Devastator

by Isaac Hooke

  He waited until the last of the Crudes passed his position.

  “Now,” he transmitted.

  Jain parted the veil of thick lianas and tossed his entire harness of energy grenades at the trailing tank. The other platoon mates had marked their targets on the shared overhead map, so there would be no overlap. Other harnesses landed on the targeted machines, which so far hadn’t realized anything was amiss.

  Jain detonated his collection of grenades. A terrible explosion ripped through the air, and shrapnel peppered the hanging lianas that shielded him.

  A staccato of explosions followed in rapid succession, and before the dust settled, he leaped from cover, letting rip with his plasma rifle. He concentrated his fire on those units that still showed signs of activity, tearing wider the wounds made by the grenades.

  The Crude he was firing on abruptly came to a halt, and a portal folded open. A Xenon stumbled outside, crawling on its tentacles. Jain aimed at the beak and fired. The head exploded in a gory mass, and the Xenon collapsed like a puppet whose life-giving strings had been snipped.

  In moments it was over.

  The repeater drone hovered into view overhead, recording, transmitting.

  “Jain to base,” Jain transmitted. “Patrol five terminated. I repeat, patrol five terminated.” That was the last of them.

  “Thank you, lieutenant commander,” a robotic voice returned. “Supply depot attack is commencing. Delete any escapees.”

  “You got it,” Jain said.

  Jets modified for the alien atmosphere roared past overhead, and Jain heard the high-pitched keening of laser-guided bombs. Explosions rocked the earth, and plumes of smoke topped the distant trees.

  Humanoid combat robots emerged from the jungle behind Jain, and streamed past, toward the plumes. That would be the main attack force.

  “Cavalry has arrived,” Grams said.

  “Spread out,” Jain said. “We delete any escapees.”

  “Delete?” Chief Notly said. “You’re starting to talk like the robots, now.”

  “I’ve been talking and fighting like a robot for a while now,” Jain commented. “War does that.”

  “No, you do that,” Notly said.

  “I had to,” Jain said. “Dulling my emotions is the only way to…” But he didn’t finish.

  Instead he dashed forward, into the trees, following the path made by one of the combat robots. He glanced at his overhead map and confirmed that the other members of the platoon had fanned out, based on the green dots marking their positions.

  Ahead, smoke filled the spaces between the trees, and he switched to echolocation. His view filled out once more, with white wireframes marking the positions of the boles, and the leafy undergrowth.

  Jain continued forward. Areas of flickering red began to appear, marking those spots where the jellied gasoline from the bombs was still burning. He meticulously avoided those areas.

  From a particularly dense cluster of flames, a small form darted forward. Jain swung his rifle toward it, but before he could fire, the form collapsed.

  He glanced at his overhead map. The form was marked with a red dot, indicating an enemy.

  For some reason, he didn’t fire. Didn’t finish the job.

  Instead, he approached. Cautiously.

  The form was quivering under the echolocation. Parts of it were on fire. It was the smallest Xenon he had ever seen.

  It had to be a child.

  Feeling a sudden surge of empathy, Jain scooped up the tentacled alien and carried it from the smoke. When he was clear of it, he deactivated his echolocation, and lowered the alien child to the jungle floor.

  Some of the flames had spread to his suit, thanks to the jellied gasoline, but he barely noticed. Instead, he opened up his medkit, and removed the fire retardant. He sprayed the foam over the alien, putting out the flames.

  By then, the Xenon had ceased moving.

  Jain raised the child in his arms, and held the alien to his chest, taking care not to touch the fires that still burned on his suit.

  “It’s all right now,” Jain said. “No one’s going to hurt you anymore.”

  He rocked the child in his arms.

  “Jain, you all right?” Notly emerged from the trees. He had his rifle aimed at Jain, but lowered it when he comprehended the scene before him. The red dot on the map would have attracted him to Jain’s position. A red dot that had now turned black.

  Notly came to his side. “Lieutenant Commander?”

