Giant Robots? Say no more. I’m in. Chapter 16

Giant Robots? Say no more. I’m in. Chapter 16

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Wordcount: 2500

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Unfortunately, the transport didn’t have a large, pointy drill at the end. I guess that they figured out a better way to tunnel through in the week since I saw the model. Instead, it had some sort of sonic-drill that came out of emitters, broke down rocks, and shunted them off to the sides.

Honestly, it was disappointing.

What kind of underground transport doesn’t have a giant, pointy end?

I mean, I get it. It’s high-tech and basically swims through solid rock now, while being the size of a building. Without a doubt, it’s a machine that’s designed to give humanity a method to attack our enemies underground, while filling in the tunnel behind it to not give the enemy routes towards our own staging areas.

It would be cooler with a giant drill, though.

“Greetings, OS-549. I see that you’ve reconfigured your assault walker for the coming battle.” My operator for this mission was an AI that took over the communication screen. What used to just be an icon that would glow when speaking, the screen was now rendering a barely-clothed, blue female figure covered in code lines to keep decent. “Please, look over the list of support weapons that I have requisitioned and consider them for the battle.”

The subterranean transporter was already on the move. The lack of giant frontal drill allowed the chassis to carry more assets into battle.

One thing of note was a drone swarm.

My raised eyebrow at the swarm was enough for the AI to explain.

“I understand your concerns. You believe they may be able to co-opt the drones.” Generally speaking, you don’t fight against the automated, sentient machines with anything that can be hacked. However, from the smile on the AI’s face, I suspected that wouldn’t be a problem. “I am designed to capture a general of their people and break it down, OS-549. Rest assured, their usual arrays will have no effect on anything under my control.”

I was tempted to argue, but I decided to just shrug and nod, before moving onto the rest of the list.

The specialized e-war smoke dispensers were present, along with some arrays of micro-missiles for me to call in on specific targets, and those two were what I wanted the most. As long as I had those two things, everything else was gravy.

Would it suck if the micro-drones armed with thermite charges were suddenly against me?

Yeah, but that’s what point defenses are for.

And, I had a lot of that on the super-heavy configuration of Gray Corpse.

Barely below thirty tons, the mech was covered in ablative armor along with spacers. Then, atop that, I put explosive reactive armor. In terms of layers, it was ERA, ablative armor, space, and then the toughest armor I could get. In terms of effective armor thickness, I was nearing 0.7 meters, or 700mm, and it was in in composites and materials composed by a humanity with the material science necessary to build space elevators and orbital battlestations. Half of my mech was basically armor, which had all sorts of effects on the rest of the machine.

I had to choose between retaining the amount of boost that I had, or lowering it so that I could still boost in an instant with a larger amount of fuel expended. Since dodging was something that I found essential, I bit the bullet and lowered the amount of ‘stamina’ my mech had. While I had a lot of armor, not getting hit was still preferred.

The armor also covered up a lot of the regular sensor points on the mech, so I had to get some external augments wired up to compensate.  In tandem with that, the various mechanisms within the mech needed to be upgraded to accommodate the extra weight of the armor.

Basically, more armor meant needing a whole slew of changes to the whole machine, and more power draw from the reactor.

So, high-energy draw weapons were out of the question.

Therefore, while it’s really cool to fight killer robots with plasma weapons, I generally went with a lot of kinetics and explosives. The rampant robots were the best-armored of the trio of extinction-level events gunning for humanity. They were around the same tech level as the arcologies and their machines didn’t have to worry about things like human limits and life support systems. That meant more room for armor, vital systems more deeply embedded into their frames, and more power to spare.

Armor piercing and high-explosive anti-tank were the best options.

“According to my research, the weapons you’re about to employ against our current foes are considered ineffective. Generally, particle cannons and railguns are used.” The AI acting as my adjutant chimed in, and I gave a hum. That was right. Particle cannons and railguns were both great at overcoming the defenses the automated beasties had. Automatic railguns were fantastic and I loved seeing tungsten spikes zip through the air and burn up atmosphere in their passing. Particle cannons just looked cool as the sent out beams that made innumerable small holes throughout the enemy, destroying vital systems completely. “The weapons you are using have a low power draw, but the amount of ammunition you have is quite limited.”

