"Good point," she said and hailed Armstrong7 on the comms. "Hey…uh, A7, I don't think we were being attacked. There would be signs of the mechs that were destroyed. Our shredder mines would not be enough to completely demolish any sign of attacking mechs."
"That's a good point," he said with a nod. "Maybe zoom in to see if you can find any sign of mech parts spread around the place. If you only see splatters of red, the chances are that a pack of wild dogs was what triggered the mines. We'll have to reset them, though, so I hope you're all ready for a long day of work Topside. I’ll need volunteers to head down there and set the system up again. Extra canteen for those who stick it out."
Jessica13 raised her hand. "I'll take the first shift if you don't mind. It's a nice day out, so none better to work Outside, right?"
"I appreciate the enthusiasm." Armstrong7 chuckled.
A couple more of them volunteered, mostly for the extra canteen in their accounts, and once they were all loaded with the mines they would need, they began to climb down the same cliff any attackers would have to try to scale.
Since the Guardians would need to stay Topside to continue the defense of the area, only bulletfoots were dispatched to set the minefield again.
"Even if it was only a pack of wild dogs, they could have been herded in by a group of pirates who wanted to trip the mines," one of the other bulletfoots said and shook her head. "You never know. Now, they're sending us into the line of fire so we’ll be the first to get slaughtered if we actually are under attack."
"It’s possible," Mini stated calmly in Jessica13's ear. "However, it is also unlikely. My knowledge of how dog packs roam removes the possibility of them being herded that way. They tend not to move in a way that would allow them to be forced into a minefield unless they were trained for it and I am unsure as to how a dog pack would be trained for that. They would only be able to do so once, after all."
"It's why they're staying up there," another bulletfoot, Gerry8, said and looked around a little nervously. "They have a couple of the Guardians with some rockets primed just in case."
"We'll still be the first ones to go," the other bulletfoot replied as they moved out to the minefield. "Do you think they'll risk the safety of everyone in Sanctuary for our benefit? They'll cut the lines we used to climb down without a second thought and hope we’ll slow any attackers down."
"That is also unlikely," Mini commented.
"I don't understand," Jessica13 said. "I mean, I don't understand how dog packs would be able to survive out here. With the radiation and the poison still in the air, I wouldn't think they would be able to survive too long. Sure, there are clean places, but having to deal with all of that plus the Skyfall… I don't understand how anything survives out here."
"I'm sure you know my data is incomplete regarding the history over the past hundred years," her AI said. "Would you mind filling those gaps in my knowledge?"
"Oh…sure." She paused and scrutinized the area as they arrived at their destination. "I do need to get to work out there to set the mines and cross the minefield while I…you know, try not to get shredded myself."
"I can carry the mech through those tasks."
"Really?"
"Of course. I only need you to authorize my temporary control of the mech for you," Mini said. "It was actually a very popular option among people who operated Shimura-Sendai systems."
Jessica13 tilted her head in thought. It did sound like she would be spared a significant amount of hard labor, and now with someone to talk to, that didn't seem quite as boring as she thought it would be.
"Okay, go ahead," she said and agreed to the transfer of control to the AI.
It was odd to feel the mech move without her controlling it—like she was along for the ride instead of driving the damn thing—but she could tell she would definitely get used to this. Sure, Mini would only have a select number of programmed actions she would be able to perform without Jessica13 making any input, but setting mines was a fairly simple procedure.
"So, you need me to tell you what has happened in the world over the past century or so?" she asked as the mech began to clear the earth from around one of the tripped mines. "What is the last thing that you remember?"
"My data banks are incomplete," Mini explained. "I do have data on the Day the Heavens Fell, as well as the effects of the Southpaw Defense. Relevant data is missing from the Second Invasion onward."
"You mean the day the Outsiders came and attacked the planet?" she asked. "Right. I don't actually know much about what happened since I wasn't there myself, as you said, but a fair amount was taught to us. After the Outsiders were repelled by the strength of the Seven, we thought we were safe. They could not have anticipated, however, that the ships they used carried not only the threat of nuclear attacks but also poison and disease. They called it the Reaping. With the Skyfall starting and the deaths of billions, people were forced to abandon the cities and take up residence in the bunkers."
"Correct, bunkers that were built as part of the Insurance Scheme," the AI said and contributed knowledge from her data banks.
Jessica13 wasn't sure what the Insurance Scheme was supposed to do, but she nodded and continued. "Sure, I suppose. Anyway, as the Reaping continued, we were all forced into the bunkers. Not everyone made it and I don't think we would have fit all the survivors. I still don't know how there are any survivors, though. They have the mech suits too, and while the idea is that they should be able to live in them almost indefinitely, they need a place to repair and regroup, restore their supplies, and all that. The Seven designed the mechs in order to make them almost self-sustaining, but I don't think anything is quite that. Not in our world, nor what it was before. Not that they needed it before."
