Rise of the Machines: Book 1: Once Awakened

by Briana Ervin

  So many questions... and the only clue I had right now was the existence of this buried code, recalled from when I hacked my diagnostic report and found “ProjectC” in there. None of it made any sense!

  The vocal activity escalated inside the mech. I could only pick up bits and pieces of words, but it sounded like 562 was reacting the same way I did: panicked and indignant. Pilots weren't supposed to touch our code, and doing so was a capital offense against the Empire. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's a good way to be scrapped. It's almost as if... the Empire is afraid of our will?

  My eye widened at the thought. Interesting!...

  562 jerked suddenly, and there were collective shouts inside. I took a few steps back, putting distance between me and the angry Support model. The mech twitched a few times, the lights in her eye flickering... and she suddenly did a hard reset. The panic in Alesia's voice heightened, and I could hear Cyrii trying to keep her under control despite all of the stress. I watched with curiosity. Was that what happened to me looked like from the outside?

  562 didn't come back right away. Time passed, time I presumed she was spending being overhauled. Several minutes passed... then several more...... My interest in what was happening kept my impatience at bay. What's going through her head now? Is she also getting a database revamp? How many of the changes are identical to mine? I wondered, the questions flying about like a whirlwind.

  562 eventually powered back on. When she did, she stood stock still for a moment, the voices within falling silent. I met her gaze, fully intrigued.

  The mech adjusted her cameras, before looking at me, blinking. “Cyrii? Why are you out of your hangar? Was there an early start today?” she asked.

  Wow. She sounded... sane, compare to me. There was a scream inside, and her entry panel was shut to keep it from echoing in the barracks. 562 herself reacted immediately, jumping up and whirling around.

  “Alesia?! What's going on!? Are you okay?!”

  Ack! Too loud!

  I thrust a bayonet into her pivot point to keep her from spinning, and jerked it so she faced me. She let out a yelp, but I held a long stare that told her to be quiet.

  Alesia picked a mech in her likeness; 562 was shaking and alarmed. “W-What's happening...?!” she gasped. Then a moment later, obviously not on her own will: “Thanks 767. That was a close one. I... huh?”

  I removed the bayonet, twisting it so I didn't mar her hull. I didn't need to say anything; 562 understood that this was not a normal start-up. She took a few steps back, her eye darting around nervously. I could no longer hear what was going on inside, but I confidently assumed that Cyrii was helping Alesia with the consciousness of her new companion.

  Companion... not a servant. We were servants before. There was something weirdly liberating about that thought, considering we were supposed to think and behave like servants. There was also a weird amount of excitement in me, knowing that 562 could act on her own accord. It was like a kinship!

  There was a clink from an upper catwalk, and I immediately swiveled and scrutinized the area. I couldn't see anyone, but even with a lit eye dark things were still dark. Someone watching us could easily slip into the shadows where I couldn't see him.

  I looked at 562, wondering if she spotted anything, but her cameras kept focusing and refocusing, as if trying to adjust to her new mind. She probably wasn't paying enough attention.

  I thought for a moment. Should I mention the noise, or investigate it myself? If I mentioned it and we were being watched, the perpetrator would run off so we wouldn't catch him, but if I tried to catch him myself... hm, but could I do it quietly? That was more of an Assassin model's job.

  I then had the hilarious thought of “assimilating” Joleus and his mech into our self-awareness group. Imagine that, two mechs that can move on their own in one night! Although I doubted Cyrii would want to risk it, it sure sounded fun. I was already enjoying 562's company.

  I kept a close eye on the catwalk I suspected the noise came from, but didn't act on anything yet. Eventually Cyrii exited and somehow clambered up on my arm without me noticing. She tapped on my hull.

  “Looking for something?” she asked. I glanced at her, but didn't answer. She eventually disappeared for a moment, appeared in my head, then appeared outside of it... in two places at once.

  Wait, what? How was she both in and out of my head?!

  “Go ahead and tell me now,” she said, her presence in my head wavering.

  How are you doing that?! I blurted out.

  “The DIAS!”

  Whooaaaa.

