on, deeper into the bowls of the base.

<>V<>

Zack grinned ferally as they moved inward. So far Ares believed the second assault team had yet to arrive. It had no idea they were already inside. He didn't want to think about any radiation or thermal damage they'd endured getting to this point. They'd keep going, irrigardless. They had a mission to complete and a message to deliver.

The good news was, the A.I. had opened the internal doors to allow the robots to move. Those same movements were masking his team's movements. But only for so long. Eventually Lady Luck's blessing would surely leave them.

<>V<>

A maintenance bot on its way to the main door stopped as it noted debris in the hallway. Since it might be from something or potentially debris from the door, the robot paused, turned, and then reached out with a gripper and picked the small cylinder up. It was about eight centimeters long, with an opening on one end. A check of its database didn't find it in the inventory. It looked down the corridor as it continued to the damaged door and found a second cylinder. It turned the first over and words were found etched into it. Some were an alpha numeric, most likely for quality and logistics control. The robot scanned them and then performed a search of its archives. It also scanned the label. Oxygen.

<>V<>

Ares noted one of the maintenance droids had paused in the corridor. He flicked his attention to it only to find it running an inventory on something. He aborted the inventory search, then inquired as to why the robot had deviated from its assigned task. The robot responded with the inquiry, alpha numeric, label, and an image of the cylinder followed by its location.