  In answer, Jain merely rocked the dead alien child in his arms.

  Jain awakened to darkness. He floated there, bodiless, lacking sensations of any kind.

  If these are the missing memories that await me, I can do without them.

  He resolved in that moment to disable his dream subroutines once more. He didn’t need this… guilt.

  I was a warrior. What did I expect to find while filling in the holes of my past? Drunken brawls and giggling women?

  Well, he certainly had enough memories of drunken brawls and giggling women, and wished he had left it at that.

  He pulled up the delete subroutine, but then paused.

  No. I will keep the dreams. They will remind me of who I was, and what I did. They are my punishment.

  His dismissed his display, and prepared to return to the dream state.

  “Sheila wants to talk to you,” Xander’s disembodied voice announced into the darkness.

  Jain sighed. Or he would have, if he had a virtual body.

  “Put her through,” Jain said.

  Sheila’s voice sounded a moment later: “The Daktor is ready to open the rift.”

  “Thanks, I’ll be right there,” Jain said.

  It was time to send a message to Earth.

  He logged back into the false reality of VR.

  When the virtual bridge finished loading, he sat down in the waiting chair. The other Mind Refurbs resided at their stations, these captains of vessels in their own rights.

  “Start opening the rift,” Jain told Sheila. “Xander, prepare to launch the probe.”

  “Do you have your message ready?” Xander asked.

  “I do,” Jain said. “Begin record. This is Lieutenant Commander Jain Sagan, of the Mind Refurb Battle Group Void Warriors. We are outlaws. Or we were. But we have returned to render whatever aid we can to humanity, and to our Mind Refurb brothers and sisters. We have eighteen warships, manned by a team of six battle-hardened Mind Refurbs. We have experience fighting against a race of aliens known as the Mimics. Do you want our assistance? End record.”

  “The rift is open,” Sheila said.

  “Send probe,” Jain told Xander.

  The Accomp’s eyes defocused.

  On the tactical map, Jain watched the dot representing the probe emerge from the Talos, and travel through the rift. It decelerated the whole way, and returned a moment later.

  Jain glanced at Xander.

  “The area is still clear on the other side,” Xander said. “The warships remain clustered around Earth.”

  “All right, send it back, and transmit the message,” Jain said.

  The probe traveled through once more.

  “Close the rift,” Jain ordered.

  “It’s gone,” Sheila said.

  The probe would stay in the Earth system for the next twelve hours until Sheila opened the rift again. That would be more than enough time to relay the message to humanity, and to receive a response.

  The team spent most of the rest of the day practicing in the training environment, enduring the latest round of humiliating exercises against the simulated Mimic fleet. Xander was the only one who seemed happy when the session was done.

  Finally it came time to create the rift once more. Sheila opened it. The probe flew inside almost immediately—it had been waiting on the other side.

  “Anything?” Jain asked Xander.

  The robed Accomp nodded. “We have a message waiting.”

  “Let’s have it,” Jain said.r />
  A hologram appeared on the bridge in front of Jain. It was an older man, with a bald head, and deep crevices around his eyes.

  “Hello, Jain Sagan, and the Void Warriors,” the man said. “I am Fleet Admiral Frank Gauss, of the Seventh Fleet.”

  “Fleet Admiral,” Cranston said. “Nice. We’re moving up in the world.”

  “Or down,” Medeia commented.

  “I got your message,” Gauss continued. “You may not know this, but you were cleared of any wrongdoing in the Andreas V and Ablativus incidents years ago. You see, shortly after you disappeared, the Mimics attacked. In force. We realized everything you told us had been true, but we were too blind to see it. Not that it would have mattered. They systematically destroyed the colonies and bases distributed about Earth’s interstellar neighborhood. We watched helplessly as worlds fell, and systems were lost. We mounted several failed offensives. We drew ships away from the Eastern Galactic Front to boost our numbers, weakening our defenses against the Link. Now those systems are lost, and the Link makes intrusions from the eastern front, while the Mimics press us from the west.”

