Born of Silicon

Book 5 Chapter 53

I’m interrupted once again hours later. The tunnels beneath the city are far more packed than they were, I suppose the scrappers must have succeeded, I just hope they got most of the citizens down there.

Monary just points to one of the cameras. Just over the horizon, a small plume of dust can be seen. 

That’s them.

I need to get my family to the tower. I know they’ll be safer underground, but I need them next to me, just in case.

I turn my focus to my original body and… I see the open sky? And I feel wind on my skin and whipping through my hair. I glance around and see the roof of the Bastion. A large number of bodies are perched at the edge, two deep, each holding a large, simple rifle. On either side of them are two large artillery encampments, alongside two smaller guns each. In the center is a large mounted gun with two barrels, our flak gun I think.

On my shoulder sits Corax, a cord running from him to my wrist. Everyone else is here with me, Cassie, Ivy, Vince, Lucas, and his entire group.

“Ok, I didn’t realize I was so easy to kidnap.” I say.

“Busy.” Corax pecks my cheek gently.

“Yeah.” I would have noticed in any other scenario. I just felt safe leaving myself with everyone. “Thanks for taking care of moving me.”

“What the fuck?” Cassie yells. “I thought you asked?”

“Scout.” Corax pulls out the wire connecting us and takes to the sky.

“Watch for pucks!” I call out both aloud and through the network. “Please be safe!”

“How’s the city going?” Vince asks suddenly.

I can only shrug. I’ve done everything I can, everyone has. I don’t want to take stock.

“We did our part.” Ivy reassures me. “We got a lot of people into the tunnels.”

“Thank you. I couldn’t pay attention to anything but questions.” I wonder what shape my mind is in right now? It certainly hurts. I’m afraid to look though, I can recover when everyone is safe. I just need to make an announcement.

I connect to the mouths and speakers of every single body, regardless of where they are. I don’t have the mental capacity to check which ones are actually in range of my citizens.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot answer any more questions until the fight has finished. Please understand, we are working as hard as we possibly can. Until the fight is over, please, remain calm. You are safe, and will remain that way. I’ve asked some scrapping groups to help maintain order. Everything down there is being recorded, be kind to each other.”

I close my eyes and wait, doing nothing, thinking about nothing.

“You want to sit down?” Cassie asks.

I nod, and hands gently guide me towards the ground.

“Don’t you have assistants?” She’s angry. That’s fair.

“We’re all working at our limits.” I say. “I even had to steal processing power from Hummingbird, and I’m pretty sure Zenith and Saccharine, two quantums, have a connection to the AI City’s processor’s bank.”

“Shit. Still, don’t kill yourself.”

“I’m not.” I don’t think. I’m kind of afraid to check. “Oh, I almost forgot. Vince, Ivy, and Liam. When they get close, I need you to go down the stairs. And anyone else with brain implants.”

“I’m not leaving you Little Blue.” Vince insists.

“I appreciate that, but it’s for your safety. They might launch pucks into the city. If one lands up here, I don’t want what happened to Ivy happen to you.”

“She’s got a point.” Ivy admits. “Just a second nearly killed me.”

“But I need everyone else. If anything lands up here, I need you to throw it off the edge.”

“Ay-ay!” Lucas says. “I’ll keep you safe!”

“Thank you.” I need to keep working, keep preparing. I look through the same camera as a dozen other AI. The incoming army is big. Thirty heavily customized cars prepared for war. Most of them have weapons installed on their roofs, and a few pull sleds behind them hosting yet more weapons. I can recognize artillery, but I’m sure Ray can glean more information than I can.

“I’m going to talk to them in person.” I say, both aloud and into the network. “Monary, can you get a few drones in the air to extend my wireless connection? I want to do it before they get in firing range.”

“I have to advise against it.” Monary responds. “A body given to them is a body that cannot defend the city, and drones helping you are likely to be lost.”

“I know. I don’t know how I’d handle things if we don’t try to resolve this peacefully though. I at least want them to know they have the option of surrendering.”

It takes Monary several seconds to respond. I really shouldn’t be adding another problem to their shoulders.

“Fine.” They say. “Take body 173, I will compensate for the loss.”

“Thank you.” I run with the body away from the entrance to the tunnels and towards one of C-1’s private vehicles. I take the smallest one, a vehicle that looks as non-threatening as possible. Plus, if it gets destroyed, it won’t be a large loss.

I head out of the city, a small line of drones at regular intervals passing my signal between them to extend Arc City’s wireless network. Corax returns during my drive and plugs into the network, giving me memories of a view from high above. A single car is leading the charge. Maybe that’s the leader? If I can just talk to him, things will be fine. 

The whole drive I constantly cycle through the radio, desperately trying to find a frequency someone is listening on. Eventually my hails are returned.

“Don’t come any closer, bot.”

“Alright.” I stop the car. “I’m Blue, the leader of Arc City. I just want to talk.”

“You’ve got some guts coming out here, I’ll give you that. I’ll tell you what, make this whole thing easy and we’ll let you live.”

