novelraw Book 5 Chpater 52
Book 5 Chpater 52
Having something new to focus on always makes time go faster. The humans settle in quickly, and my plan works. They're comfortable around the AI, even hanging out with some of them in the Physical.
Daisy stays busy as well. She and I walk over to Silver’s every day, where she spends most of her time. She loves the schooling, working her butt off to catch up to kids older than her. She’s not incredibly comfortable around big groups though. I can’t imagine she had much experience with kids her age where she came from. Alice, thankfully, has a solution, another kid who tends to stick to herself, who only really comes out of her shell in small groups.
Maria.
The two of them become fast friends, able to talk with each other for hours. Daisy even brings her back to the Bastion sometimes to meet the rest of her village.
The enjoyable days can’t last forever though. Just after the next storm clears, while I’m relaxing with my family, Saccharine and Zenith request my attention and open a rift directly to Kismet.
“Yellowstone is moving.” They say.
I send out a yellow alert to the wider network. We’ve planned for this. Yellowstone is a 600 mile drive, we have a full 24 hours to prepare.
The network goes quiet and comes alive at the same time. Any AI not involved in the defense preparations go silent, giving the rest of us the full, undivided bandwidth of the network. Monary begins moving bodies both to the roof and to the anti-puck creation we have. S-21 kicks a few final preparations into overdrive and begins to install what they have created. Ray calls in his team and makes a few last minute requests to S-21. Lance and Robin both begin to collect the team of AI that will fight alongside the humans.
“What are we expected to deal with?” I ask.
“Nothing short of an army.” Kismet announces to the wider network. “Nearly a hundred people with as much gear as Yellowstone can muster. Explosives, artillery, heavily armored vehicles, and what the Rangers could only describe as something akin to an old world tank. The important part, however, is how many pucks they’ve manufactured. By our best guess, the number is in the hundreds, more than one per person.”
There’s only one thing I can think of to do with all those pucks.
“They know about our drone swarm. They’re our strongest tool. They’re going to counter them, aren’t they?” Just a couple flown in the air, or even stuck to balloons, could build a mesh impossible to get through.
“We believe they will do far more than that.” Kismet says. “Launching even a handful of them deep into the city could wreak havoc on any traditional defenses.”
“So what then? They try to disable everything and roll in?”
“We believe so. The army would be primarily to keep control after they’re in.”
“Ok.” I’m sure Ray considered this possibility. He’ll have a solution. “Why are they even doing this? They have to know that us taking over didn’t make the city weak, that we’re going to fight back, right?”
“I’m certain many of them do, and I’m certain many of the ones in power know as well. Their problem is that their current government came into power during the war, riding a wave of anti-AI sentiment. That kind of government requires an enemy, of which you’re the most recent. They cannot back down, not after their plans in Vegas failed. Cancelling the attack would cause those in power to look weak, and they fear that would lead to a coup.”
“Their entire army dying would lead to one too.”
“I sincerely hope so.” Kismet agrees.
“How do you see this going?” I ask.
“Far too many variables are playing towards far too many potential outcomes. That said, it is our belief you’re prepared for whatever comes irrespective of our flashes. Trust in your team.”
“I do, completely.” I turn my attention away from them and towards Ray. He can spare enough attention to answer a few questions. “What do we do about the pucks?”
“A few things. If your idea of an anti-air mesh comes true, we can attempt to take it down from outside the puck's effective range. We also have a single flak gun atop the tower. Once we have aerial supremacy, the fight is as good as over. In the case of launching pucks into the heart of the city, we don’t necessarily care about that. With all our defenses focused atop the tower, It’s a problem that can be solved after the army has been repelled.”
“And how do we do that? Do we have anything that can take out such a heavily armored vehicle?”
“Disable? Certainly. Destroy? Possibly. No matter how thick the armor is, humans are remarkably vulnerable to shockwaves. Our artillery installation and explosives dropped from drones should have no problem rendering it unable to continue fighting. The problem is doing so without it being able to fire first, which is unlikely. If they attempt a full frontal assault, the city will take hits.”
“Ok.” I’ll have to get everyone into the tunnels beneath the city. They’ll be safe there. It was always a possibility we planned for. “What are we doing about the artillery?”
“A three piece defense. Drone strikes if we can gain aerial superiority, counter artillery if not, and an active interception system until they are taken care of. It’s one of the systems I worked with Kismet to design. Our success rate on interception is expected to be nearly 80%. That’s the best I could manage to achieve with our limited time.”
“That’s perfect, thank you. What about smaller explosives? Will our cube survive?”
“Almost certainly not, but that’s expected. The hard drives containing those who are fighting in the field get the bulk of the armor. Their safety is almost assured, even if the core itself gets damaged.”
“Perfect.” Kismet may be a little disappointed if it breaks, but I can live with that. People over objects, always. “And are the people you trained ready?”
