by Satoshi Hase
“Apologize to her and let her slap you,” Yuka said. “You even said it yourself about Lacia—you don’t just care about looks, right?” As she spoke those words they passed by Yoyogi Station, and Arato could see the thickly clustered skyscrapers of Shinjuku ahead.
“I don’t really know how to feel about my little sister telling me these kinds of things,” Arato said, gurgling a reply around her strangling hands. Finally, Yuka’s death grip on his throat relaxed and she let him go. In a complete reversal from the way she had been holding tight to him earlier, she now barely rested her hands awkwardly on his back.
“Hey, hold on tight! You’re gonna get thrown off,” he called.
“Are we really just going to ride this bike all the way to where Lacia is?” Yuka asked.
“That’s a great idea!” Arato felt grateful for Yuka’s direction, which turned his vague thoughts into a clear goal. They entered Shinjuku and climbed up a hill. Pedaling hard, Arato propelled them forward, faster and faster. Suddenly, he felt the bike underneath him grow lighter.
He slammed on the brakes, causing the back tire to lift completely off the ground. Looking back, he saw that Yuka had jumped free of the moving bike. Her landing was unsteady, and she tottered for a few steps before regaining her balance.
“What the hell are you doing!” he yelled.
“What the hell are you doing? Jumping off here seemed a lot safer than letting you take me to wherever you’re headed,” Yuka shot back.
“Sorry,” he said, realizing that it was long past the time he should have let her off. “And I’m sorry I haven’t really talked to you about what’s going on with me and Lacia. I kept thinking I’d talk to you eventually, and it just never happened.”
“Before Lacia came around, you always used to run errands for me and make me dinner,” Yuka said. “So, even if I don’t know what you’re actually doing, I know what you’re trying to do. Just promise you’ll tell me all about it when it’s over.”
“Okay,” he promised. Arato had family, someone connected to him. He hadn’t been spending that time alone. Hearing Yuka say that their time together meant something to her brought a smile to his lips.
Yuka sniffled a little, smiling even as tears shone in her eyes. “Listen, Arato,” she said. “If you weren’t a guy like this, things probably would have been really lonely for us,” she said. “We would have been super bored all the time.”
“I don’t get what you’re trying to say,” Arato said, confused.
“I’m saying I’m glad you’re such an idiot!” Yuka crowed.
Arato thought back to how things were before Lacia’s arrival, when it was just him and his little sister. Yuka was precious to him, irreplaceable. But still, she wasn’t enough. Arato couldn’t stand life without Lacia. Even the way things were then, even if things got even worse...
“I’m gonna bring Lacia home,” he said.
Even if she did turn out to be an ultra high-performance AI, that was what he wanted to do.
***
If one were to say that having an objective gave a person or place or thing ‘meaning’, then the battlefield near Mitaka was full of meaning: it was filled to overflowing with the will of Lacia-class Type-002, Snowdrop.
The Japanese army had surrounded Mitaka from the north and south with a single infantry regiment. Snowdrop, who sensed the army’s movements, had moved from the substation and taken up a position at Mitaka Station, which was well within her zone of control. The army was aware of her movements, as well as the fact that her control was continuing to spread toward Kichijoji. After gaining control of Mitaka Station, Snowdrop had filled an entire train with her little AI units and sent it to Kichijoji Station, where they had spread immediately.
The network controlled by her flower units was growing outward from the train lines. To check the spread of the flowers, the army had stopped the Chuo line for everywhere west of Shinjuku. They had also sealed off a 3 km area around the Chuo main line, with the Mitaka and Kichijoji stations at its heart.
It was an area completely surrounded by military bases and garrisons; Asaka, Nerima, Tachikawa, Omiya and Zama. Because of this fact, the army officers in the area were convinced that SESSAI’s prediction of 60% casualties, even if evacuation efforts were abandoned, was too pessimistic. Destroying just one AI mother unit with three rifle battalions with a total of 1,361 soldiers seemed too easy. They had no idea what kind of hell those soldiers would have to pass through to achieve the destruction of their target.
