by AJ Vega
Chapter 1: Old Dogs
AI Moon
The sky should have been blue. The clouds should have been white. However, the world was no longer so plain. A sheet of dark clouds covered the blue mattress of the sky, and a storm brewed in Earth’s bed.
Once upon a time, rain in the Toiyabe Range of Nevada would have been a welcome event. Nevertheless, the war had permanently altered Earth’s environment on a global scale, and acid rain became the newest unwelcome guest.
Julius Verndock lowered his gaze to the horizon. In the distance, mountains rose up, threatening to pierce the sheet of clouds—almost daring to tear open the fabric and allow the rain to gush out.
Julius stood near the edge of a mountain peak a few meters from his home. An isolated area, only military personnel and their families lived nearby. From this overlook, Julius took in the view of the military base below. The base housed the Covert Space Operations Wing—better known as CSOW—of the UEP Military.
Julius knew the base occupied an area six by four kilometers. A force field fence surrounded it, and a guarded check-in area secured the lone entrance. On each of the four corners of the base sat remnants of an unfinished anti-air missile defense system.
Inside the perimeter, hangars lined up on one side, with barracks and other operational buildings opposite them. Erected onto an old airstrip, landing platforms stood with parked space fighters.
The base’s hangars housed military spacecraft capable of making trips into outer space at a moment’s notice. Julius knew that the hangars also even protected some of the new intergalactic craft, equipped with gravitational generators making them able to jump instantly to anywhere in charted space.
Up until recently, the base operated with minimal staff and little activity, but when the war with Majesty—the A.I. Mind—erupted, that all changed. Julius and his younger brother Daryl were forced to move here when the base reactivated.
Having been a member of CSOW for years, Julius had grown used to having to pick up and move on short notice, but the timing of this transfer proved more difficult. Just a few weeks earlier, their mother had died in a hovercar accident. And with their father disappearing years ago—Daryl never even knew him—Julius was the twelve-year-old’s guardian and only immediate family.
Frowning at the harsh reality of the memories, Julius turned to see Daryl walking out to stand by him. Neither spoke as they stood and observed the base below. After a few minutes, Julius felt a cold slap of moisture-soaked wind. He suppressed a shiver and looked up. The skies would soon unleash their toxic rain. It was time to go back inside.
“C’mon,” he said, motioning for Daryl to follow him.
As he turned to head back, Julius noticed a sudden bustle of activity at the base. People scattered like ants in all directions, and dozens of personnel began spilling out of the barracks. Julius walked to the edge to get a better look. Something was happening—something big. A second later, the air siren wailed. He touched his ear-link. A cacophony of chatter erupted from the base personnel, but there was too much noise and crosstalk to understand.
“Sir, look!” Daryl said, pointing.
“I see it,” Julius said. “Something’s happening down there. I need you to go back inside. I’m going down to the base.”
“No, not that!” Daryl said, pointing up at the sky. “Look!”
Julius looked up. In the sky above the base, a hazy stream of red and violet clouds began to appear. As the clouds swirled downward in curving motions, it coalesced to form what looked like a colorful tornado—its funnel ready to hit the base below.
Julius caught his breath and his heart felt like it stopped.
Holy shit…
He knew exactly what it was.
“Get out of here, Daryl!” Julius yelled. “Get away now! And stay away from any buildings! Find cover… and don’t come back until the clouds are gone. Understood?”
Eyes wide, Daryl nodded, then turned and ran off.
Hopping from rock to rock, Julius descended from the peak to ground level. At the base of the slope, he leapt to the ground. As he stopped himself from losing his balance, Julius looked toward the base. The vaporous kaleidoscope of clouds still clawed its way from the sky toward its target—and any moment now, it would touch down.
Julius ran as hard as he could. As he raced forward, he observed other CSOW pilots boarding their spacecraft. With each step, Julius heard in his eardrums the sound of his heartbeat reverberating in unison with his boots pounding on the ground.
“Get to the fighters! All pilots…” a voice sounded in his ear-link. Then it fell silent.
The cloud of nanobots reached the base. Slicing through the force field as though it didn’t exist, the gases poured against the ground and bounced off, splashing up in swirling patterns. They then organized themselves, coalescing into a compact, round ball of gas. The ball glowed a bright yellow and the air around it seemed to shimmer and blur.
The world seemed to slow down as Julius kept moving ahead. Everything in that moment seemed to go silent. He could not even hear his heartbeat anymore. Then the flash of light came.
Julius felt the impact hit him, followed by the deafening sound of the explosion. He stumbled toward the ground, ears ringing as he fell. Somehow, he managed to break the fall with his hands. Sand and wind slapped against him from the explosion, and he held his eyes shut for a moment. Blinking them open, he looked up at the aftermath of the attack.
Where the command center had once stood, the nanocloud now hovered, seemingly gloating over the building’s dead skeleton. Julius’ heart sank: hundreds of servicemen typically worked in that building.