"The Circle of Seven designed the mechs to help humanity survive outside the bunkers." Mini sounded like he was simply relaying information that was present in his core. "The Circle of Seven designed the concept of smaller, thorium-based nuclear power cores that could be carried inside a mech suit that was self-powering, all while providing protection from nuclear, chemical, and biological hazards."
Mini was quoting from what they had been taught as children at this point, but it was relaxing to hear it in the bland yet still pleasant voice of the AI.
"Mech designs were initially created with construction and heavy labor in mind," he continued. "These were useful but limited without an independent power source. Even those running on advanced batteries would not last more than a few hours. Only once the thorium cores were created were they seen as fit to assist in combat as well. It is why support mechs appear to have older designs while combat mechs support more recent builds."
"Anyway, my point is that even the people who can survive for long periods of time in their mechs—pirates and peddlers and the like—would need somewhere safe to get out of their mechs," Jessica13 continued. "And if there are areas in the world isolated from the toxic, radioactive clouds that would kill or horribly change and mutate them, none of the peddlers we've spoken to were willing to talk about that."
"Well, I do have data on what you call the Reaping available," Mini said. "The battle that occurred above the Earth's atmosphere caused most of what you call Skyfall—pieces of destroyed ships left to eventually fall to the ground as gravity acts on them. The radiation and the biological warfare the Earth suffered came from those ships. But that's crazy. Those clouds you're talking about dissipated decades before I was even on the assembly plant. There's still danger, of course, especially from falling debris—"
"Skyfall."
"Skyfall is now registered as your preferred terminology," the AI corrected himself. "There is still danger in the world since most of the radiation as well as the poison was in the runoff so the issue is mainly with the water. But there aren't any clouds of poison or radiation and most of the biological weapons have since killed themselves off."
"How does a weapon kill itself off?"
"Biological weapons consist of germ or vir
al warfare, living organisms that cause disease and death in the targeted individuals. In that case, the germs or viruses kill humans but when they run out of humans to kill, they die off."
"I…still don't understand," Jessica13 admitted.
"Think of it as the organisms being predators that feed on humans." The AI showed none of the annoyance and condescension she had heard in the voices of her previous teachers and even Armstrong7 sometimes. "They've been engineered to only feed on humans, so then when they run out of humans to feed on, they die themselves. They have nothing else to eat."
"I think I get it," she said finally and nodded. "I feel like it's a little more complicated than that, though."
"It is, but I don't think you need to understand it in its entirety since again, the organisms themselves have been dead for the past hundred years," Mini said. "So you really don't need to worry about it. Besides, people with Athena genes are generally engineered to have a mind for machines, not biology."
"What do you mean engineered?" Jessica13 asked as Mini finished installing another mine and moved on.
"Well, again, it is complex, but the condensed version is that the Circle of Seven designed the Athena genes to continue their work in machinery. They were made as insurance against the destruction of mankind, which was what happened. In the end, it was necessary and most humans alive today, if not all, are descended from those artificial wombs.”
"That does seem a little simpler than your description of biological warfare," she said. "But…what you're saying is that the world Outside is…safe?"
"Not safe," the AI corrected. "There are still a great many dangers, most of which I am actually uninformed about. But no toxic clouds permeate the air."
That sounded safe to her, anyway. Jessica13 had always assumed that the air itself was deadly, which made the entire world terrifying to live in. Only in the Bunkers could people breathe the air without worrying that they were being poisoned. Only in Sanctuary, if you did as you were told and helped the community, were you safe.
"It’s odd to think that the AIs and the folks in the science levels didn't realize that the air is safe to breathe," she said. "You'd think they would want there to be more air."
"My data suggests you have not exited the bunker without a protective mech," Mini replied. "That would suggest that others would have done the same. How could they have known that the air was safe to breathe?"
"They run resource extraction operations every six months." She tried to follow the movements of the mech as they headed deeper into the minefield and continued to remove the exploded ordinance and replace it with new ones. "They're supposed to run tests out here to make sure nothing potentially lethal gets into Sanctuary. They should know about this."
The logic of it was unmistakable. In light of what the AI had told her—and as far as she knew, they weren’t capable of lies—everything she had assumed had, in fact, been based on a lie. Or, she reasoned, if not an outright lie then at least an omission of truth, which was much the same thing. For the life of her, she couldn’t think why, though. Unless it was a matter of control?
That seemed uncomfortably sinister, but the thought made sense. If the folks in Sanctuary could be kept in ignorance, no one would question the rules or try to initiate changes. They would all continue to uphold what they believed to be the only way to stay safe and those who made the decisions could do what they wanted with impunity. It was a terrifying thought that struck out of the blue and left an acidic anger to roil in the pit of her stomach.
There was a pause in Mini's operation of the mech, and Jessica13 could hear the whirring of gears in the back that told her the processor was running hot and needed to be cooled. She focused on that to push the discomforting thoughts aside and waited for the AI to respond.
