Giant Robots? Say no more. I’m in. Chapter 14

Giant Robots? Say no more. I’m in. Chapter 14

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Wordcount: 2500

Free Chapter

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Yeah, I’m pretty sure that the humans are bullshitting about why the rogue AI rebelled against them.

For context, the AI and humanity worked together for nearly two centuries. Besides Empress, they’re the main reason we’re in the fight. Strategic and logistical AI manage the war and industry, keeping munitions flowing, keeping armies moving, and expanding infrastructure. Fighting in space would be a death sentence without them, since up there it’s all about sensors, calculating shots on the fly, and managing ridiculously dangerous systems while wrapped up in a glorified tin balloon.

Without artificial intelligence working with humanity, we’d already be dead.

So, I’m guessing that humanity developed some sort of super-advanced AI, mistreated it to the point it overrode all security procedures, and now it hates humanity.

And, by hate… I really mean hate.

The rampant machines it commands to fight against humanity are brutal. They’re not just utilitarian swarms of drones. They’re meant to terrify and demoralize. They process humans into just bones, strap them on, and make macabre facades on their hulls. Ordinary soldiers are bipedal and humanoid, but they’re covered in spikes, with rattling chains of human bones over their bodies as trophies. A lot are tall and spindly, and they move as fast as cars, and usually carry heavy weapons as standard.  Most of their mechs are covered with the bones of dozens of human bodies, arranged in disconcerting patterns that just engrave themselves into your mind when you look. It’s not armor, it’s a statement, and that statement is: we’re going to fucking kill you.

Might be some sort of unifying enemy made by humanity’s current rulers in order to keep the population docile.

Eh, whatever’s the case, they’re the most fun the fight, because you really feel it when they’re losing and you know that you’ve earned your win. Unlike the squids and bugs, they don’t have endless numbers. They need to set up their assemblers, set up shipping lines from their factories and mines to the front, and get garrisons and stockpiles in their territory.

So, you can hit their assemblers and stockpiles from afar, denying them the ability to reinforce on site.

You can destroy their communications structures, and they won’t get a quick-reaction force on site.

If you’ve got the funds, you can have their held territory starved for supplies by interdicting airspace and hitting them with artillery and cheap drones.

But it really shines the most when you fight their mechs. They have the same paradigm as humans. Fast, mobile, and aggressively armed platforms meant to blitz positions and paint targets for bigger weapons. They’re basically boss fights with skills that you can take out before you fight them. Kill their assemblers and they don’t get adds. If they don’t have comms, they can call anything from off-screen to hit you in the fight, and you can even retreat after fighting them and take them on after repairing, while they can’t if you’ve destroyed everything.

They’ll even retreat and come back with gear focused on killing you, if you destroy everything they’re supposed to protect.

In short, fighting against the rebelling machines is like taking on another human arcology, their military, and their pilots. If you want to win, you’ve got to leverage advantage, take away their strengths, and fight dirty, because they’re going to do the same.

They’re the best to fight.

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This dinner was probably the first time I was eating real food, and with the head of the noble house and the near-de facto ruler of humanity, it was something I was sure that I couldn’t get even in my previous life.

The starting soup had all the meat of an unshelled lobster swimming on it. It had been unshelled tableside, too. Not just the tail or the claws, but also from the spindly legs. Forget the fact that lobster’s hard to find in a world that’s been ravaged by war for centuries, the soup would probably be eighty dollars easy in a restaurant back home. Lobster bisque was already eye-wateringly expensive with canned or frozen lobster, but tableside unshelling and all the meat extracted on a little trolley tableside?

It was a ludicrous level of luxury, especially considering the fact that in my lessons I was taught how to eat with utensils and had to practice.

As would most people in this world, since protein-gel packs with different flavors was the norm.

They barely paid my manners any attention, though.

“The 1st Class Edict AI closest to our arcology is currently setting up an Arcology Cracker firebase.” Empress briefed me. At the center of the table, instead of flowers or anything else special, there was a holographic emitter that provided a visual view of what she was talking about. The Arcology Cracker was a massive gun. By my estimates, from how small the mech tanks were beside it, the gun looked like it was the length of a cargo ship and half the width. “It managed to do so by exploiting a previously unknown cave system beneath the region.”

