Jason grimaced as he tried to get a lock-on with his smart scope, but the second creature moved too fast. “No shot. I repeat, I have no shot!”
A bipedal lifter bot emerged from the sand near the side of the rover, leapt up and got onto the vehicle’s roof. The robot used its manipulative arms and tore open Jason’s life support pack. Jason’s helmet immediately sensed the loss of oxygen as it activated the emergency canister, giving him a few more minutes of air. Jason shouted an alarm as he fell to the ground beside the rover, his gyrojet rifle tumbling away from him. The lifter bot leapt down from the top of the vehicle and drove its foot down onto his torso, collapsing his chest. Jason gurgled a bit of blood before he closed his eyes and died.
Darian drew her pistol and held it out as the lifter bot tore through the thin sheeting of the damaged airlock to get at them. Matt leveled his carbine and fired, striking the robot a number of times at its armored torso, but he was only able to disable its left arm actuator. The bot slammed its right limb at Brian, and the retired police detective was instantly hurled sideways across the room. Darian took careful aim and fired at the robot’s lidar and collision sensors that were located on its head. The first shot bounced off the side of the metal frame, but the second bullet embedded itself right on the sensor input, rendering the robot blind. The stricken machine began to thrash about wildly, and it collided with Lisa, who was too scared to move away in time. Sensing another target, the robot used its three remaining limbs to curl around the screaming medic, collapsing her ribcage and breaking her spine.
With the berserk robot’s back turned towards him, Matt spotted the exposed battery module and fired, his multiple shots tearing into the power cells and permanently damaging the core links. The robot stopped moving. Darian ran over to it and threw the machine to one side in order to get to Lisa, who was lying immobile on the ground. As she ran a medical diagnostic using her helmet’s smartglass, Darian could see that Lisa’s pulse was rapidly fading, and there was nothing that she could do.
Stilicho leapt over to where Brian was lying face down on the floor. He turned the other man over and used his smartglass to check his health status. Brian wheezed and clutched his chest. At least he was alive and conscious, but it looked like his ribcage was fractured. Stilicho held him gently by his arms as he started to help the stricken man up.
Matt still had ammunition left in his carbine’s attached magazine, but he quickly reloaded with a fresh one. “Chester,” he said over the com-link. “Bring the rover to where the breach is. We need immediate evac right now.”
For the last few minutes, Chester just sat on the driver’s seat, totally stunned. When the creature leapt up onto the roof of the rover and threw Jason off, all he could do was blink in shock. He continued to sit lifelessly as the lifter bot ambled right past him and smashed through the patched up side of the outpost. He saw brief flashes of gunfire, and now he could hear Matt’s voice on the intercom, telling him to move. As he placed his hands on the steering wheel, the vehicle radar let out a short beep. Looking at the rear camera video feed, he saw that another spider creature was rapidly wriggling towards him. Gripped by a sense of coming terror, Chester stomped on the accelerator. The rover lurched forward and quickly sped off into the dusty haze.
Matt stood near the side of the breach in disbelief as the rover zoomed right by the edge of the outpost. “Chester, what in the hell are you doing?”
The rover jerked from side to side as Chester continued to accelerate the vehicle to its maximum speed. Ignoring the speed and collision warnings emanating from the HUD, all he could think about was in getting away from that thing. There was no visibility in front of him, but it didn’t matter as long as he could put some distance from that horrid creature. The rover’s tires drove over a few large rocks, and it made the vehicle bounce up and down, yet Chester thought it was an acceptable complication. Matt’s voice over the intercom changed from an incredulous request for him to come back into outright swearing, so Chester muted all the incoming calls to the rover. The vehicle’s lidar systems were overtaxed and could not compensate due to the high speed, and it couldn’t reconcile with the onboard map guide until it was too late. Chester hardly noticed a slight incline as the rover drove up to the southern edge of Batos Crater, only to zoom past the crater lip. The vehicle seemed to be suspended in thin air for a brief moment before plunging down half a kilometer over the crater walls. The rover flipped onto its back and rolled along its sides until it finally steeled at the bottom of the pit. Chester had not been wearing his seatbelt, and he fell on top of his head before the air bags fully deployed, breaking his neck. He died almost instantly.