“They are. Given the threat of the risk of the pucks, they will fill our need for a rapid response team inside the city, just in case every other line of defense fails. Our AI ground forces will act as our front line.”
“If you need anything else, please let me know.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Everyone else is taking care of the defenses. As much as I want to help, there’s nothing for me to do, and more importantly, a job that only I can do. I need to make an announcement.
Monary is busy currently, so I don’t bother informing them and move a collection of bodies to the streets myself. Once they’re in position, I take control of the speakers and screens throughout the city.
“Hello, everyone. I have an unfortunate announcement. I do want to stress, however, that nobody is in danger for the next 24 hours. I’ve been informed that Yellowstone has just dispatched a small army headed here. They are expected to arrive 24 hours from now. It’s not a large enough force to overcome the defenses we have put in place, however, the risk of damage to the city is high. Beneath the city run a series of tunnels, and the people of this city will be evacuated into said tunnels for the course of the fight. You will be safe down there, no matter what happens on the surface. I won’t lie, things will be cramped down there. It will not be a pleasant experience, but it is needed to keep you safe. When the evacuation starts, bring only what you need, and I will replace anything damaged or lost. Many of my bodies are currently preparing for the fight, but I have spread as many as possible around. If you have questions, please, come find me as always.”
People are understandably concerned, and questions flood in. Lines entire blocks long form, just waiting for any form of reassurance. I’m just glad I warned Joseph already that this was coming, and can just point his villagers towards him for answers.
“How many bodies can we spare?” I call desperately into the network.
Monary wordlessly hands over a few and calls in a few of the civilian AI for help, directing them on what they need to do.
I get the extra bodies onto the streets, although it does little to reduce the lines. I need more.
“S-21, if you have extra space in the manufacturing plant, can you attach some microphones and speakers to the drones?”
I get back a humph in response. That’s fair, the defense of the city comes first. If I had more processing power, I could speak to two humans at once with each body. They don’t like it when I do that, it’s rude apparently, but it’s needed right now. The only problem is that most of the server room is currently being used to coordinate the defense. I need more, and begin to cull everything not needed. I stop paying attention to the preparations, trusting in everyone else. I even give my family a warning before turning my attention away from them completely, just to conserve a little processing power.
It’s still not enough. I still need more, and there’s only one easy answer I can think of.
“Silver?” I drop a message onto their desktop. “I need to commandeer Hummingbird’s server room. I need the processing power.” It’s an invisible request, nobody will know I’m playing favorites.
“Granted.” They respond instantly, and the connection to the building opens up.
Hummingbird and Canary are both already prepared for my intrusion thankfully. Hummingbird looks pissed, but that’s not my problem. I take control of nearly everything, and it’s enough to allow multiple conversations on another few bodies. That’s enough to stretch me to my limits, dissecting two conversations from one body is exponentially more difficult than a single conversation. Even if I had more processing power, I don’t think my mind can handle more conversations. Without more bodies to reduce the processing power required per conversation, this is the best I can do.
Yet again all that matters are my citizen’s questions, and my answers. Time ceases to matter, marked only by the shortening lines in front of me. When the first line finally ends and I look around for the next person, I’m surprised to see the moon in the sky and the sun nowhere to be seen.
Ten hours flew by without my notice. All the while people worked just as hard as me. My mind hurts from the strain, but it’s fine. I can rest when everyone is safe. I bring the newly free body to elsewhere in the city and descend back into questions and answers.
Just a few moments later, near dawn, I’m interrupted by Monary.
“We need to start the evacuation now.” They say. “Make an announcement and I’ll maintain control.”
I don’t even respond. Thankfully I’ve been telling people to prepare this whole time, and some of them even seemed like they would listen. I apologize to everyone in front of my bodies and take a moment to myself, a single second to relax, before displaying myself on all the screens around the city.
“The fight will be beginning in six hours, please, begin making your way to the tunnels beneath the city. The entrances do require stairs, if that’s a problem, please come to the Bastion instead and take an elevator. On every screen I will be displaying the path to the nearest entrance, and I will be stationing a body at each one. Again, please, we have six hours. There is no reason to rush. Take your time and bring some food and water, but it’s going to be cramped. Please, leave your belongings home.”
My job doesn’t change. I just go from answering questions on the streets, to answering questions at the entrances and in the tunnels.
Despite my best efforts, I can do little to reduce people’s anxieties. And even worse is the fact that there are far more people hiding in their homes. We don’t have the people or bandwidth to go track down all of them. There is a solution though, and it requires an answer from Silver.
“I hope you haven’t evacuated yet. What scrapping gangs can be trusted to help evacuate people without hurting anyone?”
Silver sends back a list, and I forward an offer to all of them. Payment to spread the word and to convince people to evacuate without force. That’s the best I can do. Screw it, I add in a request to bring food and water into the tunnels, as well as a request to help keep order. I don’t like giving them that much power, but I can deal with the fallout afterwards. All that’s left is to lose track of time once again until the army from Yellowstone arrives.