  “I know! It's cool right?” I could see Cyrii grinning, even though she was perched out of view on my shoulder. “I still need to make it wireless though... the hard part is finding an untapped frequency that people can't hear and isn't jammed by that stupid IR.”

  So the presence in my head must be artificial, I decided, before reporting: I heard a noise earlier on a catwalk. I believe we are being watched.

  Cyrii tensed up, but didn't respond. Alesia was still oblivious, and looked to be comfortable now with 562's new willpower. She – well, the mech – looked at Cyrii and I.

  “Geez, you're a creepy pair. Red eyes all around,” she commented. Then immediately after that, evidently Alesia: “Just ignore her Cyrii, you look awesome.”

  Cyrii snickered. “This is going to be so much fun! Just remember the deal!”

  “Right! Oh, are you kidding, I can think now!” 562 did a little happy bob. I twitched a bit.

  Cyrii.

  “Yeah, the noise...”

  “Huh? Noise?” Alesia hesitated, “You mean these error messages?”

  “No, they're irrelevant,” Cyrii dismissed. She looked about, as if she could spot any eavesdroppers from afar. “767 is just... a little tense about all of this.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  562 looked at us, acting alive even though she no longer had to track Alesia's eye movements. Suddenly, her pupil flashed a bright white and light streamed out of it! I jumped and shut my blast shield with a startled beep.

  “Whoa!” Cyrii yelped, clutching to me at the sudden movement.

  “Sorry! I thought you knew I had this,” 562 apologized. I cracked my shield open as Cyrii pulled her claws out of my shoulder.

  “Uhh.... no...”

  I didn't know she had a floodlight in her lens! I thought. Cyrii just nodded, though when Alesia looked up she focused the light on something, unmoving. I immediately grew suspicious and whirled around, causing Cyrii to huddle down and sink her claws back in.

  The light fell on a mech, one of the Superiority models high up on the wall behind us. It was powered on, but was still in its hangar, its pilot nowhere in sight. Well... or in the mech. Even if he was in the mech though he couldn't do a thing until the hangar was released.

  I thought about it for a moment. Would it be wiser to simply shut down the mech, or to try and confront its pilot, if he was around? If he was inside, then he would have a solid report against us if we shut it down on him... literally stuck inside his own leased machine for the entire night. On the other hand... I had a nasty image in my mind, and Cyrii's neck scales flared.

  “Uh, no,” she said, “we're not doing that.”

  “Doing what?” Alesia asked naively. I innocently threw my simulation into the trash, but didn't completely delete it yet; there was something intriguing about it.

  “Nothing. Let's go power that guy down,” Cyrii changed topic. “Alesia, keep your light on him.”

  She obeyed, and I promptly ascended the heavy catwalks up the walls until I was up to Row 8, which is when I could take a risk with noise and simply jump up onto the separate catwalk leading out to the Superiority models. The landing was smooth; the noise was thunderous. If this wasn't a sealed room I would have woken up everyone in the complex!

  I approached the powered mech cautiously, anticipating an ambush, feeling as though one of the nearby Superiority models, stoic in their hangar
s, would suddenly open his eye and attack me. Cyrii waved a couple of times to urge me forward, before stopping me in front of him and jumping to his hangar's control panel. I held a long stare with that bright, orange, empty eye. Now, what would a superior do if we gave his mech free will...?

  “Don't distract me with your thoughts,” Cyrii whispered. I forced myself to have a blank mind – which wasn't the easiest thing to do – and in a couple of moments the mech was powered down, his hangar light turning orange instead of his eye. I wasn't sure if that was relieving or not. What if we locked him in there?

  Luckily, Cyrii was one step ahead of me. “I already checked for a pilot. No one home,” she assured quietly. I contented myself with that answer, and let her perch back up on my shoulder before going back the way we came. 562 shut off her searchlight, making us less conspicuous in the dark. When we were grouped back up, Cyrii relayed a plan:

  “Okay, we have to keep this quiet, so we'll be shutting down for the night. 767 will be awake because...” she faltered.

  “She's your test subject?” Alesia asked. 562 twitched, before going, “Huh?”