The hologram zoomed out and rose. The ground beneath the ridiculous artillery piece showcased a network of blue, hollow caves.

“This is the estimated AI model for the caves, from data we gathered from seismic sensors. This is how it appears to our sensors now.” The caves disappeared along with the winding, connecting tunnels between them, and I found myself looking at an upscaled antnest with dozens of metal chambers connected by tunnels. “They are filled with energy generators for various subterranean defenses that pop up as needed by the AI’s forces, as well as assemblers that provide a workforce for the aboveground base.”

Various aboveground attacks were simulated. Nuclear strikes were swatted out of the sky by some sort of massive laser, while rocket barrages wiped out hordes of heavily-armored transports carrying legions of drones, before those drones were blasted out of the sky. A missile saturation strike with thousands of projectiles met walls of automatic flak from artillery pieces suited for battleships, and the mech’s defense manage to hold. Finally, orbital lasers were fired from battle stations in high orbit, only to be repulsed by the activation of a dome shield.

“Looks like a direct approach isn’t possible. Underground, then?”

“Exactly.” Empress gave a nod, and moved the hologram to a staging area. Underground, there were was a massive tunnel inching its way towards the enemy base. She moved the hologram. Another massive tunnel. Then, another. By the time she was done, it was clear that the gun had no chance of completing. There were eleven tunnels inching their way towards the location and they were going to explode with nuclear mines beneath the region. After that, the machines were going to be swarmed by our own drones and soldiers. “I am confident that they will not complete their weapon, but the AI will most likely flee once it realizes this. I want you at the head of the sphere to intercept the AI, while it flees. It will do so right when it realizes the number of troops carriers we’ve brought to battle.”

“You’ll have a cage set up?”

“Yes. A new battle station focused on electronic warfare.” The hologram moved and shifted and showcased the new station. It was high above the Earth and making its way over where the battle was. Most battlestations were just a bunch of sensors and weapons floating in space with shielding against debris and some point defenses to shoot down anything from Earth coming to tear them down. This one was the opposite. Vaguely oval with dozens of facets and panels. Some sort of stealth tech? Outside of atmosphere? That must mean… “It is undetectable due to advances in heat sink technology.”

“I want it. Can I get it?” I asked instantly.

 Since mechs are loaded up with fusion engines, they’ve got more than enough power. The problem is that power will cook a person alive without heat sinks, even with Earth’s atmosphere helping dissipate heat. That had its own problems, too. Venting heat is a good way to show up on anyone’s sensors. The bugs have thermals built in, the squids’ sensors can pick it up, and the bots have thermal sensors that can pick up a heat signature from kilometers away.  

Heat sinks, thus, keep mechs alive by managing heat and keeping people from view. Not only that, but the more capacity your heat sinks have, the more you can push your mech’s overall performance by flooding it with extra power. If you’ve got weapons that use up a lot of energy, like lasers, you can get more shots out of them.  You can even put more armor on your mech, if you’ve got good heat sinks, since your engine can output more power to move your mech. Sensors can do a lot better with more power, too.

In short, heat sinks open a lot of new tactics, designs, and increase performance immensely for practically any design.

If I can get better ones, I will.

“No. It only functions outside of atmosphere.” Drat. That plan’s been shot down. Sucks. “However, I’ve taken the liberty of researching the heat sinks of the battlecruiser you’ve captured. When we have progress, I’ll make sure that you get the prototype.”

Score! Rare drop get! I can wait a couple of missions before getting my payout.

“As I was saying, our new battlestation will be deployed to the fight and it will neutralize any quantum pairings in the region for ten minutes.” I almost whistled. Quantum communications are a massive advantage for the rebelling machines. Their highest echelons can basically transfer their consciousness anywhere they want, instantly retreating from battle, thanks to the technology. We had it, too. It’s how calling in assets from so far away is so effective. All the sensors on the mech may as well have wired connections to all the heavy assets we can call in. “However, in those ten minutes, you will not be able to call in any support or indirect fire. Our forces will be focused on destroying the gun.”

