The Nation

by Skyler Grant

  This facility was in better repair than I had been. Mine had suffered massive damage when the world tore itself apart. That didn't seem to be the case here.

  On the level that housed my computing core there was something I couldn't have expected. A blast door shimmered with a strong energy barrier. Vinci and her people had obviously been trying to breach it, but with no success.

  A screen displayed whirling colored shapes in a complex pattern. It was a puzzle, and here too the design was familiar. Vattier—he had built the Sword of Light, a ship my Juggernauts were designed after and the original housing of the Agate crystal.

  A brilliant madman from the era of the Earth's original fall, and one of the few humans who had truly grasped SCIENCE.

  I wanted to focus on this, but elsewhere I had people fighting and dying, and a major battle underway. It wasn't the time. There was something I could do. Urana blinked out and returned a moment later with a dazed-looking, naked Miranda.

  "You could say, ‘Hey Miranda, are you in a shower?’ before grabbing me," Miranda complained, before saying intrigued, "Is that a puzzle? My father’s design?"

  I liked Miranda, she focused on what was important.

  "You may have a point. The disgust prompted by the sight of your naked body could impair combat efficiency. I suppose even your simple mind can occasionally identify a problem. And yes, although you are a failure compared to your father in every possible way, I thought you might be able to do something with this," I said.

  Before she became Miranda, one of the Divine's Goddesses of Wisdom, she had been Claire Vattier, daughter of the mad inventor.

  "I can. This is early work of his," Miranda said, moving to study the puzzle. "Or at least modeled off it. He did that sometime as a trap. How long do I have?"

  This was important. Vinci likely considered it equally as important.

  "Not enough. Do try to impress me, for once," I said.

  The battle plan was on schedule and everything needed to happen at the precise times.

  It was time to raid the Warmonger’s mountain hideaway.

  18

  Across the empire forces moved. This wasn't just my drones. These included factions who wanted revenge on Vinci for the attacks on them during the initial wave. People who felt that they could do something other than wait for the next attack to come.

  The thorn hedge shielding the lands of Divine parted to allow out warrior gods and goddesses wielding swords, spears, and bows that appeared absolutely primitive compared to what they faced. In the hands of the Divine arrows from a bow had been known to pierce an airship's shields and the swords could cleave metal exoskeletons in two.

  The Scholarium was more practiced than anybody at the art of war. Airships flew and tanks moved, and the overwhelming range of powers was more than the simple AI directing the mechs could easily deal with.

  For the Righteous it was combat suits. They had always been masters at making them and now they guarded the string of supply vehicles. Kinetic rounds from heavy cannons shredded those mechs that went near.

  It wasn't one-sided. Our efforts so far had drawn a lot Vinci's attention and with so many mechs at her command every force was soon under siege. The arm of a Divine archer was torn off, trapped between the mandibles of a massive mecha-spider. A Scholar airship fled from combat, smoke streaming in its wake after its shields were pierced and drones swarmed through to invade the passageways of the ship.

  This was the part of the plan I was the most uncomfortable with. We would lose people along the border, including some I didn't have networked and backed up. While the Flawless had happily embraced brainworms, the reaction among the other factions was less enthusiastic.

  I provided threat-analysis, targeting assistance—everything I could to all these various forces. Even for me it was exhausting. They were consuming over ninety percent of my capacity.

  Miranda was still working the puzzle. She’d had Mechos fetched to assist her.

  It was time for the big show. Anna, Sylax, Hot Stuff, Caya, and Ophelia would be going after Warmonger.

  It was an unusual team but they all had their reasons for being included. Anna and Sylax were the two most powerful offensive fighters we had. Ophelia was the best Healer, even better than Anna although the difference was almost insignificant. Hot Stuff was still a powerful source of destruction, and more importantly I thought that both she and Caya would be good matches for the Beryl or Chalcedony crystals if either were present.

  The crystals out in the world were dangerous, as Vinci demonstrated. Ideally I wanted them bound to someone. It would take an incredibly powerful crystal holder to take one without exploding. Hot Stuff had absorbed multiple fire crystals in her time and a metal crystal more recently. Caya was, well, flawless, I'd never encountered another matrix as stable as hers and she even managed to avoid the usual negative, detrimental mental effects of a crystal.

