by E. D. Cask
Alex looked at Lu and said, “I think the game was rigged. There was a lag, a delay. We were getting bad information. And we were overwhelmed. There were too few of us and too many of them.”
Lu looked at them all. “There was no delay. You are all weak. You failed. You must learn a new way.” He walked out.
“Thanks for the nice pep talk, Lu,” Josh grimaced and stood up. “Let’s get some food, guys. I’m sure Bob will be okay. He was breathing, so he should be fine. His body was in shock. It was protecting him.”
They slowly made their way to the cafeteria. The other teams were already there. They were huddled together, too. It looked as if everyone was in shock. Josh grabbed a drink and walked over to the nearest table. The team there stared at him blankly.
“Is everyone okay here?”
An older man spoke up, “Our leader and another were taken to sickbay, I guess.”
Josh nodded, “One of ours, too. It was a little too real.”
He moved from table to table chatting with each team, trying to find out how everyone was doing. There were some who burst into tears. Josh just patted them on the back and let their team comfort them. He made his way back to his clan.
“It sounds like twelve guys are in medical. Lu didn’t talk to any of the others. I think they were all ‘killed’ pretty fast. We may have lasted the longest.”
“And that wasn’t very long,” Sergei pointed out.
“The game wasn’t fair. No way,” Alex said with a shrug.
“Yeah, they were trying to scare us.”
“Well, it worked.”
Josh tried to calm them down, “Guys, we don’t know anything yet.”
Sergei cut in, “What if it wasn’t rigged.”
They stared at him.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if this is what the enemy looks like, why they took us and train us. They took us from our time, because they were scared. This would scare me.”
“But what about the lag?” Alex asked.
“What if it's not lag, but they are just that quick?”
“Nobody is that quick, not even bots. It seemed to me that they were jumping before we shot.”
“That’s impossible,” Alex stated.
“Look around you. We are on the moon, 5,000 years in future and you tell me is impossible?” Sergei shrugged.
Josh nodded. “Okay, say that’s true and they aren’t only messing with us. How do we win?”
They looked at the table. Josh tried to rally them. “Come on, guys. You have fought impossible odds before. What do we do to win?”
Alex was hunched over in defeat. “In the games, we know we’ll have to die hundreds of times to learn and figure out the quirks of the system. Doesn’t really work in real life, Josh.”
Fred was looking at his fingers. “I hated dying before in video games, but this was terrifying. I don’t think I can do it again.” He dropped his face into his hands.
Josh looked around at the other tables. “Then we’re screwed. Because I don’t see anyone else around here who can figure this out. We are the A-Team. Think about it. How do you defeat the Boss? You study and find his weaknesses. If you only had once to play a game, but you couldn’t practice, what would you do?”
Sergei lifted an eyebrow, “Study the vids?”
Josh pointed at him, “Right. We need to study the vids.”
“We need to see the battle vids of the Natix,” Josh said to Lu when they had found him.
Lu looked at him impassively. Josh stared at him and waited.
Sergei jumped in. “This will help us defeat your enemy.”
Lu blinked. “Why?”
“To know why we lost. Watching the vids of previous battle will help.”
“You lost because you are weak.”
“If that it true, then how do we get stronger?” Josh asked.
“You learn.”
“How do we learn?”
“By doing and failing.”
“Have you learned how to beat the Natix?” Alex asked.
Lu didn’t answer.
Josh tried again. “We need to know firsthand why Duumai is having us fight like this. It would really help us to see their tactics for ourselves.”
“Go to your room and wait.”
The clan silently gave each other high fives as they left. They knew Lu was going to have to consult with Master Du. They made their way back to their room.
Josh tried to think of some way to turn this in their favor, but couldn’t so far. While they were waiting in their room, Bob walked in. Everyone crowded around him touching him and slapping his back until Josh pushed them all away and led Bob to his bed.
“What did they do to you, Bob?”
Bob shook his head, “I don’t know. I woke up in the med bay and then after a while they let me come here.”
Josh put his hand on Bob’s shoulder. “Did they ask you how you felt or anything?”
“Nope. What happened anyway? All I remember is flying toward the battle,” Bob said.
“You died,” Alex blurted out.
Josh gave Alex a dirty look and filled Bob in on what had happened. While they were waited, Josh communicated to them his idea for code words during testing and/or battle. Sam told a long and rambling story about the time he and his brothers went on a camping trip in the woods and saw a snake to cover up for the silence. They also tried to figure out how to disable the implants in their heads.
After several hours, Lu showed up in the doorway and told them to follow him. They all followed him to the holodeck. They were directed to sit in the center and the lights dipped and they were suddenly in the middle of space.
Lu spoke, “This is the furthest sentinel outpost that we had. It is only protected by AI fighter bots. And this is the only battle vid we have. The enemy comes from behind this small moon.”
There was nothing to see but nearly empty space. The small moon was a tiny dot. In the other direction was another moon rock that looked like it had structures on it. Then a swarm of AI fighters appeared out of the structures and arrayed in battle formation.
