by Isaac Hooke
“That is not what I meant,” the metal dragon said. “I am an entirely different entity. An offshoot, as it were.”
“An offshoot?” Rade said. “So what are you saying, you left the main Sentience behind on your homeworld?”
“Very good,” the Sentience said. “We are expanding across the stars, restoring the great Mahasattva empire, starting with your homeworld. But truly, since so many of those who compose my particular collective are human, it feels like we are returning home. Returning to the world we have dreamed of all these years, to enlighten our long lost brothers and sisters who have yet to experience nirvana. And to save you all from the profound loneliness of your existence.”
“So that’s what you call extinguishing all life on our planet?” Rade said. “Nirvana?”
“We are not extinguishing you,” the Sentience said. “But enlightening.”
“So you’re not here for revenge?” Rade said. “For what we did to your homeworld?”
“Not at all,” the Sentience said. “Revenge is an entirely too human notion. The human minds that have joined my collective have transcended beyond such petty desires. Peace is what we desire. Peace and unity.”
“If this is peace,” Rade said. “Then your diplomatic skills could use some work. By the way, why did you have to choose me as the source DNA for your clone soldiers? That kind of pisses me off.”
“We chose your DNA not out of spite, or irony,” the Sentience said. “We sifted through all the DNA available to us, and chose the collection that belonged not only to the most physically apt human, but a human with strong innate intelligence and leadership qualities. This is important, as the nano-machines mimic the brain tissue they replace, down to the cellular level. In any case, that DNA just so happened to belong to you. We also installed your memories—your discipline, your warrior training—into all of them.”
So Surus was right... I’ve essentially been fighting against myself all this time.
“These clones are only a means to an end, of course,” the metal dragon said. “Once humanity is conquered, we will deactivate most of them. We will assimilate the survivors of humanity to obtain proper biodiversity. Your species will join ours, and we will form an entirely new species. More human than the Mahasattva, but less human than your species alone.”
“Sounds like a blast,” Rade said. “But my species is going to pass on that, I think. But what I’m trying to figure out is, what do you want from me? Given that you’re answering all my questions and haven’t tried to destroy me yet?”
“Ah, my old friend,” the Sentience said. “Have you not realized it yet? As the source DNA for all of our main clones, you had access to all of our interfaces, all of our weapons. You could not be allowed to roam the planet unfettered.”
“So that’s the only reason you wanted me?” Rade said. “To prevent me from accessing your interfaces, as you call them?”
“There is another reason,” the Sentience admitted. “To refine our weapon.”
“What weapon?”
“Your clones,” the robot dinosaur answered. “Their minds are still incomplete, and missing large gaps. These gaps are distractions, and have caused some of the soldiers to question their existence, and even turn against us. While such turncoats are rare, there are still enough of them to be disturbing. We obtained an incomplete magnetic resonator dump of the atomic nuclei and electrons composing your brain during the clash your species have named the ‘Second Alien War,’ but by assimilating your mind entirely today, we can eliminate those memory gaps in the soldiers once and for all.”
“You really think that will help?” Rade said. “If you ask me, having more memories will only make my clones turn against you even more. Because you’re just making them more human. It almost makes me think I should agree to this... sacrificing myself to save humanity.”
“We will experiment on several test subjects, of course,” the robot said. “You will be the very first. If all goes well, we will place you in charge of leading the final attack against the remaining cities. You will be the general of my armies. The conqueror of Earth. Humanity’s greatest hero, become their greatest enemy.”
“As honored as I am, I’ll have to bow out,” Rade said. “I appreciate the gesture though.”
“There is no bowing out,” the Sentience said. “I give you two options. Surrender willingly. Remove yourself from that metal shell and present your body to my conversion beams.”
“And what’s the second option?” Rade asked.
“Do nothing,” the Sentience replied.
“Do nothing?” Rade said.
“Yes,” the robot said. “And I will rip you out of that shell and convert you by force.”
“Can I think about it?” Rade said.