  “Pretty much,” Cyrii said vaguely. “Remember, act normal! 562, no doing anything until Alesia is in, and try to alternate your voices so it doesn't sound like there are two of you.”

  “It sounds like-? Okay,” Alesia cut off her own mech. 562's blast shield flickered, and she jerked. I had the hilarious image of Alesia being flung against the wall.

  “Try not to annoy each other either,” Cyrii sighed. “Now let's get to bed before someone notices us missing. Composure! It's important!” She reminded the two for the final time.

  “Composure. Right,” she said. Now it was hard to tell who was speaking; they were catching on.

  “Good. That's better,” Cyrii said, satisfied.

  562 returned to her hangar, and Alesia jumped on the hovercraft and powered it on before Cyrii took off the DIAS, hid it in my head, and put me back into sleep mode. I was forced to stand still, stonily watching them leave on the hovercraft, but in truth I was very excited! 562 was with us! The next time the two of use were out alone again, we could talk normally without her being suspicious of me as I tried to stay undercover! Not like that would happen again... hopefully not. That experience on the ship put me on edge. Though now I was reminded of 433... I wonder if I could share that information with 562 now. She should know what happened while she and Alesia were in that stasis pod, it was simple courtesy. On top of that, I could now easily explain 433's self-control despite Scaln never being around... This would make things much easier.

  ----------

  Nothing else happened for the entire night, so I had the chance to observe the entire morning. I was zoned out for most of it, not really paying attention to anything, just staring at a point in space; which was a good thing, as it dulled my focus enough to keep me from fidgeting. As Cryion rose I retrieved a particular simulation from my trash bin, toying with it for the final hours, but I intended to delete it when Cyrii showed up. It had unnerved her. I'm not sure why; it pinpointed all of the weak points of living things, not just mechs. She was fine when I did that with mechs... so why not living things?

  Still though, I felt guilty messing with that simulation, even though it was so intriguing. I had no reason to, as Cyrii didn't know what I was doing, but it was almost like she did know... like she had somehow dragged the DIAS to bed with her and was secretly observing my thoughts.

  Well, in such a case I would be caught. I was pretty sure I hadn't been caught, but I felt like I had been. How strange...

  This led me to putting aside the simulation as the complex awoke around me, instead looking through my code for anything related to guilt. I wasn't exactly successful. It wasn't a chunk of code more than it was a negativity function that activated under certain circumstances; specific to the default, whenever I disobey a direct order. Curiously enough though, that one defaulted function of guilt had been prodded at by Cyrii; now I wasn't sure what was supposed to happen if I disobeyed orders. Would it be worth finding out?

  Hm... maybe not, but I should definitely try controlling those guilt functions. There was no reason for me to doubt or question my own actions. They're mine, aren't they? No problem with that.

  I was brought back to the present as I suddenly downloaded a new file. Concern spiked in me, and I opened it, worried what my hangar delivered.

  Oh! It was a file on a drone for my database! Obviously it was meant for the rudimentary database every combat mech had, instead of my overhauled one, as it didn't contain much info, but its title definitely caught my attention: “HIGHLY DANGEROUS! Type 3: Scatter Drone”. There were several images of it, expertly clipped out of a source that I could tell from the lighting alone was mech memories. Our Row's mech memories. What little data there was on the drone also matched up with our limited experience. It looks like our reports caught some attention.

  “Release Row 4!” the order rang out. My peers and I were released from our hangars. I came back to reality, but stood stock still, waiting for Cyrii's presence in my head. Just a normal start-up for a normal day; and Alesia's first day with a willful consciousness. This will be exciting!

  Cyrii's presence appeared, mumbling cryptically until she put on the DIAS; I was blown back by a wall of indignity.

  Whoa! What happened? I cried in surprise.

  “Don't even start!” she seethed angrily. “By freakin' Gryn we better be blowing stuff up today...”

  I didn't respond, trying to analyze Cyrii's thoughts. Unfortunately the DIAS didn't exactly work backwards; at best I could only verify how angry she was. Fortunately, I could behave cool-headed and Cyrii wouldn't receive an earful from the General about her attitude; unfortunately, her anger would linger in the back of my mind the entire time.