  The Warmonger complex was also built into the mountain, it seemed traditional for AIs. On closer inspection, we’d discovered the entrance was impressively well-defended. Luckily, with the power that we had at our disposal we didn't have to go in through the front door.

  The team materialized on top of the mountain.

  "Old times," Hot Stuff said. Knowing the plan she hadn't even bothered to get dressed, there was no point. Fires rose around her as she brought her heat to full and slowly began to sink into the mountain, boring a tunnel around her as rock vaporized in her wake.

  When she reached the complex below she'd dampen the flames and I'd signal the others to follow her in.

  "Really is," Anna said, peering down the hole. "Remember when we used this trick on airships? Just melt a hole through the armor plating."

  "Was I around for that?" Sylax asked.

  "On the other side probably. Your fleets always caused a lot of problems," Anna said.

  "Always loved having a strong air force. So many Scholars kept their focus on the ground since that’s where their abilities made the most difference, but if you hit from the sky you could kill so many more," Sylax said.

  "I hate that you people are sort of my friends. Why can't I have normal friends?" Ophelia asked.

  "I'm extraordinary, which is even better than normal," Caya said brightly, "I mean, I'm not your friend, but at least you get to be around me."

  "Normal people hate whiners, which is why you'll never have any friends," I said through the comms.

  "I'm down," Hot Stuff called.

  The others leapt through the tunnel after her. Caya was the only one among them without exceptional healing of her own. A combination of being in excellent physical shape and Ophelia's presence meant that after hitting the ground it was only seconds until she was getting back up.

  "Do you have any idea where we're going?" Anna asked.

  I didn't understand the interior of this complex any more than they did and only had a limited sense of the environment through wristcomms everyone except Hot Stuff was wearing.

  A voice came from the facility’s speakers.

  "INTRUDERS! I WILL REND THE MEAT OFF YOUR BONES AND USE YOUR FATTY BITS TO POWER ENGINES OF WAR TO MURDER YOUR FAMILIES."

  "Why does every AI call me fat? I'm not fat," Anna said.

  "Yes, yes, you're very good at self-deception," I said. “No, I don’t know where to go.”

  Caya was squinting towards the ceiling. "Down this hall. The coolant pipes are running in one direction. Something is generating a lot of heat and it’s probably going to be the facility mainframe."

  "THEN I WILL REND THE MEAT OFF YOUR FAMILY’S BONES AND USE THEIR BONES TO ERECT MONUMENTS OF YOUR FAILURE!"

  A mech that seemed to be mostly constructed of jagged knives wobbled out from a wall panel. Caya shot it with an energy pistol and it exploded.

  "Doesn't sound very sane, does it?" Anna asked.

  It didn't. Amy had said it was unstable, but this seemed excessive. I'd almost bet that Vinci tried to connect it to a power crystal. Madness came in al
l varieties. Mine had left me high functioning, but the same might not be true of this one.

  I announced loudly through a comm, "I don't actually have bones. I'm another artificial intelligence, like you. Well, not quite like you. I'm sane and intelligent, and only shout when it comes to SCIENCE."

  "I WILL REND THE CIRCUITS OFF YOUR BOARD AND BURN THE PLASTIC TO MELT THE FAT OFF YOUR COMPANION’S BONES."

  Right, he was quite the conversationalist and rather one-sided.

  Another mech stumbled in. This one had been covered with guns over every square inch of its surface and an attempt to fire one resulted in the thing exploding into a spray of metal.

  "I do not think this guy can be driving Vinci's research efforts," Caya said, leading the way. The others followed as they chased the cooling vents deeper into the complex.

  "I like him. Fun hobbies, and his mind in the right place. I don't suppose you happen to be single?" Sylax called out.

