by Prax Venter
Mark only had moments, but his mind had all the time it needed to play out every possible outcome. He had seen these drones’ single-minded aggression, and when the Trip Zero dog launched itself for Mark’s throat, all possible moves collapsed into one mid-air trajectory.
He was able to sidestep the quadruped and grab onto one of its hind legs. Yanking backward, Mark activated the pneumatic muscles in his arms and back to begin spinning the aggressive drone, pivoting in place like an Olympic hammer thrower. When the momentum reached optimal force, Mark swung his enemy downward to slam into the street.
The kinetic impact bent one of its legs, and Mark became worried that the wounded animal would figure it had no real option other than sounding the alarm.
He looked up when another transport pod drifted up behind the first and the beast used his distraction to curl upward and start gnawing on his drone’s hands.
Mark watched in terror as Vince, Michelle and both senior care bots exited the first pod and made a break for the second. He wasn’t worried for himself- this bot was expendable. He was terrified that he might lose hold of it.
“We’re getting them into an operable transport,” Ahnix said in his ear. “Do you have this?”
Mark turned his attention on the metal beast chewing on his pillowy hands and felt his mind boil over with rage. Always with the fucking hands.
He pulled the gnashing creature close, lifted his leg over its neck, and locked the animal’s head behind one of his knee joints, and dropped to the ground- twisting a little. The quadruped dropped with him, and when Mark’s heavy frame connected with the street at just the right angle, the force was enough to snap the creature’s metallic neck. Whatever bit of wire or circuity that attached the remote antenna to this drone was severed from the rest of its body, and the angular beast went limp.
“Yeah,” Mark said, getting up from the ground. “It’s dead.”
He dashed over to the new transport, and the door popped open for him. He slid into the seat, the door shut, and the pod silently sped off into the night.
Roo reached out a padded finger. “Oh, Mark. Your hands.”
He didn’t feel her touch at all, and Mark finally took in the damage. Both hands were a mess of frayed fabric and foam. Parts of black metal skeleton below were now exposed. He felt a minor rush of frustration, but Roo’s drone going slack caught his attention.
“Switch with me, now,” she demanded in his ear. He had never heard her so serious before.
“It’s okay R-”
“I said now.”
“Geez. Okay.” But he had no idea how to log out. The moment of confusion was quickly replaced with repetitive instructions about just willing stuff to happen. Mark thought hard about pulling out of the drone and back to his default, high-level menu. He wasn’t really surprised when it worked, and his electronic brain gave him a vague jolt of pleasure for learning something on his own.
A glance at the map in front of him showed yellow dots clustered around two red ones, moving along a curved suburban street. One of them displayed 78% functionality. He watched it flip from red to yellow before his eyes and assumed that Roo must have jumped in. Vale’s dot was bigger than the rest- probably because she was possessing a vehicle.
Mark wondered why he couldn’t see all the other transport pods, and the moment he did, the whole map was pulsating with red dots. There were hundreds of thousands.
“Vince is asking if you are okay,” Ahnix said in his ear.
“Oh! Yeah. Hold on.”
With another thought, Mark mentally filtered out everything but the senior care bot in the moving transport pod. He focused on that single red dot and possessed the undamaged drone.
“Sorry,” Mark said when he popped into Roo’s old drone and saw everything from a different perspective. “I’m fine.”
“Sure,” Vince said, sitting back in his seat. “As I was saying before you decided to quietly play musical drones on me… I really appreciate you fucking that thing up. It was like watching a ninja or something.”
Mark held up one of his fully functioning hands. “Don’t worry about it. You only have one life. These drones are…”
He trailed off as a brilliant idea crept up on him. They had actually thought of it before, and he felt stupid for having to figure it out twice. There were way more pieces on this board than he was letting himself believe.
“…disposable?” Roo said, trying to finish his hanging sentence and cocked her head. The uncomfortable pause led all three of his girls to probe their vibrant connection to see what happened to the hamster wheel in his brain.
“Vale, please pull over,” Mark said calmly.
The giant naga driving the transport instantly slowed down and swerved in between two other vehicles on the side of the road. The closer they were to the city, the more transport pods littered the sides of the streets.
“What are you doing?” Vince said, pressing his palms into the seat. He was getting really turned off by Mark’s sudden flakiness.
Mark put a marshmallow-covered palm up towards the other man and then said, “Relax, Vince. I’m trying to save the world- well what’s left. Guys, why aren’t we all inhabiting transport pods like this one?”
Ahnix was quick to answer. “They can’t hold weapons.”
“They are large and cannot really hide or go inside buildings,” Vale added.
Silence hung in the air for a moment, and Mark could tell that Roo felt pressured to come up with her own answer.
“They’re…”
Mark saved her. “They’re their own weapons. They move so fast, and there are so many that there is no point in hiding. Just hop into another one. I understand these cars can’t go in buildings. But- Shit, if we just walk up to the dead zone with these Asswipers, not only will they be lost when the signal is cut off, they’ll probably be shredded instantly by the potential lions watching the waterhole.”