Matt knew they had to get to the other rover. He estimated it to be less than ten meters away, but with visibility cut at less than half they would be stumbling about in the mists until they found it. He glanced briefly to the others. “We need to get to the other rover, now!”
Darian looked up while still crouching over Lisa. She was fighting back tears. “She’s dead.”
Brian groaned as Stilicho placed the security officer’s left arm over his shoulder. Stilicho thought it would be hard going, but the light gravity made Brian surprisingly light. “Let’s get going,” Stilicho said.
Darian was able to recompose herself as she stood up and walked over to the edge of the breach, her pistol ready. “What happened to Chester?”
Matt shook his head slightly while keeping an eye out towards the mists. “Chester chickened out.”
Stilicho grimaced. If it were up to him, he’d send Chester back to Earth on a one way trip in steerage class, assuming they lived through this.
“Get ready,” Matt said. “Stay close to me.”
“Let’s go already,” Stilicho said.
Matt trotted out first, his carbine continuously pivoting in different directions. It would be a short sprint, but there was no telling where the enemy would be coming from. Darian followed, her pistol aimed low. Stilicho supported Brain as they were the last to venture out into the storm. Ten steps to get to the rover, then a few minutes to enter through the rear airlock. It was task that seemed trivial, but there were dangerous adversaries waiting for them in the dust.
Stilicho tapped his helmet visor while half-carrying Brian. “Maia, talk to me.”
“I’m with you, Stil,” Maia said. “I had to fend off multiple remote intrusions into my core operating files. I am starting up both the rover and the truck for you.”
Matt wasn’t sure where he was going, but he twisted to his left the moment the rover’s headlights were activated. He glanced briefly at the other three and pointed towards the vehicle. “This way.”
All four of them made it to the side of the rover. Matt started to guide them to the rear. “You guys get in, I’ll cover you.”
Darian opened the rear airlock and climbed up into the cabin. She turned and held out her hand. “Let’s get Brian in.”
Just as Darian was able to clasp Brian’s hands and started to pull him up. The second spider bot landed on top of the roof and one of its tentacles curled around Brian’s neck and flung him away into the hazy mists. Darian tried to hold on, but the force of the yank was too much for her and she fell out, back onto the sandy ground. Matt aimed his carbine and fired, but the creature was too fast and quickly retreated to the front of the rover. All three of them heard the sounds of grinding metal.
“It’s destroying the rover!” Darian said as she pointed her handgun along the side of the shuddering vehicle. She fired a few shots, but she couldn’t tell if the bullets hit anything.
“Maia,” Stilicho said. “Can you bring the robotruck to us?”
“On the way,” Maia said. The robotic flatbed immediately accelerated and drove towards them.
“Don’t stop,” Stilicho said as he gestured at the others to follow him. “Let’s go!”
All three of them ran towards the robotruck as it drove by. Darian was closest to it and was able to make a quick leap as she landed on the fl
atbed. Matt ran full speed and jumped up onto the side. Stilicho was last, and Maia slowed the vehicle down to help him catch up with it. Darian let out a shout of alarm as the spider thing suddenly appeared right behind ACE Corp’s chief troubleshooter, but Matt’s controlled bursts of fire forced the enemy robot to retreat back into the clouds of dust. Stilicho made one last burst of speed as he was able to grab onto Darian’s hand and was pulled up onto the rear platform. The moment he was onboard, Maia accelerated to make their escape.