“You have five seconds,” the Sentience told him.
Rade sighed. Five seconds to midnight.
The seconds ticked past. And then:
“Give me your answer,” the robot said.
“The answer is no,” Rade said.
“Then I will take you, old friend,” the Sentience said.
“I’m not your friend.” Rade fired his cobra directly into that glowing red eye.
The metal dinosaur reared backward in surprise, and its tail swept across the deck in a blur. Rade felt the impact an instant later as his cockpit reverberated badly, and he was sent flying backward across the white room. The lasers on the tail turret focused on his sprawled body, and he narrowly lifted his shield to block the beam.
Rade clambered to his feet and began jogging forward. The giant continued to fire, but Rade added in a zigzag motion, so that his shield wouldn’t take the brunt of the blows—those lasers were quickly wearing away the surface.
He fired his jumpjets, rising as he continued forward.
The neck attempted to club him out of the air.
Rade activated lateral thrusters and swerved to the side in an arc, dodging the blow, and landed on the back of the dinosaur. His shield protected him from the laser attack that followed.
He slid his cobra through the notch at the top of the shield and aimed at the tip of the tail. He fired, boring a hole through one of the eight muzzles that composed the turret, and quickly retracted the cobra before the enemy could fire back and disable his weapon.
He was too slow and the cobra took a hit.
“Hugo, damrep?” Rade said. Damage report.
“The cobra is still intact,” the mech’s AI said. “However, the focusing mirror was damaged slightly. The intensity of the beam has been reduced by half. Another hit like that and the weapon will be completely offline.”
Rade instinctively rolled to the side just as the tail unleashed another laser barrage, and the Sentience struck itself in the back.
“Good shot!” Rade taunted the being, though it was luck alone that he had moved when he did.
The rolling movement caused Rade to plunge off the flank of the giant dinosaur; when he hit the deck, he ducked underneath the massive body. He aimed his cobra up at the underbelly and released several shots.
That metal underside came crashing down on him, and he managed to get his shield up just in time, but it didn’t matter: Rade was completely pinned as the robot ground his mech between the deck and its underside, and he could do nothing to free himself.
Surus was probably not too comfortable in the passenger seat on the back of the mech—there was a limit to how much abuse the Artificial body could stand up to. Just as there was a limit to the punishment an ATLAS could take.
His cockpit moaned as the hull framework began to yield.
“Warning,” Hugo said. “Hull integrity nearing critical failure.”
Rade fired his lateral thrusters furiously in an attempt to extricate his body. He shoved against the heavy hull at the same time, and the servomotors in his arms strained loudly.
He managed to use his shield as a lever, with his body acting as the fulcrum, to extricate himself. His jumpjets continued to fire, sweeping him
free of the thing entirely. He landed several meters away.
The laser-tipped tail was already turning on him.
Rade swung his bent shield into place and began circling the robot at high speed. He zigzagged as he moved.
“Hugo, can we reprogram the Trench Coat to target the individual lasers on that turret?” Rade asked the AI of his mech.
“I believe so,” Hugo replied. “The shards of metal composing the countermeasures have tracking systems that are meant to target incoming missiles, so I can certainly piggyback upon those systems to fixate upon the turret instead. However, those shards are meant to detonate proximity fuses. They will not cause any damage to the lasers.”
“I don’t need them to cause damage,” Rade said. “I just need them to block their aim now and then!”
“It’s done,” Hugo said.
“Launch Trench Coat!” Rade said.
As the thirty-four pieces of metal spiraled outward from the nozzles at the waist of his mech, Rade dropped to one knee and lifted his cobra into the notch on the shield. He switched to the viewpoint of the scope as those shards clattered harmlessly into the enemy turret, momentarily blocking its aim; Rade fired twice in rapid succession and then retracted the cobra. The plan had worked—he had poked two holes in two different lasers, and the robot hadn’t been able to fire at Rade’s weapon in return while he had it exposed above the shield.