“Squad leader, please give the order to retreat!” a soldier yelled.
Each squad of the Japanese Army’s rifle units was made up of seven members. There was always one squad leader, one squad sub-leader, and three gunners with assault rifles. The final two members were one ATM soldier, who focused on destroying heavily armored targets, and a machine-gunner, who used a powerful, portable machine gun to lay down suppressing fire. It had been a machine-gunner who had called out for retreat.
“I can’t open fire like this!!” the soldier added.
Over ten flower-infested, rampaging hIE units were rushing in on their position. But between the soldiers and the attacking hIEs were groups of screaming civilians from Mitaka; people from the city, who had fled inside their homes and shops when the hIE first attacked, were now pouring out into the street and thinking the army was there to save them.
The leader of the squad, Sergeant Major Sato, called out orders while pointing the shaking muzzle of his gun at the zombie hIEs closing in on them. “Asakuraaa! Use rubber bullets! Focus on getting those civilians down first.”
Asakura, the veteran, who was the only one in the squad carrying rubber rounds, let out a crazed yell and fired a close-range, vertical spread into the crowd of civilians. The trained soldiers in the squad pleaded, their voices nearly sobs, with the chaotic rush of people.
“Get down! Get the hell down!!”
Five of the citizens they were supposed to be protecting took hits from Corporal Asakura’s rubber bullets and crumpled. Many others threw themselves down, reacting to the sudden gunshots.
The machine-gunner, who had only entered the unit two years ago, screamed and mowed down a swath of zombie hIEs with a volley from his gun. When it was over, he threw back his head and wailed to the skies. Among the acrid smoke from the machine-gun, the squad stood stunned. One of the citizens who had been too slow to take cover had been reduced to a bloody mess by machine gun rounds.
“Dammit! Dammit all to hell!”
Every squad out there had been told that there was a possibility the enemy could utilize human military tactics. But, the reality was far worse than any of them could imagine. The actual specifics of the danger they were facing was only given directly to the squad leaders immediately before the operation, for fear of any leakage.
All around, the air was full of the intermittent staccato beat of gunfire. There was no trace of the victory the soldiers had imagined—easily suppressing rampaging hIEs with their superior arms—in that hell. Civilians were being used as human shields everywhere, severely limiting the soldiers’ ability to fire. There were even reports of civilians being caught up in the onrush of hIEs, pierced by bullets, then forced by the machines to run.
It had already been two hours since Snowdrop had completely taken over Mitaka. A rocket had been used to destroy the rail overpass connecting Mitaka to the Kichijoji area, to halt the rapid transport of her AI units by train. With her use of the trains lost, Snowdrop vanished from Mitaka Station. The military was forced to enter the city to search for her. To their surprise, they found no dead bodies lying in the streets. It seemed the rampaging hIEs hadn’t actually killed any of the citizens.
Instead, the citizens who had dropped to avoid being shot looked at the soldiers who should have been their saviors in terror. People who had evacuated inside their homes opened their windows and stared out in fear as the soldiers passed by.
In the distance, someone could be heard crying for help. Then
, gunshots echoed high and loud in the sky over the city. There were those who came to the soldiers looking for rescue. But, at the same time, this allowed zombie machines to easily track the infantry placements and movements. None of the machines under Snowdrop’s control had harmed a citizen.
Squad leader Sato used a low voice to growl into the wireless comm device on his helmet. “That thing’s using the reactions of the citizens in place of sensors to track us! We need a plan.” The report was relayed from the squad leader’s unit to the platoon headquarters, and from there it was transmitted through an optical signal to a high-altitude aircraft that was monitoring the situation from above.
All of the tactics for the anti-Snowdrop offensive were being relayed from above using optical signals. Snowdrop’s petal-like child units were also in the sky, drifting on the wind; their inability to move on their own power was one of their main weaknesses. By flying higher than Snowdrop was able to blow her child units and using optical signals, the command center was able to avoid direct attacks.