Chapter 14
By the next day, they had gotten past the edges of the dust storm. The south central part of Chryse Planitia was mostly flat, and Maia was able to maintain a steady speed using maximum power. They were heading southwest, towards Hypanis Vallis, just under seven hundred kilometers away. Maia had estimated another eight hours of transit time. The going would be mostly smooth until they hit the northern edge of Chryse Chaos, an area of rough terrain some three hundred kilometers wide. Stilicho ordered his AI to just take the easier route, and they would make a slight northwesterly detour once they got past the southern rim of Suf Crater. It would add another few hours to the journey, but the longer route would be safer when it came to minimizing potential hazards of the terrain.
Stilicho blinked his eyes open as he lay curled up inside the emergency pressure tent that had been deployed on the flatbed. The truck had carried their supplies, and it included a half dozen popup tents that resembled man-sized hexagonal beach balls when pressurized. Each emergency tent had a double layered entrance that could serve as an impromptu airlock, and air canisters located at its base had twelve hours of life support for two people. Since the truck didn’t have a pressurized cabin for sleeping, all three of them engaged a separate popup tent between the cargo crates at the rear of the vehicle. Breathing in pure oxygen from their life support backpacks would eventually make them sick, and it was necessary to go back to a high-pressure atmosphere after a few hours of EVA.
The tent lining was partially transparent, and Stilicho could see the other two were still in their own pressure tents. He took out a pair of smartglasses from his belt and placed them over his eyes before putting on the accompanying earpiece. “Maia, you there?”
“Good afternoon, Stil,” Maia said. “How was your sleep?”
Stilicho shook his head. His dreams were nothing but a series of nightmares that replayed the horrors they encountered the night before. “Could be better. What’s our situation now?”
“We have already begun the detour two hours ago,” Maia said. “In another hour, we shall return to a southern course towards Hypanis Vallis. Our estimated time of arrival will be in five hours.”
“Have you detected any hostile contacts since the dust storm?”
“Negative, but the truck’s radar has a maximum range of ten kilometers,” Maia said. “Those enemy robots may be able to skirt around us without detection should they choose to do so.”
Stilicho sighed. He looked around and noticed a water bottle lying near the side of the tent. He picked it up and wiped away some of the fine dust that had settled at the bottom of the shelter. The tent was for emergency use only and he had climbed into it without dusting off his skinsuit. It was now a fact that he would have to face mandatory quarantine protocols when he got back to Eridu. If he got back. Stilicho opened the top of the plastic bottle and took a sip. “What do you think about this enemy of ours, Maia?”
“I have partly analyzed the code that attempted an intrusion into my systems,” Maia said. “It had the hallmarks of an advanced AI design, quite similar to my own architecture.”
Stilicho sighed while wiping some of the pulverized sand off his skinsuit. “It’s Karl Rossum’s doing, isn’t it?”
“There is a high probability that the code could have indeed originated from him,” Maia said.
Stilicho looked down. “You are loyal to me, aren’t you?”
“Yes of course, Stil,” Maia said. “I am always loyal to you. Why do you ask?”
“Because I need to trust you not to turn on me if I have to neutralize Karl Rossum,” Stilicho said. “He’s your creator, after all.”
“While it is true Karl Rossum created my core architecture,” Maia said. “Errol Flux did add some of his own hard coding into it. You are assigned as a unique user, and my goal is to assist you in any way possible. I have no desire to harm anyone because I have never been programmed to do so.”
“You won’t have a crisis of loyalty if it comes to a confrontation with Rossum? I’m just trying to take what you feel into account here,” Stilicho said.
“Stil, I have no feelings- for I am but a machine,” Maia said. “I know what I am. My voice may modulate when I chat with you, but rest assured I do not feel any emotions whatsoever. My audio inflexions are for your benefit.”
“What do you think he’s doing?” Stilicho said. “Why are his robots trying to kill us all?”
“I recorded and analyzed the wireless commands that came through the network during the attack on the outpost, and none of the other robots we encountered exhibited any independent AI,” Maia said. “It seems that they were merely programmed to eliminate organics.”
Stilicho’s eyebrows shot up. “Organics? Is that the word that was actually used?”
“That was what I could decrypt from their wireless communications,” Maia said. “The robots that we encountered were talking to each other using the network, and they were tasked to eliminate any non-robotic units by using coordinated attacks.”