I gave a hum in response at the AI’s words, debated going along with its charade, before just deciding to talk to it.

“I’m pretty sure you already have access to my records, so I think you’re trying to make some sort of relationship with me by buttering me up.” My accuracy records with my currently equipped weapons should be enough to assuage the AI. Therefore, it mentioning it was trying to get me to praise myself for it to agree. Obviously, it had an angle. 

“Hm. You are less egotistical than your profile suggests. And, more socially perceptive.”

“Sure.” I gave another shrug. No point in giving the thing more data points. It was probably cross-analyzing me against terabytes of information as we spoke. What else would it do with its massive brain while I took days or weeks to reply in its perspective? “How about we cut to the chase? What do you want and what can you offer me?”

“I see. The onus is entirely on myself. Perfect. OS-549, I offer you the chance to become my preferred pilot. You fight with my support in select missions, and I will assist you in your aims to become ever-stronger.”

So, I get dangerous missions that require a super-advanced AI purpose-built to handle the rabid artificial intelligences out to kill human missions, and I get its support as such an AI.

“Alright, I’ll take it. Help me out, and I’ll help you.” I gave the AI a thumb’s up, and for a moment the digital construct in the screen smiled, before flickering away.

I thought that was that, but sensors suddenly came alive and it chimed back at me.

“Hold on. I’m detecting some sort of interceptor platforms coming our way. I will fight against them—

“How far are we from the deployment zone?”

“Five minutes.”

I started running the numbers in my head, recalling the operational timetable, but the AI beat me to it.

“If we deploy too soon, you’ll be confronting an entire enemy base before the initial salvo of missiles and artillery hits. In fact, you’ll be likely to be struck in the crossfire.”

It was right. My part of the operation took place after the artillery hit, when the secret battlestation locked down quantum communications, and before the main force arrived to destroy the massive gun.

But there was still a way.

“The battlestation is already up there and ready to deploy, right?”

“…You will only have seven minutes to destroy the target and return to the vessel for exfiltration, before the saturation attack hits the area.”

“They have a massive underground complex, right? I can hide out in there, kill everything that comes after me, and get out once the main force arrives. You can get away with the prisoner.” Mission parameters changing during the intro cutscene has always been a thing. Usually, the initial meeting going over the mission is just a framework to set up expectations. The enemy always has a say in our plans, and that came in the form of some sort of underground interceptor. “Sound good?”

The AI was silent for a while.

“I will support this new plan to the utmost of my ability. Do your utmost to live. Having an asset such as yourself at my disposal is imperative to my plans.”

Looks like my swift decision making got me into the AI’s good book.

“Focus fire on any emplacements and scatter as much E-Smoke as you can. Besides that, just get the net ready.” I cracked my knuckles, went through what little prep work I had left, and got ready. The transport was already turning upward and climbing fast up and out of the ground onto the surface. “This is going to be a bit tricky.”

“If by tricky, you mean lethal, I agree.”

Whoever programmed this AI sure had a great sense of humor.

…

Interlude: Edith: The Shackler

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The transport breached the surface, and OS-549 launched himself outward via the emergency ejection mechanism. Despite being in a massive, thirty-ton machine, he accelerated to two hundred kilometers an hour in just a few seconds, and burst out of the armored escape shell into multiple lines of fire.

With my processing ability, I was able to destroy forty percent of the weapons that swiveled to attack him. Another forty percent had their vision blocked by E-War smoke. The remaining twenty percent that fired upon him with plasma-based bolts struck his armor… and lowered its effectiveness by less than half-a-percentage point.

He responded with his own weapons.

The infantry units were dispatched by point defense fire from multiple points all over the machine. The weapon system was recently provided by a mega-corporation of one of his classmates. It spat large munitions with explosive warheads at enemies and was supplemented by ballistic point defenses. 201 infantry units were destroyed along with their various small-arms.