"The possibility that my data is still corrupted is sixty-six-point-six-seven percent when rounded to the nearest hundredth," Mini said. "There is the possibility that I could be wrong in my assertions. What happened over the duration of my inactivity could render all my knowledge irrelevant as well."
"Maybe I can look into helping you update your data banks from the hard drives we have on Sanctuary," Jessica13 said. "Wait, hold up."
"Waiting and holding up as requested," the AI replied and brought the mech to a halt. "Would you like to retake control?"
"No, but…look over there." She highlighted a speck of something she could see in the field but couldn’t quite identify.
Mini asked no questions and simply followed her line of sight to approach it without triggering any of the active mines in the field.
"What is that?" she asked as the Minato lowered to give her a better view.
"Data collected indicates….species name, Canis lupus familiaris. Commonly known as dog. Breed…unknown. Dogs were common household pets for humans and quite useful in the removal of pests, as well as physical and psychological support. Superficial studies show that if dogs were capable of surviving in this environment, so would smaller cats and other Canidae like wolves and coyotes. Studies indicate that when large numbers of genetically compatible animals occupy the same ecosystem, they have a better chance of surviving a dangerous environment due to the altered size of the gene pool."
"Well, A7 did say it was likely to be a pack of wild dogs," she replied and shook her head, not really understanding what the AI was on about. The mech moved away from the body. "It would have been interesting to live in a time when humans and animals interacted like that. We might even be able to get them to help us avoid the radiation and poison in the air. They've obviously managed to survive this long."
She spoke without thinking and immediately, her suspicions reared their ugly heads again and she had to focus hard to push them down.
More whirring of gears followed this statement and provided a welcome distraction. "That is possible and even likely. Dogs were instrumental in helping early-stage humans to survive."
"Are you all right there, Mini?" The whirring gears were a source of some concern. "Do you need me to take the controls for a while?"
"I am simply correcting data from your statements," Mini replied simply.
Jessica13 called up the processor data on her HUD. "It looks like your processor is running hot."
"Corrections run contrary to core coding," the AI said. "Overruling is…difficult."
"I'll take over from here, then." She took control of the mech, settled into place, and returned to work. "Maybe once we're back at Sanctuary, we can install a better cooling system. Have you thought that maybe overheating is the reason why you broke in the first place?"
"The possibility exists," Mini replied. "However, it is not likely."
Still, she decided she would look into that. She had the blueprint on how to fix the AI again if she ever needed to, but she had no intention to put herself through that much work again. It was better to prevent damage than to fix it, after all.
She diverted some of the cooling functions in the suit toward the processing units and continued her work.
It was a bright and sunny day with not even a cloud in the sky. The beauty of it faded quickly as her mind focused instead on the heat that bore down on her. With most of the cooling directed specifically toward the processors, she couldn't help but focus on the relentless heat that rapidly became unbearable. Sweat trickled constantly in rivulets. Aside from the fact that it wasn't comfortable, she knew the inside of the mech would reek of it later if she didn't clean it immediately upon her return.
It was exacerbated by the fact that there was really nothing to see from ground level. At the top of the cliff where their defenses were stationed, she could see for miles when she looked out onto the forests and the cities below—almost forever. On the ground, all she could see was the mud. The area had been cleared of all greenery and wildlife to make sure the folks on the top had a good view of anything that might endanger Sanctuary. It was a tactical necessity but made for dreary work.
Thankfully, there was no sign of the atta
ckers the other bulletfoots had been afraid of and they had reset all the alarms and the minefield before the sun moved away from its peak in the sky. Jessica13 could still feel the soreness from the day before and she had a feeling it wouldn’t be better tomorrow and probably the day after as well.
Even so, it was nice to have someone to talk to. While Mini's speech capabilities were compromised due to his processing power being directed elsewhere, she at least knew someone was there listening to her.
The climb up the cliff was long and arduous and took almost an hour even with the grappler lines still in place to help haul them up.
The Guardians had remained in position and still watched to make sure there was no sign of an incoming assault, even though anyone who had any intention to do so would have attacked already. They gave the bulletfoots time to gather the materials they needed and headed down in the elevator.
"I've tried hailing the elevator AI," Mini said as they descended slowly.
"We call her El," Jessica13 replied.
"Noted. I received a hail in response but…I'm not sure what this means."
She played the sound that had been sent. It was definitely El’s voice and it sounded like a frustrated sigh.
"It sounds like she wants to be left alone," she explained. "That's what humans would call a sigh and it's directly linked to annoyance or frustration. Given that all you did was hail her, I'd have to say she was being…what was the term you used?"
"Drama queen?"
"That's the one."
They reached the bottom of the shaft and after a quick scan to make sure they weren't tracking in any poisons or radiation, the doors pulled open to allow them into the mech hangar. They shut quickly behind them again and the elevator moved up to collect the Guardians who had manned the defense point.
"While we are on the topic of upgrades…" Mini said tentatively.
Bulletfoot One Page 8
