AZU-1: Lifehack

by Joseph Picard

  Regan dropped her P90 and ran madly to Alisia. They threw their arms around each other, Regan ecstatic, Alisia confused, until she looked over to the tightpulse. The toy was shattered from Regan’s shot, the steel ball missing, having rolled away.

  “He’s gone! He’s dead and he’s gone!” Regan said, still giggling with adrenaline. Without the tightpuse being triggered repeatedly by Erebus, missiles were now impacting various parts of the city.

  Alisia gently pushed Regan away. “He’s asleep.” She walked the few steps over to the remains of the toy and the tightpulse control panel. She knelt down and bashed off Erebus’ attachment with the butt of her rifle, exposing the manual trigger. Keeping a hand on it, she reached over to the reset button in the broken toy. Hitting the reset, the dragon’s body began to twitch to life. Regan ran for her P90. “What the hell are you d-“

  Alisia fired the tightpulse, with its short, deep blast. The rising dragon pieces fell again, this time with a faint smoke rising from it, and from the gore trench. With a momentary lapse in the bombing sounds, nanites and servers all over Meston fried.

  “Now he’s gone. Now he’s dead.”

  Alisia relaxed and sat against the side of the tightpulse, holding an arm out to Regan. Regan flew to her side, and held Alisia as tight as she could. Regan was a fountain of emotions. Thrill of victory, remembrance of her brother, the joy of having Alisia. Her giggles melted into tears. Alisia was profoundly tired, and just squeezed Regan back for a moment. She then turned on her comm and Vtag. “Okay boys, enough with the bombing. It’s over. Kris, come get us.” Confirmations came back and the bombing ceased. They waited silently in the surrounding quiet, which had gone from eerie to peaceful. They held each other.

  “How about we go home?”

  ~~~~~

  Chapter 65: Ashes and Sand

  ~~~~~

  It had rained in the Yute desert since the second fall of Autar.

  The ruins had been charred dust for some time, but the rain had caked the ash in most places. Their boots disturbed the surface, occasionally kicking up a little ash that was sucked away by the wind, down the streets to find the horizon.

  Alisia followed a few paces behind Regan, who wandered around trying to see the city that had been her home for so long. The streets were easy to make out, although wreckage blocked them in several places. Walking more than a block meant getting your hands dirty, climbing over some barricade of toppled, burnt buildings.

  They made it to an intersection and Regan stood on the hood of a burnt out car. She gazed down one direction, then another. Alisia looked up at her and wondered if Regan was remembering the Autar before the first fall, full of people, or was it the fallen Autar, the one she had to herself for so long? Maybe she was just trying to see a memory of her brother.

  Alisia sat on the hood of the car and latched onto Regan’s calf lazily, sympathetically. Regan looked down and put her hand on Alisia’s head, her somber expression gently melting into a smile. “Alright. I’m done here. We can leave this behind.”

  A little over a month later, the AZU-1 airlimb set down on a familiar sandy shore, this time next to a civilian class aircraft parked not too far from a large, newly built beach house connected to a large new pier.

  “Coming?” Parker asked Kris, who was making herself comfortable in the ops room of the airlimb.

  Kris casually looked at him with a wry smile, and politely declined. “Nah, I’ll wait.”

  Parker paused, but decided not to fight it. “Kay.” He hopped out of the airlimb bay door and started walking towards the house. After four steps, he stopped and decided his boots weren’t needed for this mission. He plunked down, and took his boots and socks off, tossing them back into the airlimb before continuing barefoot in the sand. He neared the pier and looked down it. He saw a figure sitting at the end that he barely recognized. She looked so civilian that if it weren’t for her unmistakable red hair, he might have thought her to be a stranger. He walked down the pier to greet her.

  Alisia didn’t stand, but turned around with a smile, her hands sorting out a tackle kit. A fishing rod sat nearby. “Parker! Hey kiddo! They let you out!”

  Parker chuckled, “Yeah, I’m going back on duty soon. Not sure where, or doing what though. We managed to work a detour in to say hi.” He smirked, and glanced out across the sea. “Retirement seems to be treating you pretty well, Major.” He sat next to her on the pier.

  “Pretty damn nice, actually. And make it ‘Alisia’. No Majors here anymore. Kris here?”

  “She stayed in the ‘limb. She’s... still got issues with Regan I think, I dunno.”

  Alisia rolled her eyes in the relief that she didn’t have to deal with it. “So, uh, you and her....?”

  “Yeah. We’re gonna give it a try, anyway. It’s been a bit more... normal between us since I got zapped.”

  “Er, sorry again ‘bout that... “

  “Pfft. No biggie. It was that or watch Erebus use me like a meat puppet to kill you, so, hey! Worked out OK. I guess Regan’s broke now, huh? That house over there sure went up fast, and the new plane...”

  “Oh lord no. She’s friggin loaded. I thought she just took wads of cash out of Autar. It was all these stocks and bonds and stuff!”

  “Oh I get it now!” Parker joked, “You’re all about the bling bling! Some girly comes along with a couple zillion bucks, and suddenly you’re all ‘oh, yes, I’m a lesbian!’”

  Alisia rolled her eyes and slapped Parker’s arm. “Gimmie a break.”

  “Yeah, yeah, the Major has a sugar momma, wait till I tell everyone.” Parker smiled, and looked around. “You’re so relaxed. Nice to see.”

  “Nice to feel, too. I highly recommend it. Hey, if you and Kris get serious, maybe you two should buy a tropical island and retire.”

  “Hmm, yeah, sounds good. I’d have to loot a zombie-ridden city for a few years though.”

  “Ah, right.” Alisia patted Parker on the back, and went back to her bait kit. “Staying for lunch?”

  Parker took a sigh, and stood. “No time, really. Next time maybe. Well, I guess this is goodbye, Major.” He stared out across the sea.

  “Nah.” Alisia said, “Just so long.”

  TO: General Herbert Westmore

  FROM: Ret. Major Alisia Terone

  RE: future threats

  General Westmore,

  I realize the need to show confidence to the public now, and the victory over Coll/Erebus helps affirm public confidence, but I wanted to assert to you that this is not the time for relaxing about nanite threats.

  The Erebus A.I. was not defeated by our readiness, because we had very little in place for this kind of threat. Erebus was defeated by his own mix of overconfidence and the fact that victory was not his primary objective. He was trying to have fun. I could list a dozen examples where he chose to have fun or show off, when tactically he could have made much better decisions. Coll was not a dumb person, and his A.I. self, as far as we know, was just as smart.

  Despite such presumed genius, Ms. Grier and I were permitted to find the Tightpulse Generator. Instead of being simply shot, we faced an elaborate, impressive, but ultimately ineffective opponent. I can see no other reason for this tactical lapse on the part of Erebus, other than his wanting to have fun with us.

  As grateful as I am to have survived, it scares me terribly that he could have easily won if he really wanted to, and had prepared appropriately.

  Jonathan Coll may have been the first to use nanites in such a horrific way, but it would be shortsighted to assume he will be the last. Nanites have reached a level of effectiveness that can’t be un-invented. I don’t know how we should prepare for a dedicated nanite threat.

  I would hate to see a day of immunizing people with anti-nanite nanites, keeping ahead of hostile technologies with regular updates, but even if such a measure would be effective in preventing future zombies, that is only one way that nanites could be used to catastrophic effect.

  I don�
��t know what should be done. Right now we are woefully unprepared. Some great minds played vital roles in defeating Erebus. Please find more such minds. Encourage and support them, while making sure none of them would become another Erebus. General, I am scared.

  Major (ret) Alisia Terone