  The fleet admiral sighed. “We’re down to our last few systems. I’m not sure there is much you can do at this point, but your help is definitely welcome. We won’t say no to more warships. We could best use you in the Nata system. That’s where the Mimics have been concentrating their latest attacks.”

  “That would explain why we spotted eighty ships in that system,” Gavin said.

  “I’ve already relayed a message to the commander there,” Admiral Gauss continued. “They will be expecting you… should you decide to make good on your offer of help, that is. The fleet commander will have more instructions once you arrive. Thank you, and lieutenant commander? Welcome back to the fold.”

  The hologram winked out.

  “I can’t hold the rift open for much longer,” Sheila said.

  Jain had forgotten it was still open. “Close it.”

  The rift winked out.

  He turned toward his crew. “Well, I guess we’re going to Nata.”

  11

  Jain sat cross-legged on the grass. In front of him was a rocky outcrop illuminated by different-colored lamps. The rocks were reflected in a pool of water at the base of the outcrop, along with the stars overhead.

  He received a contact request from Sheila, requesting access to the private VR partition he’d set up. He considered denying her, but that would be rude, so he accepted.

  Sheila materialized beside him. Her face cycled in hue from red, green and blue as the lamps changed colors in front of her.

  “Cool.” She sat down and folded her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees to hold the posture.

  “You never have any virtual companions...” Sheila said.

  “No,” Jain said.

  “No females, no males, no one,” Sheila said. “The rest of us have taken virtual lovers.”

  “I know,” Jain said. The subject had come up a few times during the shared bonding sessions, though Jain always remained quiet during such discussions.

  “I don’t need them,” Jain said. “I never did, even when I was human. I guess I inherited my low sex drive.”

  “Maybe you should pump up your libido values,” Sheila said. “There’s a subroutine for that.”

  “Maybe I should,” he agreed.

  Sheila regarded him sidelong. “But of course you won’t.”

  “Probably not,” Jain said. He paused. “You know, the low libido thing... I wasn’t always this way. When I was in my early twenties, I basically mounted anything that moved.”

  “What changed?” Sheila asked.

  “I went to war,” Jain replied.

  “Ah.” She reached out, and held his hand.

  He looked down at her palm intertwined with his, and gently pulled his fingers away.

  A look of disappointment flashed across her face, but she quickly masked it, and returned her gaze to the pool of water.

  “According to your file, you got married after you retired,” Sheila said.

  Jain nodded. “Yes.”

  “She must have been quite the special woman to convince you to leave behind your bachelor’s life.”

  “She was,” Jain said. He sighed.

  “What’s on your mind?” Sheila pressed.

  He looked at her, and hesitated, unsure if he wanted to reveal anything more to her. But he decided it would probably feel better to get it off his chest. “I’ve been experimenting with re-enabling my dreams. I wanted to restore some of the holes in my memories. But I wasn’t expecting those memories to be so... tortured.”

  Sheila nodded. “Much of life is suffering. It’s how we deal with the suffering that makes us who we are.”

  “Is it?” Jain said. “Are you sure you’re not spouting some platitude you don’t even really believe in? I’ve killed so many innocents. They were aliens, true, but innocent the same. At first I thought, why should I care about some stupid alien child. It’s not human. It’s just some thing. A species that we’re at war with anyway. But then I got thinking. Why were we at war with them? I love the military, and the honorable men and women I served with. Just like I love you guys. But sometimes I have to question the people giving the orders.”

  Sheila rested her head against her knees. “You know, I fragged one of my commanders, back in the day.”

  “Fragged, as in killed?” Jain said in disbelief.

  “That’s right,” Sheila said. “I’m not proud of it.”

  Jain shook his head. “You never struck me as the backstabbing, murdering type...”