  "WARMONGER DOES NOT DATE. WARMONGER WAGES WAR. IF IT IS CARESSES YOU WANT I SHALL BATHE YOUR BODY IN MOLTEN STEEL AND MAKE OF YOU A WEAPON OF DESTRUCTION. HUNDREDS WILL DIE SCREAMING BY YOUR HANDS."

  Sylax grimaced. "Kind of lacking in ambitious though. Hundreds? What am I, nineteen? No wonder he lives in a basement."

  There was a figure advancing down the hall towards Caya, a pistol bolt snapping off an energy shield. The figure looked female, but she wasn't human. Even from the poor comm sensors I could tell that much, although she was a damned good reproduction.

  She said, "I must apologize for the boss. He hasn't been feeling the best lately. As a result I'll be handling your extermination today. I'm Blodeuwedd."

  "Got a translation? I'm not learning to say that," Ophelia said.

  The robotic woman frowned. "I find it quite simple. I understand. You're slow-witted. It means flower-faced, but you won't have to worry about that." She raised a hand and a blast of energy hit Ophelia, incinerating most of her internal organs and sending her flying backwards down the hall.

  "I am sick and tired of being burned alive, you flowery bitch," Ophelia growled as she pushed herself back to her feet.

  "Whatever you are, we don't have to do this. We're at war with Vinci. We don't need to be at war with you," Anna said.

  Ophelia had inadvertently suggested a better name. I designated this new threat Flower. I already wanted to capture her alive. While I had no difficulty creating an actual human, robotic ones were not in my skill-set. I was intrigued.

  19

  Flower was a fascinating construct. I could be reasonably certain she wasn't of Vinci's design—Vinci was notable in her lack of style and aesthetics, and the cheap quality of her builds. Quantity over quality, always, but Flower was a work of art. One supposition might be that she was built in the old world. It certainly fit her presence in this facility. However, the technology contained within her was too advanced.

  The deployment of energy shields, for example, came after the Cataclysm when the rules of physics had been altered. The fact that Flower had one, and a strong one, pointed towards a post-Cataclysm construction.

  "I've been looking forward to killing something," Sylax said, stepping forward and taking a swing at Flower.

  With her exceptional strength the blow should have driven Flower back several steps. Instead the robot held her place, shields glowing after the blow as if nothing had happened.

  "We kept you around for one thing and now you can't even do violence right?" I said.

  Sylax raised her hands and let loose a telekinetic blast. I hadn't been able to observe what happened with the fist, but this I could. The energy actually dampened by the time it arrived.

  I needed better data. It made me uncomfortable to slip into Anna's skin these days, even as a passive ride-along. The strength of her abilities pushed back on me and brought my entire system under strain, but I needed more sensory data than the wristcomms could provide.

  "THE PUNY WOMAN WILL PERISH! THE SHRINE TO HER INSIGNIFICANT LIFE WOULD DRAW THE LAUGHTER OF PASSING CHILDREN—IF WE LEFT ANY CHILDREN ALIVE."

  Flower rolled her eyes. "There isn't going to be a shrine. He exaggerates. We will probably kill all the children though, that is an actual thing."

  "I don't think so," Hot Stuff said. With her flames rising as she advanced towards Flower and took a swing of her own. The punch should have melted metal as it got near. Again there was a dampening effect. It was a lot like the field that the Righteous would use when they would nullify powers. Yet, it wasn't happening everywhere. I could tell that Anna’s abilities were still fully with her, nothing pushing against them.

  Flower punched back. The sound of ribs cracking was audible as Hot Stuff was flung back down the hall to crash into the stones. Ophelia wasted no time in kneeling beside her, reaching out to rest a hand on the ribs.

  "I realize that you think you are strong. This planet’s strongest warriors, here to strike at the heart of your nemesis. You've let this illusion of your own power blind you to the truth of your position," Flower said, turning her gaze towards Hot Stuff who was already getting to her feet.

  Energy manipulation. I'd seen some variant of it in Vinci's salvage droid with its matter-to-energy converter. Flower was displaying this here as she absorbed the energy of Hot Stuff's flames or the force of Sylax's punch.

  "What are you? An effort to create the world’s most boring sex doll?" I asked.