“It’s a good point,” Vale said, contemplating. “With a coordinated effort, we might be able to draw off some of the heat while a small group rushes in on foot.”
“That’s my girl,” Mark said. He knew she would run with the strategy.
“I thought you said they were called Ass Masters…” Roo said.
Ahnix crossed her bot’s arms at that and Michelle stifled a giggle with her fingers.
“Either way,” Mark began with a chuckle. “We need more information. Roo, why don’t you switch into this transport and keep an eye on Vince and Michelle while Ahnix, Vale, and I go take a drive around this dead zone.”
“Okay hold on,” Vince said. Up until now, he had been quiet, listening to them plan for him. “What is it exactly that you want in there?”
Vale answered. “We heard there are nanite prototypes within. Once we have those, we’ll be unstoppable.”
“Uh huh, and what if the murderbots get them?”
Ahnix answered, always the straight shooter. “The end of everything, for everyone.”
Vince crossed his arms. “Maybe they’re better off safely out of reach under this dead zone?”
“Possibly,” Mark said through his drone’s speaker. “As I said, what we need now is information. We are going to go check this place out. You two are obviously free to leave and go your own way any time, but if we work together, we might be able to stop them- or at least make a massive dent. Welcome to the resistance.”
“You want to use him to get the nanites for us,” Vale said directly in Mark’s ear, using the shared channel only he and his girls could hear.
“Yeah,” he responded using their private connection. “The thought crossed my mind.”
Vince looked over at Michelle, and he searched her big doe eyes. She gave him a small smile and a barely perceptible nod. The other man turned to face Mark’s drone.
“You’re better equipped than we are, I can’t imagine what it’s even like to become a car. We’ll wait here and relax for a while, then decide what’s next after you come back with the re
con.”
“I haven’t actually been a car yet, so I can’t either.” Mark made his drone shrug. “You’ll be safe with Roo. Those stupid things probably wouldn’t think to look in a pod anyway.”
Apparently, Vale and Roo had already switched as the velvet-girl’s cheery voice spoke through the vehicle’s surround speakers.
“And I’ll get us out in a flash if any do!”
Vince sighed. “I’m not going to get used to you people swapping bodies like that.”
“Speaking of which- I’ll see you around.” Mark waved his hand and then pulled out of the senior care drone.
- 20 -
Mark was euphoric.
The rangefinders within the helmet of the senior care drone were like dipping his toes in the ocean compared to being a Corlue Mk IV Transportation Pod. Vale had picked vehicles that were a bit farther out to give Mark a chance to get used to having four spinning wheels as his limbs. It was jarring at first, but Mark’s mind had been stretched to its limit by so many odd and impossibly intense situations that he quickly learned to just go with it. It was like the difference between clenching up on the drop of a roller-coaster or giving in to the ride and peacefully accepting the exhilarating situation.
He sensed the asphalt blur below his undercarriage and every obstacle within 250 yards. A row of trees whipped past his right side, and he could feel every leaf- if he chose to. He blazed down the road virtually leaning into the wind as it was optimally deflected off his smooth body.
“I think he likes it,” Ahnix said in his ear after feeling the pure joy echoing from him along their bond. She was racing behind him as they headed east while Vale had her own pod coming down from the north.
“It took a minute,” he said. “You’ve been a quadruped before- Is this what it’s like to run like to run on all fours?”
“In a way.”
“Why don’t you hold back, Ahnix,” the giant naga said. “Mark and I’ll probe two sides at once, then circle the perimeter in different directions- see if we can meet up on the southeast side. Wait for Mark to cover some ground. If there is anything waiting for us there, see if he was successful in drawing off an opening.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Mark said, and Ahnix just signaled an affirmative along their bond. He felt the pod behind him widen its distance from his back bumper and turned his focus to the road ahead. Five more intersections then take a left, and that road would lead him directly into the research campus. From the high-level map view, he was able to see the layout. It was mostly parking lots and open fields- no real hiding places.
He passed the second intersection when he felt a jolt to his car and warning signals that weren’t quite pain telling him he had sustained severe damage somehow.
Mark was able to sense the second projectile for one instant before it punctured the front of his vehicle. It was over. Mark could no longer will the transport forward, and it rolled to a stop.
“I’ve been hit. Sniper maybe? A surgical strike on my drive motor. Didn’t even see them or get close to the dead zone.”
“Same,” Vale said in his ear. “They were up in a high-rise with vantage on a wide area.”
“I see Mark’s dead pod,” Ahnix said. “Taking an alternate route.”
“There’ve been dogs, flying cameras, and deadly gunboats,” Mark said. “Precision snipers are new.”
“I’m hit, but not down,” Ahnix said, with a tightness in her voice. “Dogs are here too.”
Mark pulled back and selected another pod nearby the research center. He gunned the car forward and headed right for his wreck.
“Okay. I’m down,” the cat-girl said. “They took out my antenna.”
“Maybe if all four of us go at once…” Mark tried to brainstorm solutions while his attention focused on the asphalt accelerating below him.
“Remember,” Vale said. “Our goal here is intelligence gathering. And these long-range damage dealers are frighteningly effective.”