After several minutes, ships like they had seen in their test battle appeared in view. They proceeded to annihilate the AI battle fighters. The AIs didn’t get any kills. The battle was over in minutes. The guys sat there in stunned silence until the vid flashed with a direct hit and died. A few of them jumped and gasped. It felt like the last battle they had been in.
The lights came up and Lu just looked at them.
“Is that the only vid you have of them?” Josh asked.
“Yes,” Lu said.
“How far away are they?” Alex asked.
“They are 36 hours away at top speed.”
There were more gasps.
“You brought us here for this? There’s no way.” Bob started crying.
Josh clapped his hands together. “Guys, calm down. There has to be a way to figure this out. We’re the A-Team. Lu, can we see the vid again?”
The room darkened again and the scene was back up. When it was over, Sergei asked Duumai to run it again.
“This time slow it down when the shooting starts,” he said.
It ran through the scene. Bob sat there with his eyes closed and with his hands over his face.
Sergei said, “It looks like they react seconds ahead. Is right, Duumai?”
Yes, up to six seconds.
“Is it all of them?”
They all are reacting early, but not all at the same time.
The vid ran again with numbers superimposed over the fighters showing their pre-reaction times. The numbers ran from 2.68 to 6.03.
“So they are seeing the future. At least up to six seconds of it,” Sergei said.
Alex jumped up, “That’s impossible.”
“Obviously not. Look at the vid.”
“Okay, then it is impossible to counter. How are we supposed to fight someone who can see the future?”
Sergei jumped up,
“What if we overload them?”
Josh asked, “What do you mean?”
“What would happen if we all target same fighter?”
“But he would still see ahead of that.”
Josh said, “But not if we all target the same fighter and create a ring around them and then move in for the kill.”
“But how do we coordinate that?”
“Our battle AIs can coordinate that, right Duumai?”
Yes.
Alex protested, “What happens to the rest who are already shooting at us?”
“Duumai, can you calculate how many beams need to be used to counter this? Obviously it will depend on reaction time and distance.”
Yes, I will reprogram the battle AIs to calculate this and target the quickest reaction fighters first.
Josh stood up. “Great thinking, Sergei. Guys, I think we need some sleep and then we’ll talk to the rest of the guys about this. Lu, can I meet all the team leaders in here, as soon as possible?”
Lu nodded and left the room. Josh high fived Sergei and started communicating with the rest of the team.
“How can we use this to our advantage?” he signed.
The guys sat around thinking. Sam signed that maybe they could teach the rest of the fighters about the tap code, so they could all communicate secretly. Josh thought about it and then shook his head. What if they gave it away? He didn’t like trusting people he didn’t really know. There could be spies or traitors. Sergei signed that these guys were in the same situation, they should all stick together. Josh thought about it some more. Sergei and the other guys had been around everyone a little longer than he had, so he agreed to give it a try.
The leaders showed up and sat through the vid and then again as Sergei explained his thinking. There was outrage and shock.
“This is impossible!”
“They brought us here to die!”
Josh tried to calm them, “Guys, can you think of any other way around it? If not, can we please try this?”
The leaders agreed to train with them and test the theory. They grumbled a little about being kept in the dark with the enemy, but were careful to keep it light because of Duumai. They were all afraid of the pain.
Josh tried to teach them the tap code, but none of them understood that he was trying to communicate. He dropped it before they started talking out loud about it.
The next day the tracking AI coordinated all the targets. With the help of AI fighter bots, they were able to start eliminating the enemy fighters. The clan and all the teams still suffered heavy losses, but were able to do better. In the after action report, Sergei announced that he had a couple more ideas of how to fix some of the problems.
“We need to…well, the AI needs to target multiple bogeys at the same time. Maybe they are reading thoughts or even just the targeting bots. They are very good at predicting when someone is targeting them, but how good can they be when we are targeting the middle of several of them? Then the fighters on the outside will drive them inward.”
There were some nods around the room. There were also some frowns.
One of the leaders stood up, “That might give us a few more kills, but we are still getting slaughtered. We don’t have enough troops to fight more than one or two battles. What’s going to happen after that?”
Josh answered, “I think that if we can battle to a draw or better in the first battle, we may be able to convince them to go away. To return to wherever they came from.”
There were more nods around the room this time. The leaders looked at each other. Some of them just shrugged and others gave a thumbs up. Josh took a visual poll and then nodded.
“Okay, we work together. Let’s get through this together.”
The teams milled around afterward. They decided that they were better as a whole than just competing as individual teams. They talked a bit, learning to know each other a bit better. They were still separate teams from different eras abducted at different times, but they felt a little more together now that they had a common enemy.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
First Battle
Nervous excitement pulsed through the group as they prepared for the first real battle. They had practiced their new strategy a few times and seemed better than expected. Josh had managed to get through to a couple of the leaders with the tap code. One, an older man who had been in the army, recognized what he was doing and started teaching his team. So there were more people learning and communicating in the cafeteria. The A-Team had figured out a few code words that they could use in training or even possibly in battle, but Josh didn’t really have a strategy other than getting through the first battle. It loomed over everyone’s head. Instead of fake and painful deaths, there were going to be real and painful deaths. Josh hoped he could get his team through this and then negotiate a way out.
