Trampship Wars 2

by L. D. Roberts

  “No surprise Mark. The recruits got their basic training as a cadet when they turned 18. The same basic training with a few eceptoins exceptions for those interested in becoming marines you had from the records I have access to. The cadets interested in becoming marines were given a lot of extra training as cadets and were are technically marines from then on but simple were are not officially signed up, due to lack of open billets in the company. Though they continue to train with the marines as Cadets. When a marine retires or drops into the reserve to pursue a different career which is the only reserves the ship has, there are dozens of applicants waiting to take their place already fully trained. I am sure you have watched the games and tests to select the new marine each time an empty billet is filled. In this way the ship technically has some 500 well trained marines and all most of them are in this warehouse. Then there are the Sim jockey’s that were grabbed at the last minute who are serving more as support troops, though they are doing the obstacle course as well. Not as fit as the regular marines they are basically being given a boot camp version of training as we speak with several training Sargents amongst each of the squads. Though for some reason the Simm squads seem better at managing and using their bot buddies than the rest.”

  The platform drifted slowly down toward the middle of the shipping warehouse and the new Command post APCC. Mickey showing Mark that Captain Frank Sounders of the marines and his staff with several 3 retired Marine Captain ’s , were there with the officers out with their platoons. Each platoon (now the size of a company), contained two line squads, a heavy weapons squad and a support squad . E , ach squad was now the size of a platoon . W w ith the platoon lieutenant accompanied by his own bot running back and forth between his squads watching and offering comments and orders where needed.

  Looking around, Mark turned from the sight and found Captain Summers's mouth hanging open. She was looking around as they descended toward a new APCC camouflaged to look like the garbage around it. Domes and antennas were scattered down the length of the APCC with only one turret up front directly behind the driver but a turret at the back opposite corner of the cargo box with a small hatch next to it. Shaking his head. “Damn Mickey , that didn’t take long. That is one fancy looking Command APCC. Did all the bots and tanks get their new AI’s? I don’t see anyone working on bots or tanks.”

  “Yes Mark. All the bots and tanks have been upgraded as you ordered. The Sgt. Major finished the task in 20 minute though Captain Saunders was not happy with you pulling the troops from training to do it all at once. As for the Command APCC, it is the standard issue Command APCC with all the newest bells and whistles. The tech’s are still figuring out how to use them with the training programs supplied while the Company is running the obstacle course.”

  Captain Summers followed Mark off the platform and into the back of the Command APCC. Displays lined the sides manned by officers and noncoms to an open command area at the front of the APCC with a screen plotting table in the center and screens on the bulkheads. Captain Cook was on one of the side screens.

  Mark stopped in front of Captain Sounders and saluted. "Reporting with Captain Summers to inspect the troops Sir. They are looking pretty good Captain."

  "Bullshit." Said the Captain. "Another half hour and they may be tolerable in a drill yard. Then we do a few practice assaults across the entire warehouse complex and then they may be ready to attack a Cub Scout den. Putting those Starship and Fighter AI's in the bots made a damn big difference Commander but we still need to practice coordinating the whole company into a working well-oiled machine. Assaulting a building like our target for a couple of weeks before we will be ready for an actual assault. Especially now we are the size of a full brigade. "

  Mark’s hope of the English Captain not finding out about t he AI’s crashed and burned as the realization of what Captain Sounders had said sank in.

  "No!" Captain Summers exclaimed. "You are not attacking anyone with these!" Her eyes got big. "You put Starship and fighter AI's into these bots. Are you crazy? Those AI's cost more than the bots do. What the hell are you thinking?" " You are not attacking anyone with these!" Shaking her head. " What the hell are you thinking?”

  Mark looked at the Captain but needed to find out a few things first and hoped he could side track her . "Ok Captain. Ah. I take it you had to terminate another AI. Why and what has this one done?"

  "No! Unlike you; we did not have to terminate one of the other AI's Commander. We just isolated it until we could audit its memory and program bank and check it for viruses. Then a little reprograming and deleting corrupt programs and it was put back up again with the biological controller begging to be isolated from both the other remaining AI's. Especially the Financial AI you were about to face until you fucked up . ”

  “Ok .” Mark frowned. “What did the financial A . I . controller do that scares your other AI Controller so much ? ”

  Shaking her head. “ It seems that our financial AI was up to no good. Evidence from the rehabilitated Trade and Production AI and what we have deciphered from the core of the one you killed do not look good. The are that the Financial AI was originally from a Red Communist planet with the Controller a dedicated Communist from long before the Bug war. The AI Russian that hates free trade and was sold to us long before the Russian war started officially. Evidentially with the intention of screwing up our economy though we have not associated or found any connections of him with the Russians yet for the Russians . We are still trying figure out who authorized purchasing the AI and his controller. But then its been a thousand years since the last one was made and we did not have that many to pick from even though we have had a lot passing through headed in toward the Empires Core from the growing Outback . "

  "So far we have dug through the records and come up with a dozen planets that he had bankrupted over the last hundred years that we know about now. Several in the Russian State. On each planet, t T he AI controller financed Anarchists, hordes of lawyers and private armies that led riots against private wealth and big companies and free trade, devastating the planets economies forcing the populace to demand changes that always resulted in overthrowing the governments who did not have a clue what was happening. Just so he could force the establishment of a Communist government for everyone to live in Shangri-La. Even though our records now show that he cost each planet billions of lives during the revolution and in reeducation camps each time his Communis t m took over the Government of a planet."