I don’t believe that for an instant. I can’t imagine they’d risk letting someone who’s taken over the city once to just go off on their own. Best case scenario they’d capture me and drag me to Yellowstone. More likely they’d just kill me. 

“I was going to offer you the same thing. Just go home. I’ll give you whatever electricity you need to make the drive. You don’t have to die, nobody does.”

The man on the other end laughs.

“I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in. You’re in our sights, we could blow you out of existence. I’m being generous here.”

Does he really think I sent out my actual body, that destroying this will kill me? He has to. Can I use that fact?

“Do you have much experience with AI?” I can’t help but ask. “This is just a body, not me. Destroying the body talking to you means nothing. It’d be like shooting a mannequin."

“Doesn’t matter where you are, the offer doesn’t change. Surrender the city, and you can go.”

“Please, I’m begging you. We have a counter for everything you have. Artillery, the processor area denial devices, heavily armored vehicles, drones, we’ve prepared for anything you could possibly have. Please tell your people that I don’t want anyone to die. Tell them that anyone who puts down their weapons won’t be harmed to the best of our abilities, but I will defend my city if I have to.”

“I have to admire the effort, but you’re not going to get into my men’s heads.”

Shit, ok. This idiot isn’t going to spread the word. How do I guarantee his people hear it? I’m not close enough to yell and be sure they hear it. Just broadcasting a message from the tower could maybe work if they have unencrypted radios turned on. I set it up just in case, but it’s not a guarantee they’ll hear it.

 My car has a radio as well. I can receive the signal and turn the speakers up as loud as they’ll go. There’s a chance at least some of them will hear that. The radio is analog, it might not be affected by their pucks. The only question is, how do I stop them from destroying the car before they reach it?

If they think it’s a trap, it gets destroyed no matter what. If I’m not in the car, however, there’s less of a chance that they’re paranoid about it. I can get shot in the face again, it wasn’t that bad the first time.

“I’m stepping out of the car and leaving my weapons behind.” I tell the man. “I think our conversation would be better in person. I’m going to walk towards your caravan slowly.”

I don’t wait for a response, just get out of the car, leaving the doors open, and head across the desert. Along the walk I upload a small program to the body. The moment it starts encountering errors, it’ll yell out, telling people that they can surrender. If I walk into range of a puck and lose connection, or if it gets damaged in any way, maybe it’ll last long enough to inform some of them. Even creating the simple program taxes my mind, but it’s fine. I think that’s the best I can do.

I don’t make it to them. After cresting just two dunes, I lose connection. From the cameras atop the tower, I watch the body slump over, shrapnel ejecting from its back. They shot it, and hit something vital. I can only hope the speaker is still functional.

“That’s the best I can do.” I tell everyone. “If anyone puts down their weapons, don’t kill them.”

“Artillery strikes are, by necessity, a weapon that affects an area.” Ray responds.

“I know, just do your best. The safety of our civilians comes first.” They know they came here with a possibility of dying. They decided to take that risk. My citizens didn’t.

“Yes Ma-am.”

My destroyed body does nothing to affect the army’s direction. That’s good, they’ll drive near my car in that case.

A small pull at the corner of my mind demands my attention. Yet another body with yet another person demanding an answer, one of the few bodies that Monary didn’t take over entirely.

“Are we safe?” The voice asks.

“Yes, you’re safe. We have-” I begin my prerecorded answer, only to pause when I finally look at who asked the question. Daisy has been pulling at the wrist of a body I left on her floor, desperately trying to get my attention. Tears run down her face, and fear dominates her eyes.

“Hey, you’re ok.” I crouch down and pull her into me. “We’ve done so much work, we’re prepared for everything. It’s ok.”

“Should we go downstairs?” She asks.

“No, you’re all safe here. The tower is designed to stay standing during the worst sandstorms possible. You’re just as safe here as you would be underground. Where’s Sapphire at?”

“She’s always busy helping the doctor.”

“Right.” I knew she started helping Frankenstein, I just didn’t realize she helps him that often. “How about I get someone here to stay with you, would that help?”

She nods, and I turn my attention back to my original body for just a moment.

“Cassie, I need help. Daisy is terrified, can you help her?”

“Shit, alright, I’ll stay with her.” Cassie makes a break for the stairs, only to turn back right before she heads downstairs. “Hey Blue, you know! Stay safe!”

“Me too! I will!” I yell back. I don’t know how something so simple can make me feel so much better, but it does nonetheless.

It only takes a minute for Cassie to sprint down multiple flights of stairs and burst into Daisy’s floor. I let go of the small child, and let Cassie take over comforting her.

I can finally turn my attention back to the army. They crawl across the desert in unison, only stopping when they reach my destroyed body. A few people step out and shove it into the back of one of the cars before climbing back inside. Only then does the caravan turn, keeping a wide berth of my car. 

“The caravan is almost in artillery range.” Ray announces. “Ready to fire, Ma-am.”

Maybe there’s a chance they’ll see our defenses and turn around? Attacking them first only makes sense, it would save the city some damage. Can I make the call to attack?

“Fire a warning shot.”