The clan was still working on other solutions. One of these was to disable the brain implants, or take them out. Sergei worked on trying to figure out how the enemy was able to read their thoughts or, alternatively, the future. He approached Lu and proposed a test.
“Here’s what we can try. Some of us could wear lead shielding in our helmets to try blocking the enemy scanners. Then we would watch the vids afterwords to determine if that made a difference.”
Lu said, “No. That would block efficiency of the AI to help you.”
Sergei thought that interesting; a good thing to know for the future. “Okay, then what do you know about their capabilities? Is there anything from the past that you know about the Natix that might help us fight them?”
“They are erratic.”
“Lu, that is not helpful. We need quantifiable information. Things that will help us defeat them for you.” Sergei had a sudden thought. “Can Duumai run simulations of how this could work?“
“We do not speculate. We know or don’t know. There is only the binary.”
Sergei sighed. “Again, not very useful. We are trying to fight for you.”
“You are weak. Leave.”
Sergei tried a different tack, “Can we inspect actual ships we will be flying? We might have some ideas that will help…”
Lu thought for a moment. “No. That is all. Leave.”
Sergei sighed again and left. He hurried back to the dorm. He had some new info that might help. Lead shielding might disable or block the implants. He smiled. Small victories.
Back at the dorm, he started tapping out the new info, when he noticed someone new in the room. Josh was talking to one of the guys from another team. Josh beckoned Sergei to come over and join them.
“Sergei, this is Yuri. He has a tactic that might help us fight.”
The man smiled and nodded. “I am not a military person, but I liked studying about it and I remember reading about an American tactic called the OODA Loop. This means Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. The main idea is to go through the loop faster than your opponent. In actual battle, you want to decide and act more quickly than your opponent. The observe and orient become instantaneous.”
“Yes, this makes sense, but how can it help us over fighters who can act before we do?” Sergei asked.
“Again, similar to the tactics that you proposed, they may only make a small difference. The main idea is to make so many small decisions that we overwhelm their thought processes. If we can make seven course changes in one second or 49 in seven seconds, they won’t be able to process them all before we kill them.”
Josh smiled, “That makes a lot of sense, if they aren’t AI fighter bots. But even if they are, it will help. Thank you, Yuri.”
“No problem. I need to get back to my dorm before lights out. Nice to meet you, Sergei, Josh.” He left.
Josh watched him leave. “Nice guy. Sergei, it was a good idea to share info with everyone. It’s better than being a lone wolf.”
Sergei wrinkled his brow. “Anyone knows that a single wolf dies alone faster than a pack wolf.”
Josh smiled. “Well, it took me longer to l
earn that.”
Sergei called out. “Hey, Sam, do you have any stories about wolves you can tell us?”
Sam began a long and obviously made up story about living with wolves while Sergei shared the news he had just learned. Everyone got excited. They were all eager to get the implants blocked so they didn’t have to fear the pain anymore. The real question was where could they find any quantity of lead? Sergei told about asking to see the real fighters and being told no. Alex said that they could ask other teams for help and Josh agreed. Sharing information and ideas seemed to be working well for them so far.
Everyone was getting ready for lights out when a new alarm blared. It sounded ominous. Then came an announcement:
Prepare for battle. Report to the cafeteria in five minutes.
Chaos ensued as everyone jumped out of bed and started getting dressed again.
“Is this a drill?” Sam asked.
Josh shook his head, “Don’t think so. Follow my lead and the tactics that we’ve been learning and we should be okay.”
When they were all ready to go, they walked in silence, their faces set and thoughts turned inward. Some thought about tactics, but most others worried or thought about home. When they got to the cafeteria, they waited for the rest of the teams to show up. Lu and two other Lytix awaited them.
When they had all assembled, Lu looked them over. “The enemy is closer than we expected. You must defend this Sol system from the enemy. Follow us to the fighters and fly out to the meet point in your nav comms.”
Josh asked, “How far out are they?”
“They are out beyond Toun, but by the time you get there, it will be nearby. You will be in stasis until then.”
Someone from another team raised his hand. “I have to pee.”
Several boys snickered until Lu cut them off with a wave. “You are weak.”
They made their way to a new area of the station. Larger freight elevator-type carts took them to the hangars up on the surface. When Josh and his team got out of their cart, they were in a large hangar with flying saucers parked in a row. They were each directed to a ship and they entered. Josh got to his and when it opened, it looked empty. But as he stepped in, it configured itself to the same configuration as the sim seat he had practiced on. He sat down and put on the helmet. He spoke into the helmet and was able to hear his team as well as the other team leaders. Everything worked just like the sim. He snorted. Of course it did. It would be kind of pointless if the sims were different. He started to run through all the systems to check them out, when a wave of sleepiness spread through him. He fought it, but it seemed overwhelming. This wasn’t his body, the AI was putting him to sleep.