As long as the high-altitude aircraft, belonging to the 1st Squadron at Tachikawa Base, was not taken down, the line of communication organizing the whole complex and delicate operation would not be broken. Of course, that only held true to the extent that the plans were not derailed by human error on the ground below.
The information gathered from across the battlefield was funneled back to the Military Intelligence, who were in charge of anti-AI tactics. More specifically it was given to their tactical AI SESSAI, which used the analysis to revise its plan.
“This situation is not outside the original prediction. There is not a problem,” Major General Karino told the others in the teleconference, from within the SESSAI silo. The fate of every unit currently pressing in on the Mitaka/Kichijoji area was being watched over and decided on that teleconference call between officers from each nearby military base.
Mitaka City was already completely under Snowdrop’s control. Her petal robots had covered every machine in the city, blooming into brilliant flowers, and mechanical ivy was climbing up every building. Small, insect-like units with flowers on their backs established unique antennae to create a tight-knit network for their mistress. The whole area was turning green, with the color deepening the closer one got to the center of the city.
It was a lifeless field of flowers with no need for humans. There was not a single person to be seen on the city streets. All the humans left in the area were hiding in little corners of the new, machine-controlled ecosystem. Anyone who showed their face on the streets would be attacked by Snowdrop-controlled hIEs or vehicles.
“This is exactly why it was predicted that our attack would fail if we prioritized evacuating the citizens,” Karino continued.
SESSAI had analyzed Snowdrop’s tactics.
A message came in that some of the officers in the teleconference wanted a message from SESSAI itself.
The operators gave the instructions, and SESSAI’s symbol appeared in the air of the operations room.
〈Snowdrop’s basic tactic is to use civilians as a shield between its hIEs and the soldiers, while her hIEs close the distance with rush attacks. It also makes use of surprise attacks from within homes in residential areas and from within manholes. The hIEs under its control have released their limiters, meaning any close-quarters combat with human targets will be an easy victory for the hIEs. By these tactics, it is possible to ascertain 5 distinct advantages to Snowdrop’s AI, and 2 distinct disadvantages,〉 SESSAI reported.
The reality of the conflict was a battle of the brains between two AIs; Snowdrop and SESSAI.
〈The following is a list of the advantages. First, the enemy is aware of the power of firearms. Second, the enemy is aware of methods for utilizing humans. Third, the enemy is aware that the number of its controlled hIEs exceeds the number of human soldiers, and the implications of these superior numbers. Fourth, the enemy has focused its tactics on closing the distance to its targets, a simple yet flexible plan. Fifth, and most important, Snowdrop’s attacks are focused more on obtaining firearms than actually killing soldiers.〉
Nothing in SESSAI’s list up to that point was particularly surprising to the group of seasoned soldiers who received the report.
〈Snowdrop is using weapons taken from soldiers to arm its controlled hIEs. Up to now, the tactical doctrine of its attacks has been simple infantry strategy; utilize superior numbers at an advantageous combat range. Going forward, Snowdrop will create a squad of fast, armed, high-performance hIEs,〉 SESSAI reported, then displayed the projected combat strength of this squad.
AASC Level 3 mass-market hIEs could, with their limiters off, reach an average land speed of 40 km/h. With superior durability and speed on their side, the hIE rifle unit could not be stopped by an equal number of human infantry. The probability that the cordon around Mitaka and Kichijoji would be breached was high.
“What do you think?” asked Lieutenant General Hara, who had been sitting in on the teleconference.
“Things are going according to the initial prediction,” Karino replied. “If the enemy hIEs form a front line of attack, we just have to stop them. There’s nothing to think about.”
It was SESSAI’s next report that showed its true abilities, and the reason the entire Japanese military was depending on this tactical AI.