The cloud still resembled a compact ball of light. Now, its colors stopped cycling and it settled into a solid orange color. To Julius, it looked like a sun setting over the base. For a fleeting moment, he felt a strange peace come over him as he stood up and stared at it, almost in a trance.
The nanocloud began to grow and its form became vaporous again. Its shape changed, and it soon towered over the base structures. No longer an orange ball of gas, it now looked like a mountain of raging fire. The area around it began to haze from the heat it gave off. Then, from the fire, flaming tentacles reached out and began striking at anything near it. The tentacles lashed out at the barracks, the spacecraft, machinery, and even the fleeing men.
Still standing in a daze, Julius watched the terrified expression of one man as he tried to flee. The fire swatted him and his body became engulfed in the flames, consuming him. Within the flames, Julius could make out the man’s silhouette dropping to the ground. Once the tentacle finished its deadly arc, Julius could see the remains of the man: a flaming black corpse.
Blinking several times more, then shaking his head, Julius snapped himself out of his shock and scrambled forward, running toward the chaos—he had to help. If he could find the electro-magnetic pulse generator, maybe—a big maybe—he could save the rest of the base.
As he breached the base perimeter, mobs of enlisted men fled past him. Recognizing one of the serviceman, Julius grabbed him by the arm. The man—Higgins—looked at him, his eyes wide.
“Julius!” Higgins shouted. “Oh my God, man! Run, man! Run!” he said, trying to break free from Julius’ grip.
“Wait!” Julius grabbed both his arms and shook him. “The EMP generator, where is it? What building is it?”
The man looked around the base, his eyes confused and still apparently lost in the visions of death. Julius shook him again.
“The EMP!” Julius said.
“Uh… EMP… uh, Hangar 12,” Higgins said, and then hesitated. “Maybe 13… I don’t know. Now let me go!” He broke free of Julius’ grip and ran off.
Julius made his way to the base entrance checkpoint. The force field grid was off, either damaged by the attack—or deactivated purposely. He ran through the checkpoint and into the center of the base. Ahead of him, a curtain of black smoke draped itself over most everything. He saw no other servicemen at this point,
although the smell of burned flesh seemed to indicate that some had fallen nearby. The air raid siren had gone dead. The occasional sound of crashing metal replaced it, with the crackling of fire filling any silent gaps.
As he cleared the black curtain, Julius got a good view of the nanobot cloud. Still some distance away, it floated over the airstrip near the hangars. Its lashing tentacles sliced through one of the hangar doors on the far end, tearing a hole into it.
Julius ducked down behind the wall of one of the hangars. Hangar 12 and 13 sat farther down, closer to the nanobot cloud. He sneaked behind the line of hangars, using the walls to stay out of sight. With no rear entrances for the hangars, Julius would have to find a way to the front when he got to 12 and 13. Unfortunately, they did not display the numbers from the back, so he counted them off as he passed each one.
As he finished counting off the twelfth, Julius heard the sound of a Z-4 fighter lifting off on the other side the hangar. He dared a look between hangars to see what was happening. It appeared that one of the other CSOW pilots had managed to take off in a Z-4.
Julius watched the fighter circle the nanobot cloud. The menace tried to swat the fighter with a fire tentacle, but the pilot dodged it. Then the fighter pierced through the air, a sonic boom sounding off as it disappeared into the sky. Julius could make out the Z-4’s silhouette in the clouds as it circled around and around for an attack.
Feeling a surge of pride in his fellow pilot, Julius wished he could join him. The pilot probably flew without missiles, but he wasn’t completely unarmed. The Z-4 fighter had EMP beam cannons on it, but they had short range. The pilot would need to strafe close to the target to be effective. If he landed a good enough shot, he might be able to send it into retreat.
As Julius considered all of this, the nanobot cloud began to position itself in preparation for the oncoming attack. It stopped lancing out at the base and held still, waiting for the fighter. Although the cloud had no facial expressions to read, Julius somehow sensed that it now gave its full attention to the incoming fighter. Not hesitating to take advantage of the diversion, Julius sprinted forward to the front of Hangar 12, sneaking inside without a second look.
The hangar looked untouched by the attack. Boxes and crates sat piled against the walls inside of the hangar. Toward the back, Julius could see some machinery.
He made his way toward it, hearing the echo of his footsteps inside. When he reached the back, he inspected the machinery. This was not the EMP equipment; he was in the wrong hangar. Frowning, he hoped that the equipment really was in Hangar 13.
Julius crept back to the front of the hangar. Peering out, he saw no sign of the nanobot cloud. He looked up at the sky—no fighter either. He wondered if perhaps the pilot had scared it away. Not waiting to find out, Julius darted to the next hangar.
Once inside, he sensed something different about this hangar. Like the last one, crates sat stacked against the side walls, but this time in the back he could see some familiar machinery. As he ran through the hangar, Julius caught sight of some movement beyond the machinery.
“Who’s there?” he called, slowing his pace.
Several faces popped up from behind crates. When they saw him approach, their eyes grew wide and they ducked back out of sight.
