Flee or Kill: The Future Of Reality TV (Future Forward Book 2)

by D. Frank Green

  The danger here people is the second man in on Jaspers end will figure this out and realize he's not being hit by continuous fire. If he does and doesn't switch to return fire to Jaspers but stays on his original straight-across target, I want our second man in, that's you George, to start popping and ducking. If you take damage or continuous fire, you are to go to duck and fire with alternate targets. By the time they figure this out, we should be one man up.

  Listen up people, as soon as George and the Sergeant take their man, I'll give the command 'Right target now' and you'll all switch one man to your right, which is the one directly opposite you. That protects Jaspers and gives him a one-on-one and also provides George and the Sergeant a brand new target to go two-on-one.

  When we confirm the kill, hold your targets but George and Sergeant Price will join the man to the right and go three-on-one. We roll them up people.

  Remember, if two of them target you somehow, use the duck and pop system like Jaspers. Do not allow yourself to become targeted by two weapons. I don't want to lose any of you on this.

  And gentlemen, we really don't have server assistance here; we seem to be on our own. No idea why but that's our hand.

  Engage at my command or when fired upon."

  Team Two, locked out of the communications systems, had not heard or seen the battle plan. Their future was up to themselves.

  More than one person held his breath.

  13/06//2167 07:10:30

  The Secretary stormed into the Lieutenant's offices to see the men, feet up on the desks, absorbed in the broadcast, walls scrawled on, furniture in disarray, and screamed, "Get back to work! I want this stopped now!"

  "Sir. Have you checked your input feeds, programming consoles or command screens? Can you make any input? There isn't a working command system anywhere. All we have are normal population feeds that allow us to choose our channels and talk to each other. But we can't talk to the Chase teams. We're locked out of the servers, Sir. Your option is to turn the entire city off, make it go dark or see what happens with this fight.

  Those are the only options we came up with, Sir." he added after a pause and gestured to a wall file with scrawled graphics, text and computer code and one word circled round and round, "Fokked!"

  As an afterthought he added, "Sir, if the servers are locked down, my guess is the power supply is also locked up tighter than a..." He paused to think about what he was about to say and decided not to push his luck in case the Captain lost this firefight. "Well, Sir, tighter than anything we've ever seen before. If we can't crack our own systems, I rather doubt we'll crack critical power controls at the command level."

  "Sir, it's up to the Chase Team Leader and the Captain now."

  The Secretary, stunned, watched the fight as it unfolded on the monitors.

  13/06//2167 07:11:00

  The doppelanger asked, "Should we let them work it out themselves. Or do we intervene?"

  "We let it play out. If the Captain loses a man, I may cut or reduce chip control on a few of the Chase Team to weaken their aim and allow the Captain to even the odds. But he has to be the one to win through if our plan is to work," said Jake

  "And he must not only win, he must be seen to win and he must think he's won by himself with his men. He can't depend on us to get out of trouble. But most importantly, the city must see him as a winner."

  Jake paused for a few seconds as a thought came to mind. He smiled and said, "We don't exist remember? We don't exist, but oh what adventures we'll have." And the two of them giggled like the little boys they felt like at the moment, little boys who peeped through a forbidden window.

  The Creative Module was pleased with this exchange, Jake had learned a great deal through his association with the doppelganger and this promised a interesting future.

  And it had learned even more than the two of them in doing the programming and watching their progress. This was indeed a good experiment.

  13/06//2167 07:15:00

  On the opposing hillock, the Chase Team Leader spoke to his troops, "Your views as you reported them are likely what the Captain's team is seeing. Our problem is the server-control issue, I'm not getting updates and I haven't heard a word from the Secretary. Not a damn word, so here's our plan. We engage them one-on-one as normal and we'll both wear down our power sources.

  If the Secretary doesn't get back to us in fifteen minutes, we disengage and run. That should leave us both at half-power and we have a small head start and a lead. By the time they figure out what's happened, we should be out of laser range. And we try for an ambush further along or when we get server control back. We delay as much as possible until the Secretary gets those servers fixed."

  "What about Sky-Sec's lasers, Sir," asked his Sergeant. "The Captain seems to control them."

  "Sergeant, if he controls them, we're fokked whether we stay here or run. Aren't we?" replied the Team Leader.

  "If you look at it like that, Sir, you're right," said the Sergeant, and with that the entire team bet their lives on the Secretary and his tech team.

  Any work still being done in the city went to hell-in-a-hand-basket from that point on. It wasn't only the Lieutenant's men who had their feet up on their desks as server access was down through the entire city.

  Taking a deep breath, the Team Leader ordered, "Engage at full," and eight laser bolts carved across the shallow valley to target the trooper opposite them.

  But return fire did not come from the man directly opposite but from a different direction. Without a command, the Chase team troopers automatically turned to return the firing directed at them. The Captain, engaged in his own fight stole a quick glance at Jaspers, bobbing and weaving like a drunken prizefighter at the end of the line, and had to smile in spite of himself. He hoped somebody would keep a video of that for replay later.