  Shaking her head sadly. "During the war it looks like he cost us bullions of credits in questionable business transactions and money dumped into black hole programs and cost overruns, though amazingly, several of the equipment development black holes he invested huge amounts of credits in turned out to produce equipment that made big differences in the war. One of them being the Aircurtain now equipping most military ships.” Taking a breath. “ He never did anything very obvious with accusations to that effect dismissed as alarmist conspiracy theory kooks until it was staring us in the face on the Dead AI’s Core readouts. A preliminary analysis points to the possibility that if we had not found what he was doing now; the English State Empire would have gone bankrupt in another year without anyone having a clue why since everyone trusted the AI's to do their best jobs for the people." The Captain frowned. "This AI was trying to prevent us from finding this out when it killed the original audit team with it's limited self-defense weapons inside its cavern at the same time we were just starting to talk to the Trade and Production AI."

  "With the Financial AI located in the basement of the our biggest building that is our and financial center of the realm, we did not feel the need to give it too much defense weapons thank Godstar. So when the inspectors failed with a few sketchy to report s of what happened when they died back , they only sent in a company the first time with trooper bots to take out the defenses if he resisted. When they did not come back we sent in an entire Brigade reinforced with heavy weapons and heavy on the bots and only h
alf the men came back and none of the bots. It turns out the bots have been taken over by the AI and used to kill our troops. But we or should I say the local authorities sent in more bots and troops only to lose them as well.”

  Shaking her head in disgust. “ We now have a full division surrounding it with no bots and every floor from the subbasement up to the 10th floor evacuated. We would have evacuated the whole damn building but the bots started interfering and killing anyone we tried to evacuate. Blowing up the upper sky bridges with the buildings defense torpedoes left over from the war, shooting down a transport even. Both packed with refugees evacuating. Killing tens of thousands. Then taking over the lower train depot and blockading the lower Sky bridges and subways."

  "I finely arrived and had to just insist the City Reserve Guard General send in the troops without bots and I am afraid that our troops were not doing well when you stopped our last assault. The damn AI controlled bots moved and massed too fast. Our troops just could not respond or move fast enough to keep from taking it up the shorts every time we started making progress. ” Taking a deep breath. “ Our biggest The problem is that we can't bomb the damn thing because it is holding a quarter million people as hostage on the 500 upper floors. Now if you can get in there and shut it down that is fine but you are not going to do it with an army of bots." A sick smile crossed her face. "We already tried that."

  "Well now Captain. I noticed that problem and a few others when I told you to pull back and that is why I had the AI's added to the remote bots I decided to get, making them totally immune to hacking as well as independent. We also don’t have to have someone on the sidelines or back at a base or the ship dedicated to running each and every bot one of them . We just don't have the manpower." Mark shook his head sadly. "I counted some hundred dead and 300 wounded with the AI about to cut off and slaughter your assault company that had made it to the building's upper basement core and ready to descend to the subbasement. What I and the Captain Coo k and Sounders need to know is how many bots does the Finance AI have? How many did you send in?"

  "You were able to see all that while you talked to me for 15 seconds?" She looked at Mark's glasses with renewed respect for an instant before frowning. "Approximately a thousand bots before I put a stop to it. W w ith a couple hundred heavy weapons up to some 30mm cannons but most of them are 50 cal. machine guns and 40mm grenade launchers but no tanks thank Godstar. The few tanks that were attached had human commanders inside of them that were able to take back control before the AI. y could do too much damage with them ." Captain Summers looked at the screens showing the squads working their way around the obstacle course as the squads went from running the obstacles in loose attack formations to actually attacking the obstacle's. Turning to the marine Captain. "How are you planning on attacking the building Captain?"

  The Captain looked up from the Map screen of the A.I.'s Tower covering the table and smiled. "Simple Captain. We will use their own tactics against them. Put in an attack force of a couple of squads for them to cut off and when they mass to take them out. We will close the flanking forces around to hit them from the rear hard while pulling our attacking force out of the trap. Then doing it all over again from a different angle in a different way and then again and again. The whole time whittling the defending bots down until they can no longer martial a force large enough to resist our advance." Turning to face Mark. "You do not need to risk walking into that viper nest Commander. We can have the enemy bots neutralized in only a few hours and escort you in safely."

  Mark frowned. "Sorry Captain but I saw more weapons laying around than bodies and wounded. My bet is that the AI has quite a few hostages down in the basement that he plans on using in some fashion. If nothing more than to execute in front of the marines if they advance too far. No. Y y ou just keep him busy whittling his forces down and hope I can make it to his core before he gets too frustrated and starts using prisoners for shields or simple executing them if you don't withdraw leave him alone . That would make it almost impossible for me to sneak in unnoticed. But if you don’t get to aggressive and I don’t take too much time, I should be safe enough going in unarmed."