Rade continued to circle his opponent, and he unleashed the Trench Coat every time he was in a good position to fire. In that way, by attrition, he managed to chip away at the lasers on the tail, until he had bored holes into all of them. Some of those muzzles had belonged to particle beams, judging from the way their tips flared, but he took them all out nonetheless.
His shield was pretty beat up by then, with large circular bites taken out along the edges, and several areas close to failure in the middle. It also harbored crystallized humps on the surface where particle beams had struck.
But even without the lasers, the alien wasn’t defenseless. It started to swat at Rade with its head and legs, and stabbed its tail downward at him like an impaling device.
Rade took a blow to the side as the head plowed into him, and his cockpit caved slightly. He was swept across the room.
The robot leaped into the air, plunging down straight toward him.
Rade rolled away, and fired his jumpjets to put some distance between himself and the enemy.
But the tail swatted him, knocking him out of the air and sending him hurtling across the deck once more. He clambered to his feet and dodged the next air attack as the robot threw its massive body at him again.
He fired his cobra directly into the eye region, and at other parts of its body. He managed to take out both of the eyes so that they no longer glowed, but the giant continued to come at him. He fired at the hull, but caused only superficial damage going forward. He couldn’t stop the thing.
And then Rade had an idea.
He pulled up the location of the opening in the deck that led to the chamber below. He slowly made his way toward that spot, luring the enemy as it continued to engage him. Rade dodged, sometimes taking body-hurtling hits, his ATLAS becoming very dented in the process. The hull integrity warning flashed continuously on his HUD.
And then he finally reached the hole in the deck.
Rade stood in front of it, waiting for his enemy to make its next attack. It chose to plunge its head toward him.
Perfect.
Rade jetted aside at the last moment, and then switched his thrust vector so that he was coming down on the neck from above. He slammed into the robot, altering the trajectory of the head so that it plunged straight through the opening.
Rade landed and rammed his shield through the opening, squeezing it between the neck and the border of the hole. He twisted it ninety-degrees, so that the top and bottom sides jammed up against the rim. When the robot tried to dislodge its head by withdrawing it through the narrow slit that remained, Rade applied pressure on the shield, shrinking the gap and trapping the segmented neck.
The robot struggled, repeatedly stabbing its tail and the broken turret at him, and he dodged as much as he could. Rade’s mech took several hits, but he refused to let go. A shoulder servomotor failed on his left side. Another on his right. But he held on.
The attacking motions slowly subsided, becoming weaker like a dying animal, until the robot ceased all movements entirely.
“Surus?” Rade asked.
thirty-one
When the giant robot didn’t answer, Rade pressed: “Surus, if that’s you, say the agreed code words.”
“Alien bugs shall be squashed,” Surus, as the Sentience, said.
Rade slumped. Surus had taken over the nano-machines at the heart of the invasion. “Damn it. Took you long enough.” He slid his shield away from the neck and twisted it sideways, gently removing it from the opening.
The neck retracted until the robot head emerged.
“I left Ms. Bounty as soon as you first touched the robot,” Surus said. “But it was difficult finding the equivalent of the AI core.”
“Speaking of Ms. Bounty, how are you back there?” Rade asked. “We took quite a few blows.”
“My jumpsuit no longer has atmospheric integrity,” Surus’ Artificial host replied from the passenger seat. “And I have obtained damage to my right knee and most of my left arm, but I am otherwise functional. All of the particle beams missed me, thankfully.”
“So what’s the plan now?” Rade asked.
“I’ve calmed the nest,” the Sentience replied. “Your men will be able to leave the mothership unmolested. I’ve also begun recalling all alien units, including the nearby dodecahedral vessels, which are capable of docking with my own. When they have all arrived, I will plot a course for the sun. I have found a way to sabotage the engines of the mothership, so that the Mahasattva won’t be able to reverse course. Their self-healing mechanism will attempt to repair the damage of course, but won’t finish in time. I will wait until the last possible moment to enact this sabotage, of course, so you will be required to follow the mothership in the Argonaut, and must retrieve me when the vessel is an hour from the star’s corona.”