  The City sat stunned, this had never, ever happened before even in simulations. Troopers always engaged directly opposite them, anything else was unthinkable.

  The eyes-down satellite feeds showed a zigzag pattern of bolts and what was clearly an overmatch on the left flank. The intermittent fire on the Captains' right flank, with only one man on the Captain's team shooting at two of the Chase team members fascinated the city. Closeups of that fight were directed into the central pane by more viewers than any other. The pop-fire-and-drop technique was sure to be dissected by the talking heads of all channels tonight in the replays.

  Twelve seconds into the firefight, the trooper targeted by George and the Sergeant exploded with, from the viewer's point of view, an excellent light show when the suit auxiliary power supply overloaded and went critical.

  At the explosion, the order, "Right target now!" was given, and the Captain's team switched tactics to begin firing at the trooper opposite them.

  This left George on the flank free. He joined the Sergeant and within the next 12 seconds, the second Chase trooper lit up the feeds.

  George and the Sergeant targeted an occupied Chase team member and split up to help two others in their squad. With the overload, the outcome was predictable. Two more of the Chase team died quickly and spectacularly.

  All the Chase Team 2 Leader could think was, We're totally and truly done here, as he glanced at his battle-feed status showing he had four troopers to the Captain's eight. Well and truly fokked. "Disengage, disengage, move to plan, move to plan, move it, people, and move it now. Full speed!" His only hope was to disengage successfully, get a bit of a jump and hope the Secretary came through.

  But the math is clear. When eight troopers attack four, and the four can't outrun a laser bolt, the eight will win every time.

  The Chase Team Leader's last words, broadcast to the city with his face centered in the feed, were a venomous, "Fok you, Mr. Secretary. Fok you!" and then he too went off air.

  13/06//2167 07:18:00

  Jake said, "Put it all back online now, except for Security server access." The doppelganger enabled the city communication systems and in a few seco
nds, people were talking to friends and the Nets filled quickly.

  Live shots showed the Captain's men as they examined every opponent for signs of life. The feed scorecard recorded each shake of the head. Biographies of all dead troopers, the entire chase team and those who died for the Captain, played on one channel. A second carried biographies of the survivors in increasing detail as the talking heads were given more and more data from the researchers.

  As server control and functions came back online, marketing monitors duly noted the Captain's team received the most attention with the Captain ahead of the rest by a very wide margin. The senior technician thought about what to do with the data, but given his boss was in shock and did not respond to requests, he relaxed and tuned back into the Captain's channel himself.

  13/06//2167 07:25:00

  The Captain stood on the top of his small rock knoll, pensive, as he reviewed the entire tactical situation. He had just beat an equal force with new tactics. Brilliant, he thought But he also knew he had killed a friend and as he thought about it, he paused and decided it was the Team Leader's fault. He had given him a chance, but the stupid fokker picked the wrong side. Wonder how many others will pick the wrong side? he thought. Because I'll shove a laser right up their asses if they do.

  Knowing he was being broadcast, the Captain said, "Hey, Mr. Secretary. I'm on my way back and I intend to write some stories with a different stylus." He brought his laser pistol into eye-feed range.

  With a flash of intuition he would later admire, he added, "I suspect there are a few people in the city who would also like to change things right about now. People who may think things aren't the way they'd like them or have been screwed over for too long by people who only want to get rich and sit on their fancy, fat asses. Anybody know any of these folks? Tell 'em I'm on my way home with a pile of help."

  And with that, he swiveled his eyes to include his troopers in the broadcast. They stood staring right into the camera with visors up, faces grim, weapons in hand and looking very, very dangerous. He went on, "People, we own seven of the biggest, baddest weapon systems and you don't want to mess with us. But if you want to join us, well we'd be pleased to have you help us set things right."

  He finished with, "It's our turn now to tell a story but this one finishes with a better system for us all. See you in a few hours and I'll look forward to your stories and what you do about them."

  The Captain looked directly towards the city and smiled, "And people, do not harm Secretary Carpenter of Homeland Security. I want him healthy when I get there and I'm very, very serious about this. Do what you like but do not hurt this very important man. Understand this! Carpenter is mine!"

  13/06//2167 07:35:00

  Secretary Carpenter was beside himself with fury and if he would but admit it, fear had also raised its ugly head. It would take the combined firepower of 20 light troopers all massed together to even dent one heavy suit. And there were seven of them headed his way and he knew nothing good would come with them.

  He stood, walked to the windows, his favorite deep-thinking spot without distraction from the ever-present monitors and said, "Troop, I want combinations of 25 troopers in groups around Security headquarters. That may slow those heavies down. Put eight of those groups at the corners and midpoint of each wall around the building and put them behind sandbags. I want the elevators stopped and delay teams on every stairwell. We can drain the batteries right out of those bastards before they get up here."

  What he hadn't realized was Jake had ordered him and his orders broadcast as soon as he faced away from the monitors. Jake thought it would be a perfect time to show the Secretary to the people as he marshaled his troops. Show them his thoughts and plans.