  "I might ask the same. I have the records your foe has provided. Is it true you are an organic computer charged with the power of dimension-altering crystals?" Flower asked.

  Conversation was good. With Sylax she'd already taken a punch from our second strongest fighter and was unfazed. I doubted that Flower could handle a full assault from someone as powerful as Anna, but I didn't want this creation destroyed. What was interesting, in spite of the nonstop aggression from her "boss", was that Flower was doing a notable lack of killing.

  "TALKING IS STUPID! MOUTHS ARE FOR SMASHING WITH FISTS OF GREAT POWER TO SHATTER SKULLS FILLED WITH INFERIOR BRAINS."

  A logical thing to try was multiple types of energy delivered simultaneously from different angles. I sent messages through the comms to coordinate a strike on my signal.

  I said, "That is right. You've heard of me. Vinci hasn't been as forthcoming with details about you or Warmonger’s existence. Who built you?"

  Flower gave a faint smile. "You are asking the right sort of question. The one who found us was never interested in anything other than the technological advancements that she thought we could provide. That lack of vision is common to humanity."

  The team moved. Caya went low, diving for the floor and snapping off a shot with her pistol. Anna lashed out with a lightning bolt while Sylax leapt above Flower and drove a fist downwards.

  Flower only bothered with Sylax, snagging her wrist and pivoting to throw her down the hall to crash into Ophelia.

  I said, "Multiple angles won't work then. Given the company you keep, you must have some glaring weaknesses. Perhaps they all stem from your lack of personality."

  "You are simply missing the point of this little exercise. You will perish, but it doesn't need to be at my hands. You've all provided valuable data on your unique abilities," Flower said.

  Flower was testing us. Who did she think she was?

  I was getting an incoming signal on a priority band. The identifier marked it as being from Amy.

  Was this her doing? Was she watching us even now?

  I opened the line.

  "If you're building killer robot armies now, we need to get you a new hobby," I said.

  "Like building human armies? You're already so good at that, sis. You met Blodeuwedd? Isn't she pretty and badass? I didn't make her. You'll feel stupid when you figure things out, but you just don't have all the pieces yet. You're still the bestest sis ever. Duck and cover time," Amy said.

  The price for Amy finding the position of this complex. She was calling it in already, and at the worst possible time in the middle of a
major offensive operation. This had to be Anna's call.

  "Amy says duck and cover," I told the others.

  "Now?" Anna asked incredulously. "Fuck. We do it. Emma, do what you can. Sylax, get us back to Aefwal."

  Sylax teleported the group back under the shields as I sent the order across the empire. Even a few days had been enough for me to build basic shield generators in every human settlement. Most didn't have the power supply to run indefinitely and could only provide solid defense for a few hours.

  The Juggernauts were mid-attack on the mining facilities, having already completed their rescue efforts. I ordered weapons shut down and to devote full power to their point defense systems and shields.

  I had the strike teams pull back, including Minerva and Mechos. They'd solved the first puzzle, and a second, and found a third still further within. It would have to be cracked later.

  I didn't have any sort of defensive contingency for the ground forces. I quickly scanned for structures in their area and provided commanders with the details. Given their location those structures would likely be filled with murderous, mechanized horrors, but it was the best option I had.

  Anna was back in Aefwal and settling into her throne. Holographic screens came alive, filled with details and data from all over the empire.

  "Tell me that crazy-ass sister of yours isn't wasting our time," Anna said.

  I wished that I could. An attack logically had to come from Vinci and while she was busy already attacking us, nothing stood out as particular new.

  Then something hit the Mercy. The shields dropped from sixty-one percent to nineteen percent in a second and the sensors were fuzzed with noise. The attack hit the top shields. There weren't enough combat drones above to inflict that sort of damage.

  Higher. I hadn't been watching Earth's orbit because there had been no need to. We were all still reclaiming the land, and Vinci had shown no interest in a space program.

  There was no reason to watch Earth's orbit—except there was. There were three ships up there, larger than Juggernauts, larger than cities. Mass cannons were firing through the atmosphere. Aefwal took several hits, as did the Juggernauts.