Artificial Exile

by D S Emerson

  “Let’s get down,” he said to them, and Bek, along with Abel, exited the rear of the truck. They hurried, getting into cover along with the others behind the stopped vehicles as the troops from the city guard started arriving opposite them.

  “No humans need die today,” Malok shouted to them. “Don’t fight for the robots!” With that, Malok waved the signal. Taner took the grenade launcher and aimed it at the entrance of the building. He fired three shots, and moments later, explosions shook the ground: the entrance had been blown wide open.

  “Valeena, we attack inside now! The rest of you—cover us from inside the tower. You will be covered once inside!” Malok ordered. Valeena activated her personal shield, along with Malok and the other rogues who were with them, and they stormed the building. Denec followed behind them, staying just inside the crumbling entrance, along with Bek, Abel, Taner, and five other rogues.

  The guards began to arrive in bigger numbers, covering the square in front of them with their trucks and drones, as well as flying and ground-moving automated combat robots they used to control the population in the city. Civilians in the square were being evacuated by the guards. When their numbers had increased substantially, they stopped around the base of the tower, having surrounded them. Bek was nervously watching the forces gathered opposite them.

  “I hope the rogues have a really good plan as to how they will do this,” he said to Abel.

  “Stay vigilant. I believe they do have a plan…They have thought about this for this a long time,” he replied as he was taking aim with his rifle at the robots outside the wrecked entrance.

  With the city guard forces fully deployed, the big screens around the square that were used to transmit various messages came to life. “Lay down your arms!” The voice was familiar: it belonged to Sivet, the head of the government established by the AI on the planet. “The assault you carried out in this city today endangers every living person remaining. You will stop this suicide mission and surrender! You will stop your foolish endeavor that puts everyone at risk!” Sivet’s voice continued as a loud thumping noise was heard from outside the broadcasting room she occupied. All of a sudden, the broadcast ended.

  “Our forces must have reached the government offices,” Abel told Bek. Following the interruption of the broadcast, the ground robots started moving toward them. The flying ones arrived soon after.

  “Deploy your shields!” Denec shouted at them as they quickly created their protective barriers in front of the collapsed entrance. Taner loaded more Iorine grenades in his grenade launcher. He shot two of them in quick succession at the approaching drones. A cluster of drones caught in the explosion were all damaged and deactivated. The flying drones came crashing down, losing power as the Iorine spread in all directions after the grenade explosion. “Fire!” Denec shouted to everyone there. Taner started reloading his launcher while the other rogues began firing in the direction of the drones outside in the plaza. The human guards were taking cover behind their vehicles farther back.

  Bek and Abel took aim with their rifles and started firing. The ground drones were easy targets. They had trained for this, so as long they had cover, they could damage the drones with the Iorine rounds, and the machines would lose power. The flying ones proved a bit more difficult to hit, but they were at least damaging the ground drones. Taner shot another pair of grenades close to them that exploded and spread Iorine in front of the collapsed entrance making it harder for the drones to come close. The flying drones then started going up the tower to where the government offices were, while the ground drones started flanking them, avoiding the Iorine at the entrance.

  “Careful from the sides,” Denec told them after seeing the new directions the robots were taking. Taner shot a grenade to their left, and they concentrated their firing on the right side.

  “We are going to run out of ammo. We can’t be here forever,” Bek said to Denec.

  “I know. Let’s hope they are successful,” he answered. Bek continued firing at the drones that were trying to attack from the side while still staying behind their deployed shields; the shields absorbed much of the impact, but were starting to deteriorate. In the situation he was in, he didn’t have many options.

  “The shields will be out soon!” Abel said to him while he continued fighting the robots sent by the guards. The human guards began deploying their personal shields and making their way to them behind the functioning walking drones. Bek decided to shoot more slowly, trying with every shot to disable a drone since they were fast running out of ammunition. He wanted to conserve as much ammo as he could, and began firing at the flying drones when a huge explosion was heard farther away in the city. The loud noise was heard by everyone in the square, and soon after, they saw black-and-red clouds of smoke rising away from them.

  “It’s the city guard base and depot,” Denec said to them. “It’s part of the plan.” The human guards halted their advance and looked toward the smoke rising from the guards’ headquarters. Bek thought that some of the trucks must have come after them, and while the fight was going on, they had made their way to the guards’ headquarters to destroy it. He hoped that no humans had been harmed in the blast.

  While everyone was watching the rising smoke, the screens around the plaza and the city came alive again. Sivet, appearing irritated, was preparing an announcement. She was anxiously adjusting the papers she was holding while looking down and to one side. Eventually, she started speaking nervously while reading the papers in front of her. “My dear people of Cennan,” she said, pausing, “a group of armed people took over the government tower, with members of the appointed government and myself captured. The armed rogues, using weapons with technology that can disable the robots, destroyed the guard base and depot containing the equipment of our city guards. The rogues informed the appointed government and me that the base of the tower is now full of explosives and if we don’t withdraw and deliver the city to them, they will detonate them with catastrophic results for the population with the tower falling in the city. The water storage is also targeted with explosives, I am informed. With this in mind, I have no option but to urge all members of the guard to lay down their weapons. I am delivering the governance of this city to the rogue forces in order to avoid human casualties.”