  "No Love!" The panicked voice in his head spit out almost too fast for Mark to understand. His mind taking a fraction of a second to replay and make sense out of the brief squeaks in his ears only he could hear. "You cannot do this Hun. That bastard AI will only see another frigging hostage to hurt even without weapons love. You ’re not an inspector love. Not your responsibility. Not need risk your life."

  Captain Cook spoke up from a screen off to one side. "I can’t let you do that Mark. Even if it does make sense. We will go with the Captain's plan and let Captain Summers deal with her hostages if that problem does come up."

  Mickey continued finely slowing down enough for Mark to understand her without having to replay the message in his mind. "I agree with Captain Cook and I apologize for my outburst Mark. I do not understand why I said those things. I do not understand why panic suddenly overwhelmed me though it seems to have originated from the damaged half of my processor. But you should follow the Captain's orders."

  Mark frowned as he looked over at Captain Cook. "But Captain Sir, we will probably lose marines in a general assault when I could end this by simple inserting a virus Mickey designed , into the AI's Core. All I have to do is walk in and find the AI’s core ."

  "It is getting there Commander that is the problem. If you are killed before you get to the core captured and imprisoned someplace away from the core or kill ed before you get to the core , it would be rather hard for you to SIMPLY insert a virus." Captain Cook stared sternly at Mark. "No, you will follow when it is safe Commander and that is an order."

  The Captain of Marines turned from his map and smiled as he put his hand on Marks shoulder. "Don't worry son. I don't plan on having any casualties besides your bots. After all that is why you insisted on getting them."

  Captain Summers spoke up. "Well , I am going to have a couple of additional manned tank companies added to the Division around the parameter that can take out the bots and tanks if they turncoat and I won't be worried if your men get in there way. I cannot have all this weaponry falling into that fools hands. He has to damn many heavy weapons already. "

  Captain Cook frowned. "Mickey; how sure are you that you and the AI's inside the bots are secure from being taken over by this AI?"

  Mickey walked in from where no one was looking. "The other AI tried it's best to do us in and did not prevail. This AI is not as old and slow but I have the advantage of several hundred s of AI's to help even if they are only Class 4's and 5's. Besides the bots taken over were taken because they were class 1’s and needed outside control assist to operate. These are not so handicapped and 99 .999 % autonomous with the brains to carry out sophisticated programs beyond simple orders given to them by their control controlling marines, even the intelligence to recognize and learn from mistakes as well as when to ignore orders. The idea is to limit the need for interacting through the coms to simple preprogrammed general commands that cannot be hacked with no access to the bots processors to begin with. The AI controlled Bots will be slaved to only the marine they are assigned to with only limited use of the tactical com net and no possibility that any AI including me could copy the marines bio printed voice without the bot knowing and ignoring the command . No; turncoat bots will not be a problem. That includes the tanks."

  "And what if that marine is killed? What happens to the Bot?" asked Captain Cook.

  Mickey frowned sorrowfully . "I am sorry but the Bot will have to be destroyed with the bot uselessly refusing all orders from anyone or anything else Captain. Including allowing access to the bot's interior for maintenance or reprogramming. Otherwise there is a possibility that the AI could use any secondary access to the bot to take it over. Each marine and bot will now be, or already are joined at the hip until they die. Though each Bot's AI can be transferred to a new body if the old is damaged or destroyed as long as the A
I crystal is not damaged and the marine is still alive. I could not create anything more sophisticated on such short notice Captain."

  Captain Summers could not believe what she was hearing and spoke up. "I don't give a frack for the bots or for your marines for that matter. If it looks like the AI is taking over the weapons I will obliterate your whole fucking Tramp marine company. Got that Captain."

  "You just make sure the Star Queen gets the lifeboats she needs Captain Summers as stated in the contract." Captain Cook said as she clenched her stogy between her teeth on the screen. "We will take care of your Criminal AI."

  "Both remaining AI's Captain Cook. The military operations AI on our 3rd moon is refusing to allow inspectors into his cavern at the center of the moon and he has the weapons to stop most assaults and is threatening to destroy what is left of the reserve fleet. We have isolated the AI it from fleet operations after we found out it or he tried to recall our home fleet with forged authorization documents and orders to bombard specific targets on England until the Government submitted to his rule and executed you and everyone on your ship . That is until it changed his mind and decided he wanted to keep Mark in cold storage hibernation but still wanted the Star Queen 52 destroyed and its crew slaughtered blaming the ship for the death of the AI Controller . ”

  Looking around the group until she was staring at Mark. “ Now but it is holding our reserve fleet as hostage. The Admiral is depending on you Mr. Collins Mark to take care of that AI without turning the moon into a junk yard. We need the ships and equipment stored on the moon to replace our resent losses in the French system and for operations against the growing pirate menace in the French arm system that we are taking heavy casualties in . T hat is until we can start producing new ships designed to battle pirates ."