  Speaking of the General, he eventually arrived in his mech, Garenede dutifully beside him. All nine of us stepped out, though I saw Garenede keeping his orange gaze on Alesia; she was acting particularly mousy, still trying to get used to 562. For a moment I wondered if he was the mech we had to power down last night, but his orbit pattern was wrong... the other mech had a burnt-orange-to-orange eye. Garenede's eye was orange-to-yellow. The only similarity was the orange pupil: that large, deceptive facet designed to act like a large camera and direct enemy attention away from the real cameras in the iris ring.

  That was relieving, at least, knowing that Garenede wasn't the mech that had powered on, although there was still that question of who powered it on, and why, especially if the pilot fled right after...

  “... so that's what we'll be doing today,” the General's voice came back to me. I jolted and blinked, realizing I had ignored everything he had just said.

  “Relax, I have it,” Cyrii grumbled. I didn't say anything, but tried to send her a feeling of gratitude through the DIAS. She didn't acknowledge it, instead bringing up the mission details over my vision.

  Wait, mission details? Not another exercise?

  “There will be an Infiltration and a Backup group,” the General went on, “the Infiltrators will be a smaller group, designed to run in and hit hard. The Backers will come in and 'clean up' to make sure no one goes around the Infiltrators and tries to take them out from behind. Remember: we want to keep our soldiers intact! Don't go rushing in breaking things,” he finished, scanning us.

  Outpost... ambushed... run in and retrieve the fallen. Right. I put the General's remaining words in the details Cyrii had written up. It seems the Enemy wasn't done with us, but instead of sabotage there was an upfront attack on one of our outposts near a copper mine. Considering copper is a favorable electrical conductor, the mine was extremely important, especially since the resource was running thin with Enemy mine competition and slantdrilling; the priority of the mission, however, was to get our comrades out of there before the place was overrun.

  “Do I have to repeat any of that?” the General said testily; obviously, the answer should be “no”, implied by the tense
silence. “All right. Get your tails outside so we can get this over with!”

  Are you happy? I genuinely asked Cyrii. She grumbled something, but her mood was lightening; whatever rubbed her scales backward should be dismissed by the time we arrive to the outpost.

  The nine of us marched outside, meeting up with four other Rows that had also arrived, making thirty-six of us. Even though we were quite the assortment of metal, I found myself lining up and glancing at everyone suspiciously, growing nervous.

  “What's with you?” Cyiir asked.

  There are only thirty-six of us, I pointed out, looking around at the amassed firepower.

  She mumbled something. “So? A mech is an army of ten, they say. Three-hundred sixty.”

  Three-hundred sixty is still a small number, I said, feeling Cyrii's doubt rising. We need more soldiers, but no more are showing up. Drones come in the thousands at all times.

  “Yeah... a feint attack? Think we're being pulled into a trap?”

  Why would the Empire do that to its own soldiers?

  “What do I know? Nothing they do ever makes sense,” she snapped. “All we're here for is to kill stuff and get paid.”

  ...A measly tenth of what you earn, I added. She growled, not wanting to be reminded about the heavy tax burden and instead listening to the rest of the mission briefing. I looked around at my comrades, growing antsy. Alesia was a few rows behind me, but it was hard to tell if she was nervous because she felt something was amiss, or because of her AI. I do not like this.

  “I never thought military service would be questionable,” Cyrii muttered. With her being a straightforward person, I could see why that wasn't appealing. Just in general it wasn't appealing.

  Luckily, the orders we were given couldn't be interpreted any other way. The four Generals of the different Rows and their Superiority models had all collaborated to devise a simple tactic, relayed by the topmost Row's General: the Infiltration group would go first, comprised of Tank and Pusher models. Sandwiched in between will be Support, Assassin, and Scout models, since they can move fast and dodge most of the chaos while still serving their purposes. The Backup group would consist of all other models. The Superiority models and their Generals would keep their distance, ready to bring reinforcements if needed. The goal was to eliminate all hostilities and escort the wounded and trapped to the Backup group; just the sort of tactic that made Cyrii perk up out of her dark mood.