  Bek was shocked at hearing this: he never believed Malok would hurt other humans. If his forces detonated the explosives, the tower would fall, causing destruction in a huge part of the city. In addition, the population would be without water if they detonated the explosives in the water storage systems located outside the city. He needed to talk with Malok.

  Abel, next to him, looked satisfied. “We managed to take the city…” Abel said. “We did it!” He wore a cheerful look on his face.

  “But at what cost, Abel? Will Malok negotiate with the AI oppressor back on Earth? We need to talk to him. I didn’t join his cause only to see the destruction of what remains of mankind,” Bek said.

  “I agree. My interest is only to benefit the people,” Abel agreed. “That’s why I believe in Malok, and his intention to liberate the city.”

  The drones flanking them retreated; the aerial ones went back and landed. Their controllers were human guards who had obviously stopped fighting, along with the other guards who surrendered their weapons in front of them. From the day that the city had been set up and running on Cennan, this was the first time the AI-designated government hadn’t controlled the city. But Bek knew they couldn’t survive on their own. They existed here only to gather Iorine and send energy back to Earth on cargo shuttles. In exchange, they lived here in peace, still consuming water from Earth. They couldn’t survive without this trade-off.

  While Bek and Abel observed the activity in the square, Valeena came down from the tower with a group of rogues. She said that Malok wanted them to come up to the tower offices. The group of rogues who came from the top took positions around the entrance, and their team entered the interior of the tower. Inside, the building was in
bad shape. The lobby had sustained damage from the battle. Many disabled drones, and splashes of Iorine littered the hall; they saw explosives placed on pillars inside. Bek, Abel, and Denec, followed by Taner and Valeena, approached the elevators, carefully scanning the area around them, and pressed the call button. An elevator arrived shortly, and they entered. Denec chose the top floor where the government offices were located. They used the short elevator ride to catch their breath and to come to terms with the fact that they had managed to survive the battle. They all looked tired, but in high alert mode due to the ever-changing situation.

  The elevator stopped, and the door opened at the top floor. In front of them was a big, open office overlooking the city from every window. At the side of the room was Malok, talking to Sivet, who was sitting at her desk. Approaching them, they looked around the big room and observed that it was eerily quiet in contrast to the pandemonium below.

  Malok welcomed them. “Well done in terms of holding the entrance. If you had failed and the guards had entered the tower, we wouldn’t have been able to restrain the leadership of the city, and complete our takeover. You did well. Congratulations, Taner and Denec.”

  “We were also involved there,” Bek interrupted them. “You forgot to mention to us that part of your plan included endangering civilians in the city.”

  “No one was hurt from the explosion. They scanned the place and warned before firing the bomb. The guards were in the square,” Malok answered in a confident tone.

  “I am not talking only about that part of the plan…The strategy of placing explosives in the tower and water storage to force them to hand you the city wasn’t made clear to us.”

  “No, of course it wasn’t made clear to you…We have been planning this operation for a long time, and we wouldn’t endanger our plan by revealing it to our newest recruits.”

  “Your forced recruits—” Bek replied.

  “Makes even more sense when you put it that way,” Malok spoke, looking at them. He then instructed Valeena and Taner to escort Sivet to the area where she would be held, along with the other members of the government.

  “You are putting the people who live quietly in the city at risk,” Sivet said while she was escorted away from the room.

  “The survival of mankind is my priority,” Malok replied calmly to her. “Valeena, you did well in the takeover of the tower. After you place them in their quarters, get some rest.”

  “Congratulations on the success of the plan, Malok,” Valeena replied to him while she gathered her gun and sword. Taner went with them, leaving the room. Bek and Abel observed the city from the glass windows: it was the first time they had viewed the city from this height. The carefully placed blocks that housed the population, with the bright streets between them, were quieter than usual now. Many of the people had run to cover indoors to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. The smoke from the guard base was subsiding and in the distance, as far as the eye could see, was the orange soil of Cennan, with the lakes of Iorine making the horizon bright.

  “So, what is the plan now, Mr. Malok?” Abel approached him with the question while he was viewing the city.

  “Now we must prepare to travel to Earth and destroy the AI robots who roam there,” Malok replied.

  “But how can you do that? No one defeated them during the war. And if we couldn’t defeat them then, how can we expect to defeat them now that humanity finds itself in a much weaker position than before?”