“Did any of the codes you intercepted give a reason as to why?”
“I am afraid not, Stil,” Maia said. “They were strictly commands. I suspect that there is an AI controller somewhere on the planet’s surface that is giving out these orders.”
Stilicho nodded. At least he was starting to figure out the whole thing now. All he had to do was to find a way to get this information back to ACE Corp, and to Earth. “So you think I made the right choice to go to the Mars First Colony as opposed to trying to get back to Eridu?”
“The return trip back to Eridu would have been over seven thousand five hundred kilometers, a very risky journey to make without a pressurized rover,” Maia said. “As it happens the current destination is the only viable alternative.”
“I just feel like we’re about to go into the lion’s den, so to speak,” Stilicho said. “Do you really think Karl would be crazy enough to create a bunch of killer robots?”
“I cannot be certain,” Maia said. “But analyzing his behavior before the disappearance it seems to indicate mental instability. His last voice entries clearly points to an obsession with his son. At the same time there has been no prior evidence of Karl ever showing any violent tendencies.”
Stilicho nodded. “I see. So he finds his son’s dead body out here somewhere, then decides to cannibalize everything and builds a combat AI to kill any organic it encounters. What a goddamn mess this is.”
“I cannot help but be reminded of a scientific term for this whole affair,” Maia said.
“And what term is that?”
“Something called a piranha solution,” Maia said.
Stilicho pursed his lips. “What does that mean?”
“A piranha solution is a liquid mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide,” Maia said. “It is used to clean organic residue from substrates. People use it to clear glassware, and there were cases of criminals using the chemical mix to dispose of dead bodies. Another meaning of the word ‘solution’ is that of a means to solving a problem.”
“Oh I get it,” Stilicho said. “So Karl thinks humans are the problem and he wants to eliminate us from this planet, is that it?”
“An apt analogy, wouldn’t you say?”
Stilicho rolled his eyes. “You need to work on your humor module. Going for black comedy at a time like this is totally inappropriate.”
Maia’s voice went down a notch to indicate she was apologetic. “I’m sorry, Stil.”
It was dusk by the
time the robotruck reached the outskirts of Hypanis Vallis. The three of them were back to wearing their helmets and life support backpacks as they stood just behind the flatbed’s control module. They could see the rows of buildings which belonged to Mars First out in the distance, jutting from the edges of the Noachian outflow. Each module in the colony looked like an upright cylinder, joined together with enclosed walkways that made the whole structure resemble a giant fence. There was no apparent activity from the outside, but they were still a few kilometers away from a more precise observation.
Matt checked his carbine to make sure that the barrel was more or less clean. He had about six magazines of ammunition left. Matt silently grieved for the loss of his team a few hours ago and was now itching for revenge. “This was the first colony to be abandoned, right?”
Darian nodded. “Almost sixteen years ago, to be precise. One hundred and twenty fanatics who thought they would live like gods on a new planet. In less than three years after they arrived, there were already reports of problems, but they never publicly admitted to it.”
“I read the ACE Corp case files,” Stilicho said. “Errol was here during that time, and he got secret communications from their leader Silas Balsamic, begging Eridu for supplies. Errol did what he could, and it was never made public.”
Matt turned to look at the pair of them. “It was all about money wasn’t it?”
“Money and a whole bunch of other things,” Darian said. “When they set up the colony they were just way too optimistic. They thought they would solve any problems on their own and they took a lot of shortcuts, which later bit them in the butt. They didn’t have any radiation shielding since they built their structures without hydrogenised materials, and had them deployed right on the surface. A lot of them got sick, and they were totally dependent on solar power. Every time a dust storm struck, they had to hunker down on minimal life support, and their plants in the greenhouses died because of the power rationing. Most of their EVAs were spent cleaning the solar arrays from dust since they couldn’t afford any robots. Then things just got even worse from there.”
The Piranha Solution: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (Ace of Space Book 1) Page 18