  "Troop, we also need to control the population. Remove all stun shots, go to full kill now. I do not want anybody to think they can help the Captain. At the first sign of resistance, go to maximum speed and power. I want control tonight, I want an example set.

  The entertainment district is a problem. There are too many people in the bars and the stupid, short-sighted management group overruled us more than once about the dangers of large concentrations of young people in one place. 'You make more money when they're all together,' was their argument, but they never listened to us when we said that place also made more trouble than the rest of the city put together.

  Kettle them up. Ring the district three lines deep, and if anybody so much as shows any resistance, you are authorized to use full force. This is take-off-the-velvet-glove time, let them see exactly what we have to use."

  "Yes, Sir, contain whenever necessary with full force, Sir," said the Troop commander, "And yes, Sir, I'll have my men beefed up on our building."

  The Secretary turned and stared at his face in central view pane with what was obviously instant reruns of the entire conversation in one side pane.

  "Lieutenant!" he screamed.

  That too was broadcast.

  13/06//2167 07:45:00

  "Are you sure you want to leave all those Security weapons active?" the doppelganger asked, as he interrupted Jake's thinking. "There could be a lot of deaths tonight if any of the troopers gets too excited."

  "No. Not sure at all. I have mixed feelings on it but here's the deal. We have to let them sort it out themselves as much as possible. If the history stories I’ve accessed are true, people have to take responsibility for both the good and the bad. Particularly when they take advantage of somebody else because they have the power to do so.

  But no. I don't know whether it's a good idea or not. A whole bunch of mommas will likely cry tonight," Jake said and paused to consider this. It felt like the right thing to do but it sure felt shitty doing it knowing people would die unnecessarily.

  "Let's deal with what we have and not with what we might have. At least for the moment." he added. Now, he thought, let's deal with the Captain.

  "Well done, Captain," he messaged. "You were quite innovative during the battle and didn't need my help at all. Your speech was nothing short of brilliant. However, may I suggest you find a way to protect all the city server systems? If the crowds help as you've requested, some servers may be ruined and this will hamper you as you take control. I assume you do intend to take control.

  The second suggestion is you get your asses in gear. A security lockdown and move to full-force response has been announced. It’s on your channels. So if you don't get here soon, you may not have much of a city to come home to and the Secretary will be deader than hung meat."

  The Captain only took a few seconds to review the city data and troop responses before he ordered, "Roll, not stroll people, full sensors, battle speed, we're going home," As they ran, he monitored the events in the city and smiled. This day might work out rather well.

  The city population hadn't heard or seen the private conversation but they did hear the Captain give his order. "Roll, not stroll people" went into full-meme status almost immediately.

  13/06//2167 20:05:00

  Deep in the entertainment area, a fight had broken out. This wasn't an unusual thing. Fights break out all the time when you put too many drinks into too many bored young men and crowd them together into a bar with women to impress. Every Security trooper was used to drunks and fights. Stun 'em and shove 'em into holding areas until they woke up to pay the fines and go back to work was the usual method. When armored, even the smallest trooper could handle the biggest, most violent drunk.

  But tonight would turn out much differently from any other night. The trooper weapons systems had been ordered to lethal status. Force veterans were not at all comfortable with this, knowing they would be in a contained twelve block area of the city that was likely full of ugly drunks. They also knew enough to stay away from fights tonight if at all possible. Any trooper could be brought down if enough people piled on and while this was not in the manuals, every veteran knew the truth of it.

  Unfortunately, there is a difference between having experience and knowing something to
be true, and not having any experience and being told it was possible.

  As they entered the bar in response to an alert, the junior partner said, "Look what we have here, three fights. These good old boys are wild tonight and the fines will sting wallets in the morning with all this damage. Hope they've got deep pockets or it's indentured time for a few."

  His more senior partner said, "Tonight, we back away. Let 'em go."

  Knowing the discussion was recorded and would be evaluated in any disciplinary hearings, Junior replied with official policy, "Laws are broken. Damages are done. Someone has to pay." And he turned to the nearest fight, weapon drawn.

  His partner also drew his weapon, but backed to the entrance, "I have your back," he said.

  As the trooper approached the fight, he didn’t notice two nearby fights had stopped, the combatants locked in place but frozen. He raised his weapon towards the fighter who seemed to be winning and pressed the fire-button. He expected the usual stunned response and instant drop, twitching helplessly, to the ground. Instead he watched as the weapon bored a one-inch hole cleanly through the arm, chest and out the other arm of his target. The target dropped, stone cold dead with spurting blood everywhere.

  The veteran heard his partner yell, "Fok!" and saw him driven to the ground to disappear under an avalanche of bodies with others moving towards him. Yelling for backup support, he fired on his own attackers and he watched, in one pane of his eye feed, as his partner repeatedly shot his attackers with minimum effect. For every dead body to fall off, two more live ones piled on. He saw his partner’s hand pinned, wrist shattered by a work book stomp and heard his screams as the mob produced knives and took him apart, quite literally, piece by piece.