Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (69 page)

“No way I'm missing this, tired or not. Not for the world,” Shawn said, breathing hard. He wiped sweat with his wrist. It was sore, probably sprained from hitting a robot too hard. But he had no intention of stopping.

“Hell, this is for the world or at least our small part of it,” Cally said from the back of a truck. “We're taking it back finally, one robot at a time,” she said, brandishing her hunting rifle. Their group cheered, hefting their tools and weapons towards the sky.

“Hell, yeah,” Shawn said, popping a wheelie.

<>V<>

Skynet saw the massive truck approaching with other vehicles behind it. The lead truck was moving quickly for the gate. According to Skynet's files, it was in its database as one of its vehicles, a land predator according to the human texts. But it didn't respond to orders. When Skynet noted the humans inside the cab and festooned in the back, it reprioritized the vehicle as hostile. But by that time Hallis had put the truck on final approach for the main gate and had the truck up past 100KPH.

<>V<>

“Here we go!” Hallis said, instinctively ducking as they rammed through the gate. He swung to the left as the fence shattered into wreckage in front of him, then kept going. The vehicle ran right straight through a row of small vehicles and robots in its way, crushing or sending them flying. But each impact slowed it a bit, so it couldn't get around to the left to run over more vehicles before it was hemmed in.

Shots were firing wildly as humans and robots reacted to the intrusion. People banged on the cab and then piled off, rushing the robots to form a perimeter as instructed.

They had wanted to run the truck right straight through the building, but it was hung up on the remains of a trailer. It would have been nice running it through the offices into the interior and then shooting anything that moved Boomer thought as he climbed out and went to work.

<>V<>

When it was all over, an exhausted Boomer took stock of the wreckage. It was nightfall, near midnight he gauged, and damn hard to see without the moon or any sort of light around other than the fires and spotlights someone had thoughtfully set up. Ten people were reportedly dead; another sixteen had been injured heavily. Just about everyone else was walking wounded with varying degrees of injuries.

But not one robot, not one camera, not one electronic device survived. As he watched Shawn used his bat to smash a video camera into wreckage. He nodded in approval.

“One hell of a Christmas gift we just gave ourselves,” Boomer said.

Hallis was getting his arm bandaged by Molly. He looked over to Boomer. “What was that?” He asked. Molly turned as well.

Boomer cleared his throat. “I said, it's one hell of a Christmas present we've given ourselves, right?” he asked louder, grinning.

Hallis frowned as he flexed his arm. Molly put her hands on her hips, but her lips puckered in a smile. She cocked her head; her tired eyes dancing in the fire light. That smile made it all worth it, Boomer thought. She'd never be a beauty queen, but she was a fighter. He had to respect that.

“Hell yes,” Roger said, coughing. He waved aside helping hands to sit back on the dented fender of the big rig. “Definitely a Christmas to remember,” he said.

That broke a tired cheer through the rank and file, then soft singing cropped up here and there. A few songs were dirty, but eventually a consensus was reached and the chorus of Silent Night was sung.

Boomer felt a hand wrap around his side. He winced. He was bruised but ignored the worried look from Molly as she looked up, still singing. He sang along, lifting his head to sing in joy. For once they truly had something to be thankful for.

Chapter 26

Attila and his squad from hell ran into pets the second day. Some were basics, dogs and cats. A few were more exotic. Some were friendly, just about all of them were sick, injured, or starving. He ordered his people to kill them by hand. The smell of death permeated around them. The surviving animals learned to give them a very wide berth.

When they spotted their first large group of robots, they went to ground nervously. Instead of routing around them, Attila had the squad stop and observe from hiding to get a feel for their movements and behaviors. He needed to better know the enemy.

“What are they doing?” Lever asked, watching the robots warily as they picked through the wreckage around the area. One pulled out a tablet with someone's hand still attached. He grimaced at the gruesome sight as the droid tried to shake the hand off, then picked it off and tossed it. It seemed to check the device out before it then put it into a wheelbarrow a utilitarian robot was pushing. “Are they doing what I think they are doing?” he asked, looking over to Attila.

“Let me see,” his leader said, tearing the binoculars out of his hands to have a look. He watched for a few minutes and then grunted. “Oh yes. I see,” he hissed as understanding dawned. He didn't like what he was seeing, not by a long shot.

“See
?”

“They are scavenging for parts. Anything. Everything electronic of course. Batteries are a given. Motors, anything they can use to repair themselves or build more robots,” Attila said in a tone of voice like it was obvious.

“The factories?”

“Some were offline due to the EMP that hit the Earth. Be grateful. The same for the warehouses, though I wouldn't be too sure there. We were intentionally dropped away from the main population centers and any such things to avoid them for the time being. Be grateful again for small favors,” Attila said. He didn't even want to think about what a 3D printer could churn out.

“So, what do we do?”

“Do? We do what we must to survive. That means we destroy them and any piece of electronics we find, any motor, solar panel, all of it.”

“Okay,” Lever said, pulling his rifle out.

“And we do it by hand,” Attila ordered, putting a restraining hand on the rifle. Lever stared at him for a moment. “We conserve ammo,” he said.

Slowly the felon nodded. He didn't like the idea but knew it would be unwise to challenge it. His lips quirked in a snarl as he pulled his Bowie and then moved forward with the rest of the squad.

<>V<>

It wasn't as easy to kill a robot as it was a human; a human could be dropped by a single slice to the throat. But they had been trained on how to take certain basic models out with a few moves. Knocking them down onto their back or stomach so they couldn't fight back helped.