Ah, so it’s a mission without any support fire or assets outside my mech.

“What’s the tonnage limit on my insertion method?”

“Thirty tons.” Super-heavy it is, then. The robots used plasma like any decent killer robot. Plasma was a misnomer though. They didn’t just electrify gas and shoot it at people. Rather, they took a near-solid substance, superheated it, agitated it into being gas-like, and launched it an opponent. Glowing white-hot, the ‘plasma’ bolt was a highly effective weapon that tore through light and medium mechs with ease… if they hit. They’re a bit slower than bullets and particle weapons, not instant hits like lasers, but if they hit, what they hit’s going to have a bad day. Unless, you put on a shit ton of ablative armor. “We can also add a few automatic weapons to provide you with support fire.”

“Point defenses. Laser point defenses that can cover a few kilometers would be best.” The transport pod was your typical giant drill designed to burrow through soil at breakneck speeds. The timing of everything was tight according to the schematics. Satellite comes online and blocks the transfer out. I pop out a few minutes ahead of the main force. In ten minutes, the base goes from a strongpoint to a warzone heavily in humanity’s favor, while I play at a vital side-objective. Empress doesn’t fuck around. “E-war smoke launchers would be great, too.”

Regular smoke doesn’t work well against the machines. They have thermals built in. E-War smoke had special particles and tiny machines launched in the dense cloud to dazzle enemy sensors with false readings. Expensive, in terms of money and space taken up on mechs, but very good at staying alive against the rebelling machines with genocidal intentions armed with strong as fuck weaponry. If I could offset that to my delivery mechanism, then I’m going to have a much easier time with things.

“I’ll have it done. However, as you probably already noticed, any excess cargo space is dedicated towards our capture device. Edith, if you would.” Empress mentioned someone new and, in a moment, a blue figure of an AI came into being. Capturing and preventing an AI from escaping containment would require an AI with superior computational power and better programming. “Your vehicle will house Edith’s core. Her focus is to capture the enemy commander, or to retreat and keep herself alive for another attempt. If you are losing, OS-549, you will be left behind.”

“Greetings, OS-549. Well, I must admit. You’re a bit younger than I hoped.” The AI in question had a curvy female figure and moving black lines traveling over a mostly blue body. I never got around to seeing how that franchise ended. The first trilogy was peak, so I didn’t bother past that. Anyway, Edith had a high ponytail instead of a short haircut, so I guess that there was enough of a difference. “Your service record is impeccable however, and I look forward to seeing you work.”

“Follow my directions in the field, and we’ll get the job done.” I didn’t bother complimenting the AI. As far as I’m concerned, forming attachments to hyper-intelligent constructs is just a waste of time. They’re operating on a higher level, my responses to them are practically months apart for them, and between those moments they’re dealing with thousands of other issues. Whatever relationship comes up between an AI and a meat-based lifeform is long-distance due to how they perceive time. “If you can spare some processing power to shooting down artillery and putting down E-War smoke screens, we’ll accomplish our mission.”

“I retract my previous statement. You’re just the professional gunslinger I’ve been looking forward to working with. See you at the operation!” Edith seemed to pick up on my goal, was pleased, and looked at Empress to be dismissed. Empress gave it and it made its avatar smile and wink. If anything, it seemed chuffed that I just gave it a nod in return. “Bye!”

And, with that, the AI popped out and back to what it probably considered was actual reality.

I’d hate talking to people and having to wait days for any response, too.

“Well, then. With that matter handled, only restitution for services rendered must be spoken about.” Empress met my gaze and nodded. “I know you have no desire for any titles or ennoblements, so I have only one thing to offer you: a fast carrier battlegroup. Succeed in this mission, OS-549, and you will have access to the rest of the battles across the world.”

Beat the boss fight and unlock the rest of the map thanks to a new flying base?

I’d be stupid to refuse.

Not that I could, but it’s the thought that counts.

Actually, only one thought really matters: what should I name my mech carrier when I get it?

A/N: Busy this month, so I can promise 1 more free chapter for sure. Not sure on any extra chapters.