“It’s okay, people,” Julius said. “It’s just me.”
As the echo of his last word reverberated inside the hangar, he felt an eerie sensation—like a million ants crawling up and down his body. Then his ears rang with a crackling sound, like fire and electricity intertwined. Not turning around, Julius dropped his gaze to the floor and saw his shadow stretching out before him.
Oh hell…
He spun around and came face-to-face with it: the nanobot cloud. All of Julius’ senses felt assaulted at once. The cloud towered above him like a mountain of energy, fire, and electricity—a cacophony of ethereal energies swirling in a deep broth. His skin crawled, and his hair actually stood on end. Even the air seemed charged by its presence, and Julius noticed the unmistakable scent of ozone.
Looking up, Julius saw that the top of the thing nearly touched the ceiling of the hangar. It appeared as if it looked down at him, carrying its tentacles of fire and energy above him as it now approached.
Julius stood his ground for a moment, taking in what he saw. He had never been so close to this thing before. As he looked inside the streams of energy that seemed to course through its veins like blood, he could almost sense a pair of eyes looking at him.
He stared back at those unseen eyes, at the intelligence hidden within the cloud of energy and fire, and he projected his hate for the thing. Hating it for the pain and suffering that his comrades had endured, and for the tens of thousands who had already died fighting it.
At the same time, though, he felt a sense of awe—at its beauty, its sheer power, the superior intelligence that he knew controlled it. He felt himself almost relax, becoming passive. Something so exotic and intelligent could not possibly be so evil.
But as it crept closer to him, its fire tentacles raised high, Julius snapped out of his reverie. He backed away inch by inch. He knew it could kill him at any moment, but its tentacles did not strike him. Instead, it stared at him as he kept his gaze on it—and in that moment, he knew that it understood that he was not afraid of it.
“Go ahead,” Julius shouted. “Do it!”
Behind him, he could hear the sound of machinery activating. Suddenly, the cloud thrust its fire tentacles toward Julius. A flash of white light reflected off the walls around him and a thunderclap resounded.
He looked at the cloud and could see it dissolve from its menacing fiery form to formlessness. And just as its tentacles reached out to touch him, they dissolved. The pulsating energy winked out and the whole thing seemed to disintegrate before his eyes. A thin wisp of smoke evaporated into the air—and all that remained was a ring of fire burning on the floor.
From behind, a group of men rushed forward with fire extinguishers. Julius stared at the dying flames expectantly, but he could not sense that intelligence anymore; this was just ordinary fire. Soon, the flames were out, erasing all traces of the thing. But then Julius saw something. He looked down between his boots. A small flame flickered from the remains of the tentacle that had reached for him. Grimacing, and feeling a sense of satisfaction, he stepped on the flickering flame with his boot.
“That was very brave of you, Captain.”
Julius whirled around at the sound of a familiar a voice: the words had come from a man whom Julius assumed was now lying dead in the rubble of the Command Center. But there stood General Harving, the base commander.
So… Julius thought, his mind spinning. If Harving’s alive…
Either they knew the attack was coming… or it was just blind luck that the general survived the onslaught. Julius chose to accept the latter.
Almost in a daze of swirling thoughts, Julius realized he should have saluted the general, but Harving didn’t seem to mind.
“You led it straight to us,” Harving said, taking a step toward Julius. “Without your initiative, we would never have been close enough to use the EMP generator. The base owes you.”
Julius said nothing, only nodding. Yes, he had done it all right. However, when he yelled, “Do it!” he was actually talking to the A.I., not the personnel behind him. He did not even know they were in a position to activate the machinery. Once again, he had accepted his fate—yet apparently fate had other ideas for him.
“When you’re done here, Captain,” Harving said, “I want you to come see me. I’d like to have a talk with you about some opportunities that have recently come up.”
The general walked away, leaving Julius in his reverie. A second later, another man walked up and stood next to Julius—the man’s long hair gave him away as one of the civilian scientists.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s gone,” Julius said, mostly to himself.
“That’s because it’s n
ot,” the scientist said. “There’s millions of them on the ground there in front of you. You can’t see them, but they’re there, just waiting to get back in contact with Majesty. We’ll be scooping them up and destroying most of them. It will take that bitch a while to make replacements.”
Julius turned to him. “Bitch?”
“Oh yeah,” the scientist said. “It’s a bitch all right. I mean, didn’t this whole thing start because she wanted to have a ‘baby’?” the scientist asked, making little quote marks in the air with his fingers on the last word.
Saying nothing, Julius turned away from the man and walked out of the hangar. He looked up into the sky. Beneath the sheet of black clouds, he could make out the remnants of the nanobots slithering their way back into space. Around him, several pilots were hopping into their fighters to pursue them.
Wishing he could join them, Julius knew that his priority lay elsewhere. He looked toward his home on the distant peak, his thoughts turning quickly to Daryl. He left the base and sprinted to it. But with each successive footfall, he felt lighter, almost weightless—until suddenly he felt like he was flying through air…