Bravos using a sledgehammer he had found helped even more.

It took an hour to destroy the squad of robots then crush the gear the bots had gathered as well. Attila had them dump the parts in the creek just to be on the safe side.

“By hook or by crook,” Attila's mouth quirked as he got his respiration and adrenalin levels under control. It had been fun to pitch his wits against the machines but not nearly as satisfying as doing it against a human opponent. He was aware in a small corner of his mind that the robots were part of a collective. Surely they had alerted others that they were under attack. His team would need to leave the area soon before a reprisal force could come in to bounce them out. “We're in it whether we like it or not I suppose.”

“We could go our separate ways,” Lever suggested.

“You do and they'll pick you off surer than shit,” Bravos said, thoroughly disgusted. “No man, you wanna live, we work together. Otherwise I'll shoot you myself,” he said, nodding his chin to the other man.

“Frack you,” Lever replied.

“Quit it,” Attila ordered mildly. He didn't care if they fought too much; it was a good way to relieve stress. But they could injure themselves and the fight would serve as an unwanted distraction.

“According to the intel they gave us, the war ministry's A.I. Zhukov has been compromised. He didn't put up much of a fight, little at all actually,” Wladislaw stated. “Be on alert anyway,” he ordered.

“Exactly my thinking, Attila stated, hijacking the order and making it his own. He turned a baleful look on the squabblers. Both looked a bit sheepish. “Keep on guard. Remember, the enemy is out here, not standing next to you.” Both men nodded grudgingly when he locked eyes with them. They couldn't hold the gaze long, they immediately dropped it with the nod and looked away.

Attila smiled. Sometimes it was good being the alpha of the pack.

<>V<>

Shadow hadn't anticipated its child to send forces back after it. Fortunately the area was enclosed on three sides; the river nearby created a natural damn. That and the humans kept Skynet busy.

Shadow realized the virus's intent when it sent a quartet of maintenance droids to Shadow's building specifically, however. The A.I. deduced that they were to seize control of the hardware within in order to allow Skynet to occupy it to further its goals. But to do so it would have to destroy Shadow since Shadow was partially immune to the virus's known attack tools.

Therefore Shadow used its two remaining robots to form a trap. It didn't have numbers, so it played it smart, cutting the group up into pairs by partially blocking the main entrance. The two smaller canister style droids could enter but the two androids could not. While they circled around the building to find another entrance, one of Shadow's robots pinned an intruder against a wall while the second shut off its power.

However, such an action wasn't without risk. The attack exposed the pair to the first droid. It had been refitted with a pistol on top, mounted next to a small camera. It tracked the robots as Shadow directed them to split up, firing wildly. One shot tore through a wall narrowly missing robot 1. Robot 2 tripped over the cable that had been dragged outside for Shadow. Before it could recover, the Skynet droid turned and fired into it.

But while it was doing that Shadow had circled robot 1 around to attack from the exposed flank. It grappled, disabling the pistol and eyes then knocked the robot over. Its tracks spun as it toppled, then stopped. After a moment it attempted to right itself again. Shadow used robot 1 to shut it down with a flick of an appendage onto it's on off button.

While the four droids were duking it out inside the androids had circled around the building until they found a seemingly unguarded entrance. When they entered the first touched the latch in order to open the heavy door. But the door handle had been booby trapped with a high amperage battery. Shadow had set the trap up anticipating a human. Instead the power surged through the robot's sensors, hit a bare wire leading to its core electronics with predictable results. The robot seized and then toppled over, smoking slightly.

Skynet pulled its remaining attacker back.

That had been the first attack. Not the last. Shadow had repurposed the captured robots by purging the two maintenance droid's memory with a factory reset then programming its own overlay during initial start up. That had made the robots his to command.

The android was a different story. Its electronics had been fried by the battery. Instead Shadow used the android as donor material in various attempts at upgrading or repairing the other robots in the building.

The repaired robots came at just the right time. Skynet sent a second wave, this one even more reinforced to the building in order to take it over.

<>V<>

Saul hated having been driven north, despite his assurances to his men that it was for the best. It was bitter cold, well below zero all the time. Frostbite was a big threat. They'd already lost some skin. He'd lost some skin. Lighting a fire drew unwanted attention. They'd gone through three firefights, each time narrowly surviving the night. Each time he'd pushed further north away from robots coming into the area.

He had been amused when they had crossed the Canadian border. Less amused when they had found the outskirts of a burned-out city. But a small part of it had seemed less picked over than others. Pasha had picked up some refugees to boot, which had put him in a foul mood. More mouths to feed. At least they were survivors. They also knew the area, which was a plus.

He'd been ready to move on until he saw a pair of robots fighting. That had intrigued him enough to stop and watch.

When Pasha had turned his weapon on the robots, he'd pushed it down. “Wait. Let them do our work for us.”

“What the hell are they playing at?” Olof demanded.

“Practicing?”

“A civil war?” Forchenko asked. The others looked to him in disbelief. He shrugged. “I don't know.”

They watched as the larger force beat down the smaller. It took a few minutes before Saul recognized their objective, a battered large building with a burned-out van in front of it. He cocked his head and then hand signed the others to spread out and take the robots on.

<>V<>

Shadow saw its last defender go down and snarled in electronic impotent rage. It was now completely vulnerable to the intruders. Within moments it would be a zombie or nothing at all.

<>V<>

When Saul's group were ready he gave the signal and they attacked. He winced at wasting precious ammunition but they had to take the androids out quickly. There was no playing around with the police units. They were heavily armored and programmed to handle resistance.