〈I will now list Snowdrop’s disadvantages. First, there are no signs that Snowdrop’s hIEs have spoken to any humans. Second, there are no signs that the hIEs have attempted to create their own weapons. There are strategies that could have worked better than simple, physical attacks, such as slinging rubble at the soldiers. By analyzing these weaknesses, we are able to ascertain Snowdrop’s limits. Snowdrop is limited by the abilities of the machines it controls, and has little to no creative ability. Therefore, it is possible to predict that Snowdrop’s current movement pattern is a random search for more powerful tools to bring into its control.〉
As a tactical AI, SESSAI read the opponent’s trump card before they could put it in play.
〈Snowdrop is utilizing high-speed units to focus on her basic strategy of forcing close-quarters combat. There is a high probability it will also use the vehicles remaining in Mitaka to construct a primitive armored unit. It should not be difficult to monitor the movements of such a unit by observing areas of cleared road from above, as Snowdrop cannot create treads for its vehicles and will be forced to rely on ordinary tires.〉
SESSAI then printed out a prediction of the armored squad’s formation and a calculation of its capabilities. Breath caught in the throats of each of the people who saw the displayed data. Snowdrop’s tactical prowess had leaped from the level of having zombies swinging their fists around at the experimental city to actual 20th century military strategy.
SESSAI’s display switched to an overhead view of the combat zone, showing the most likely routes Snowdrop’s armored division would take while she remained in hiding. Red lines ran up Kichijoji Street, Izumi Street and Nakamachi Street toward the south side of the old remains of Inokashira Onshi Park.
To Karino, as an executive of the Military Intelligence, the meaning behind those lines was clear. “As current director of the SESSAI silo, I propose that we make immediate contact with the Prime Minister and the Security Council. At this moment, I have judged that we are no longer capable of completing this mission ourselves,” he said.
SESSAI had stated that Snowdrop was currently seeking more powerful tools. The analysis seemed to be completely accurate, considering Snowdrop’s strategies up to that point.
Of course, it was still up to humans to make the actual decisions. Despite that, if the person who gave a place or object meaning could be thought of as the owner, it was becoming increasingly hard to tell if the humans were the real owners of that battlefield.
“Apparently, we’re heading for the worst of the predicted outcomes,” Karino added.
The Mitaka battlefield was all centered around not the civilians or the soldi
ers, but a single green-haired hIE girl. Far from controlling the situation, it would be better to say the humans had been dragged into it, and the soldiers on the ground had no idea how to bring things back under their control.
It was the high-altitude aircraft that first discovered the flower-covered hIEs bursting out of the flower field of the city. Equipped with weapons stolen from soldiers they had thrown down, the hIE infantry unit rushed the army’s defensive line.
Running at exactly 30 km/h, the high-speed squad was kept in perfect coherence. With an exact marching cadence that would have been impossible for a group of humans, two units made of one hundred machines each aimed to overwhelm the soldiers blocking their way to Inokashira Onshi Park.
The command handed down to the soldiers from headquarters was to defend that point with their lives. “What are we supposed to be protecting, here?” Shimamura, commander of the 15th Platoon of the 1st Infantry Regiment asked, narrowing his eyes at the wave of hIEs approaching Kichijoji Street from the north.
Both his 15th Platoon and the 13th Platoon had been ordered to stop the armed zombie hIEs from advancing. With the fight taking place so close to their home base of Nerima Garrison, their morale was running high. The soldiers from the 1st Infantry had fought harder and sacrificed more than any other unit there.
“No sign of any civilians! Live rounds, everyone! Don’t let those zombies get any closer!” Shimamura ordered.
Of the original thirty members of the platoon, five had been lost in the hour and a half since the fighting had begun. They were down to half of their equipped ammunition, which they could burn through in two minutes of heavy suppressive fire. When the order had come down to defend the point with their lives, a heavy mounted machine-gun the soldiers affectionately called a ‘tiger cub’ had been brought in without the benefit of vehicles to haul it. Even with the heavy machine gun, it was impossible to stop two separate armed groups of elite units that would never lose morale.
Reinforcements were running in from the surrounding areas to shore up the defenses, but humans with heavy armaments could never keep up with the tireless, superior hIEs.