“These dogs are strange,” his cat-girl whispered, sounding distracted. “Switch to my view.”
Mark thought about putting on the brakes and pulling over, but he just virtually shrugged and abandoned the transport pod to its destiny. There were thousands more.
He ignored the tabs and willed his vision to sync with his exotic cat-girl. She had pulled up a camera feed from a street camera near where her transport was broken down. He had to look through some trees, but he saw the silhouette of a black metal humanoid stalking forward with two angular dog drones to either side. However, unlike the quadrupeds he had seen so far, these metal animals had long silver tails.
“Are we seeing more new drones?” he asked.
Mark watched as the sleek military drone inspected the interior and the surrounding area.
“That’s not all,” Ahnix said. She pulled out of the camera, picked another one on the map, and brought up its live feed. In the distance, the ground was littered with a perfect ring of lifeless dog drones. Mixed in the robotic wreckage were flying drones, a few large vehicles, and a smattering of random one-off bots that might have been Sympaths seeking shelter.
“The dead zone,” Mark whispered.
“Why is Triple-zero guarding it?” Vale asked.
Mark jumped out from Ahnix’s view and selected another transport pod. “And why are they so… calm, and precise?” he asked.
Ahnix wagered a guess in his ear. “They want the nanites and don’t want anyone else getting through.”
“Or maybe it’s not the virus,” Mark said, and silence followed. They just didn’t know enough. “I’m coming in from the east this time. Avoiding tall buildings.”
“Try and scout these new drones,” Vale said. “Pretty much all doubt has been removed that the dead zone exists, but I’d like to get more data on the odd drone behavior. This is becoming more difficult than I expected.”
Mark spun his electric motor as he whipped down side streets towards the nanotech research laboratory. In a moment of inspiration, he jerked the car up the curb and tore through the spacious front and back yards of expensive-looking houses. Alarms and warnings about being outside the transport’s approved operating areas flashed in his mind, but they only encouraged him. He gunned his vehicle through a tall wooden fence and almost drove straight into an in-ground pool. Mark veered left at the last second to dash another fence to splinters and received another sensation related to front bumper damage.
He ignored all of that because stretched out before him was a vast green field of well-manicured grass… and a squat brick building lay just beyond.
“I’m at the dead zone!”
His front tires spun in the grass, throwing soil into the air and coating his undercarriage, but now that he could just drive straight, he was able to pick up some speed. Up ahead he noticed the ring of dead drones delineating the Wi-Fi jammed area, but they were more spaced out on this side. Although he really wanted to treat that curved dotted line of dead bots as the finish line, he cut the wheel to ride the perimeter instead.
Just as his transport slid into a new angle, his rangefinders perceived the blip of a high-speed projectile grazing his hood. With focused will, Mark orientated all his attention in the direction of the attack and perceived another sleek humanoid drone with a serious-looking rifle standing near one of the houses. He could visually see the two quadruped dog drones flanking the soldier with his optical cameras, but his rangefinders’ lasers were scattered on their angular surface.
“They’re stealth dogs?” Mark said out loud.
“Yes,” Vale began. “It’s why we keep colliding with them. Perhaps we should be calling these cats as they now have long tails.”
Mark kept his attention focused on the humanoid soldier drone and swerved when he brought the high-powered rifle to bear. He dodged the bullet aimed for his back tire and spun his tires independently as he attempted to put as much distance between him and the sniper as he could. His attention shifted down to the two cat drones just sitting p
atiently by the soldier’s feet. These things were either not being controlled by the Triple-zero virus, or they were wrong about its complexity.
Mark saw that the soldier receding behind him had lowered their weapon, and he returned all the transport pod’s sensors to what lay ahead.
Another cluster of enemies quickly became visible among the houses ahead, and Mark slammed on his brakes. The unsuccessfully dodged bullet registered with the car’s rangefinders an instant before he was kicked back up to the high-level interface with the pulsing red dots. He was stunned for a moment, then realized that his Wi-Fi antenna must have been surgically removed with one bullet.
“I think we’ve seen enough,” Vale said. From their bond, he got the sense that they were both watching his feed.
Mark resisted the urge to keep throwing transports at the problem. “We can’t get in ourselves, and we can’t send our meaty friends without serious risk. Now the fuck what?”
“Something feels off,” Ahnix said. “We all saw it. These drones were different- not behaving like mindless beasts.”
His trusty giant naga had a plan. “Our secondary objective is to take out as much of the virus as possible. Perhaps it would be best if we focused on that for the time being. Maybe we can disrupt this blockade from the inside- if they are the ones truly responsible.”
“I like it,” Mark said. “A lot. But how?”
“The drone factory on the far north end of the city, by the airport,” she responded. “They must have some sort of central operations somewhere. A data center. I’m betting it’s there in that military facility.”
“It will be fiercely guarded,” Ahnix said.
Mark thought about his newly discovered retaliate/heal combo and was reminded that he still had an unknown ability to try out. He chuckled into their joint audio channel.
“Luckily, I know some fiercely badass ladies.”