  “The AI on Earth is nothing without energy, just as humans can’t live without food, air, and water. We have reservoirs of water in the city, and the population will need to be more careful in consuming it in order to buy more time. However, the AI needs energy from Iorine that we produce here, since the natural resources of Earth were exhausted. And we are now going to stop sending that energy back to Earth,” Malok said, walking up and down in front of the big glass windows overlooking the city and planet. “We can’t wait for their energy reserves on Earth to simply run down. We will run out of water before that. The AI can exist while shutting down robots; we can’t kill our people to save water. We have to sneak into the Earth’s energy storage plant and disable it. At that time, we will send another shipment of water back. The AI won’t have unlimited energy for its vast army of robots to function, and we will outlast it.”

  “Are you completely insane?” Bek replied in an angry voice after hearing the plan. “We can’t outlive the robots, and you think you can get to Earth and defeat their defenses? There is no chance of that. You will be killed before even getting close to their energy storage facilities!” Abel was in one corner, growing concerned, staring at the floor after realizing that there might be no victory over the AI oppressor after all. He wanted to believe in fighting the robots, but he saw no real chance of succeeding. “You want to commit suicide believing in some crazy plan and you are willing to take the rest of humanity with you!” Bek screamed at Malok. Bek looked out of the windows with a sadness that soon gave way to anger. “I have to see Jaina…I at least need to check and see if she is safe for now, after what you have started with this suicide mission,” he yelled. Bek dropped his gear, entered the elevator, and headed down to the city.

  Chapter 6

  Bek walked at a faster pace the farther he went away from the tower. He saw around him a lot of destruction on the walls of buildings, and on vehicles from the fighting that had gone on earlier in the square. Many of the public places in the city square were damaged. Some people were cautiously sneaking out from their hiding places or their apartments to check on what had happened. They had probably heard the message that the city had been taken by the rogues, but they didn’t know what this would bring for the future.

  Bek passed the Xos Bar, where he and Abel had been sitting with Jaina when the explosion forced them out of the city. The bar had sustained some bullet damage on the outside, but it looked like it could still function. He realized that the problem wasn’t whether or not people would go out now, but rather, whether they would survive the situation in the long term. Jaina’s apartment building wasn’t far from the square; he would have to walk there, seeing as taxis weren’t buzzing in the streets anymore. People were venturing out in bigger numbers as he walked along. He looked around him, assessing the damage, while still accelerating his pace.

  Leaving the square and some empty streets behind him, he eventually arrived at Jaina’s apartment block and buzzed her number from the entrance below. He started worrying, wondering if they had kept her locked up, perhaps questioning her after he and Abel had disappeared from the city. Finally, her voice came from the speaker.

  “Hello? Who is there? Bek?” she asked.

  “Yes!” he replied as fast as he could. “I have returned. I was worried, and wondering if you were okay all this time.”

  “I am fine. Things have changed since you left with Abel. There was fighting in the square before the rogue takeover. Were you in the area when it happened?” she asked.

  “It’s better if we speak in private,” he told her, and she opened the main doors for him to come up. He hoped nothing had happened to her after they had left; he needed to explain to her the situation the city was in now. He arrived at her apartment and buzzed the door. She opened it with obvious worry on her face, but after he entered the apartment and she saw him in front of her, she cheered up, and rushed to hug him. “I’ve missed you…What happened after we left?” Bek asked her while holding her in his arms.

  Jaina said nothing, and went to sit on the couch next to the window overlooking the square. Smoke could be seen close to the tower and farther away as well, coming from the guards’ base. Bek went and sat next to her.

  “The guards arrived after you left,” she said slowly. “People, when they leave the city, go to join the anti-AI group. There is nowhere else livable on this planet. They didn’t know you were taken. They thought you were missing from the city registry because you joined them willingly. They asked me over and over again if I was he
lping them in any way, or if I knew what help you provided the AI opposition. I didn’t have any answers to give them besides the truth—that I didn’t help anyone outside the city. Then they revoked my position in the agricultural center, and they released me from questioning,” she said, looking directly at Bek.

  “Jaina,” he said in a serious tone. “The rogues who took over the city—they don’t have any communication with the AI back on Earth. They wanted to take over the city so they can return to Earth. I don’t know if we will get water for some time, or ever again.”

  Jaina was puzzled by this news, realizing that their city on Cennan was in for some hard times. “How could they manage to return to Earth? They can’t…The people here are now used to the idea that this is their home, and that they work to send energy on cargo shuttles back to Earth in order to survive.”

  “Not everyone considers this planet their home, Jaina,” Bek explained to her. “They don’t have a clear plan, or maybe they didn’t tell us enough. Considering that humanity lost the war against the AI back on Earth, I think they might have a problem accepting reality, and maybe they want to believe in something that isn’t possible,” Bek said slowly. “Maybe I should go to the guards and help them reclaim the city from the rogues…Give them any information I have on the opposition forces.” Jaina was troubled, hearing all this.