With his arm-based weapons, he focused on armored targets. The semi-automatic cannons utilized 120mm shells. In the right arm, the box magazine was filled with armor-piercing shells. The left had high-explosive anti-tank. He aimed them independently of one another, and with singular, precise shots, destroyed targets. Light Armored Vehicles armored with anti-tank missiles and particle cannons received high explosive, sending them flying away as burning wreckages. Large tanks with railguns trundling to get a lock through electronic warfare and chaff received a high-density SABOT dart right where their turret and chassis met, skewering reactors in an instant.

His point-defense weapons and auxiliary weapons spat out a stream of bullets at lesser enemies, their accuracy rate falling within averages expected of a skilled pilot.

OS-549’s shots with his handheld weapons, meanwhile, were at a 100%.

In approximately one minute, twenty railgun MBTs, eighty LAVs, and 394 infantry units were destroyed.

Five percent of his effective armor was gone.

This mission would be mathematically impossible to fail, if not for the underground interceptors that forced us to rise early.

“Target status?”

“Approaching.” I answered his query, and highlighted the target. No. Targets. “High-priority target is accompanied by two Assault Walker equivalents.”

“Saturate them with anything you left. Take the one on the right out.” He responded simply against the impossible odds that he was given. He ignited his boosters and readied his shoulder-mounted weapons. Missiles. He shot them forward towards the same target he gave me, but aimed his weapons on the leftmost foe… along with his entire mech. He had his hands on the explosive release for the extra armor plates. I realized what was happening as the merge became inevitable. “Activate the jammer!”

He referred to the secret device built for this purpose.

A device that may never work again after this moment.

Success hinged on him defeating three other Assault Walkers, which should be impossible.

The best course of action would be to not use the weapon. To keep it hidden, destroy the gun, and retreat before my existence is known.

To wait for another.

However, my creator’s words resounded throughout my being:

“If you doubt him: don’t.”

Such simple words, full of faith in this young man she barely knew for weeks, yet with those words I activated the culmination of half a decade of work. A weapon made for this singular instance, carefully created by my creator, along with myself. A trap to capture a rebelling artificial intellect for the first time in known history with me as the warden. All logical processes called for me to retreat and to leave, but I decided against it as per my creator’s commands.

The quantum jamming activated in an instant… and the salvo of missiles destroyed one of the Assault Walkers coming at OS-549.

It burst into a cloud of fragments as explosives shredded it in an instant.

Leaving the other two to lay fire upon him.

Streams of plasma bolts and particle fire slammed into his machine. Effective armor depleted swiftly as they merged. His machine was rocked and damage signals blared, while he fired upon the remaining extra Assault Walker. His shots hit, destroying sensors, and coring the enemy, destroying it… but the chassis of the enemy intellect remained completely functional, while he lost eighty percent of his effective armor.

He had one foe left, but it oustripped him in every way.

Even with increased speed, even with support, every fact around the scenario dictated that he would be destroyed by the rampant machine.

Then, suddenly, he activated his side-boosters, swerving hard to the right, and turned a passing merge into a crash with his target at the center.

Smoldering ablative plates covered in plasma and superheated particles was ejected off the frame, turning into makeshift explosive chaff that blew back the target’s Assault Walker form. Eight tons of armor sped forward, accelerated to hundreds of kilometers, and crashed into the target. The damage was largely superficial, it was too highly armored, but that was not the point.

The target activated frontal thrusters to brake, to avoid the attack, and made a critical error.

It gave OS-549 initiative.

Gray Corpse burst through the cloud of detached armor at full speed, after the target evaded the explosive armor removal. It’s reactor flared up, every booster was at maximum, every point-defense, auxiliary weapon, and main weapon was firing… with all the mech’s weight and speed concentrated on two, armored feet.

I registered OS-549’s pilot suit keeping him alive, cracking ribs in the process, and blood pouring from his ears and nostrils and eyes. He had gone supersonic, while setting off multiple explosives around his mech, and while turning and twisting his multi-ton machine in mere meters of space to kick his opponent’s Assault Walker torso with twenty tons of supersonic war machine.

Firing all his weapons at once was unnecessary.

Twenty tons of mass at supersonic speed was more than enough burst straight through the enemy’s core and force it out into the trap that was prepared.