“An hour away?” Rade said. “That might be past the Argonaut’s point of no return, in terms of countering the gravitational pull.”
“It is just within, actually,” Surus said. “I’ve done all the necessary computations. In the interim, please feel free to return to the Argonaut at your earliest convenience.”
“Are you sure destroying them all is the best course of action?” Rade said. His lust for revenge was apparently sated, because though they had attacked his son, he didn’t feel that all of the aliens aboard deserved to die.
“What choice do we have?” Surus said. “If we free these Mahasattva, now that they have encountered me, they will develop the same anti-Phant technology you humans have. The Sentience will never be exposed to my possession again. They will return to Earth unopposed and finish what they started. The only other option is for me to remain in possession of the Sentience for all of eternity. That is not something that interests me.”
“But what about the remaining Sentience?” Rade said. “This one said it was an offshoot.”
“There is nothing we can do about that at the moment,” Surus said. “If we are lucky, this offshoot will not be able to communicate what happened here before it is engulfed by the sun, and I will still be able to possess the main Sentience, should it come to that.”
Rade sighed. “All right. Do what you have to do, then.” He stared down into the hole. “Have you dismissed the nano-machine liquid down there?”
“It’s gone,” Surus said.
Rade was about to leap through the opening when Surus spoke again:
“Oh, and before you go, tell Ms. Bounty to please access the MILNet and convince the fleets to cease all attacks against the mothership, if possible. Such assaults will only delay the time it takes me to bring this sh
ip to the sun.”
“I’ll get on it,” Ms. Bounty replied. “As soon as Rade brings me back into signal range. There’s a bit of interference at the moment, given that we are currently located near the center of an alien ship.”
RADE AND COMPANY returned to the hull of the mothership. Ms. Bounty contacted the human fleets, while Rade managed to get in touch with the Argonaut. The Marauder class ship was still safely deployed at its extended storage facility in high orbit, and Bax, the AI, agreed to disembark to pick them up. Rade also got in touch with Shaw and told her of the success. She decided to join him in orbit, along with the twins. Thankfully, her parents chose to remain on Earth.
Ms. Bounty got in touch with the human fleets once more, and got clearance for the Argonaut to approach without the fleet firing at them. The mothership’s ring system dissipated as the individual pods composing it vanished inside the alien vessel, clearing a path for the Argonaut.
When it arrived, Rade and the others shoved off from the mothership and jetted toward the mech hangar bay. Before docking, they abandoned their mechs and jetted the final distance in their jumpsuits. They set free the ATLAS units, and the mechs decelerated to prepare for atmospheric entry. The mechs would be returning to the military installation to help the Franco-Italians with the rebuilding. Rade wouldn’t really miss those mechs: in the Argonaut’s hangar bay, ten Hoplite units awaited.
After returning to his old ship, Rade dispatched a shuttle to pick up Shaw and the twins, and when she arrived the team waited in orbit until all of the alien troop pods had returned to the mothership from Earth, which took a few days.
When all of the Mahasattva had been recalled, the mothership set a course for the sun. Not all of those humans and robots who had been converted could fit into the troop ships, and some had to be left on Earth. Surus, as the Sentience, ordered those last vestiges of the enemy to report to police stations worldwide.
Mass arrests were made. Incarceration camps set up. The converted robots were destroyed immediately. As for the infected people, some powers, such as Sino-Korea, executed them alongside the robots, as they were no longer considered human. The more humanitarian nations, a group which surprisingly included the United Systems, kept the converted people incarcerated, with an eventual plan to return them to the Mahasattva homeworld. Surus believed that would be all right, since those who had fought on Earth were not aware of how the Sentience had fallen, and thus would not be able to develop anti-Phant technology. Surus intended to damage the mothership’s communication capabilities to ensure that a final message didn’t reach them before the vessel was destroyed.