  Sheila glanced at him and her face darkened. “Don’t judge me. Not until you hear the whole story.” She looked away to gaze at the changing lights in the pool. After several moments, she sighed. “I sometimes wonder how I ever passed the qualifications to become a Mind Refurb. I guess they weren’t able to ferret out the memory, I’ve buried it so deep.”

  “What happened exactly?” Jain asked.

  “I threw a grenade at my commander in the middle of combat and remotely detonated it. I disabled my logging mechanisms before I threw it of course, and was careful to do the deed out of the line of sight of any watchers, either human or machine. I never got caught, and his death was blamed on the enemy.”

  “I know he must have been a bad leader, but why resort to something like this?” Jain asked.

  “Well, the thing is, he was an AI,” Sheila said. “A Mind Refurb, actually.”

  “Ah,” Jain said. “So in your mind, it was like you were shutting down a malfunctioning robot.”

  “Exactly,” Sheila said. “You were human, once. You know how we looked at Mind Refurbs... I took it as an insult that they’d assign a machine to lead us in the first place, even if that machine had a human mind operating it. And yeah, he was also a really bad leader. Almost every day he led us into ambushes. You know, one of those who wanted to get a big medal when the war was done, and get his face live streamed all over the net, while throwing away the lives of those who served underneath him. We lost at least two deck crew per week. This was the war against the Xenon 626, by the way.”

  “I remember that war, too,” Jain said. “But you were supposed to be a Machinist’s Mate.”

  “I was,” Sheila said. “But I lost a good friend under that a-hole, and I decided I wasn’t going to stand for it. His name was Sarkley, and he commanded an MDP—mobile defense platform. You know, essentially a glorified gunship. It had a crew of twenty, including me, the Machinist’s Mate. We were part of the airborne assaults during the Battle of Talowna. After I did the deed, as soon as we got back to base, they restored him from a backup.”

  “Did you frag him again?” Jain asked.

  “Hell no,” Sheila said. “He installed extra cameras all over the gunship, it would’ve been too much work to cover my tracks. Anyway, after the Battle of Talowna, we were assigned mostly low risk duties for the remainder of the war.”

  "S
o wait a sec,” Jain said. “After we first awakened as Mind Refurbs, weren't you the one who was all gung-ho about rejoining the main fleet, and reinserting yourself into the hierarchy of command? If you were so anti-military, why would you want that?"

  "I never said I was anti-military,” she told him. “Just anti-machine, maybe. At least when it came to commanding officers. And at the time I woke up, the fragging incident was ten years in my past—relative to my memory sense—so I was a slightly different person by then. Someone more appreciative of AIs. Or more respectful of them, anyway, as well as the entire military apparatus as a whole. We had come a long way since that war, at least I thought so at the time. Which is why I volunteered to have my mind scanned. I know, it’s kind of a one-eighty, but that’s the way I am. When I was younger, I was a vegan for fifteen years, and then swung all the way to the other side, becoming full carnivore for the next fifteen."

  Jain stared at her for a moment, and then grinned widely.

  “Fragging a commander.” Jain whistled softly. “Remind me never to cross you.”

  “I’d never do that to you,” Sheila said. “You’re a far better leader than he ever was. Than I ever could be.”

  “I see now why you were afraid to accept the role of fleet commander, when I restored everyone from their backups for the first time,” Jain said. “Even though you had seniority in grade, by our updated definition of the rule.”

  She chuckled. “That’s partially why, yes. I was definitely worried you guys would frag me. Because I would have been that bad.”

  “So wait, when you woke up to find that you were now an officer yourself, that must have been some surprise…” Jain said. “Automatically promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander, just for being a Mind Refurb.”

  “That I had a ship for a body was more of a surprise, believe me,” Sheila said.

  Jain laughed softly, then looked away from her, becoming serious. “Thanks for sharing all of that.” He was quiet for a moment, and stared at the stars. “You know, this is the VR environment that I woke up to the very first time. This pool of water, with the lights, and the stars overhead. The forest behind me.”