Children of Dawn

by B. C. Johnson

  Roland nodded. “I will admit that some of our members are a bit overzealous, mainly the more vociferous ones, but that does not mean they should be silenced! This land used to allow people the freedoms to speak whatever they wanted to say, think whatever they deemed fit to think. Don’t you see that is what we are trying to get back?”

  “The country that once encompassed these lands was corrupt and impure, their destruction is evidence of that.” Anna stated.

  “So mistakes were made, lives were lost, but ideas never die.” Roland argued.

  Anna relaxed her hold again, her logic circuits running circles around which was right, her programming or Roland’s words. Roland noticed her uneasiness. “Look past your programming, look past the cold steel and circuits. What do you feel is right? They did program you with feelings didn’t they?”

  Anna straightened. “No, feelings cloud judgment, create bias. Androids cannot be bias in our investigations.”

  Roland sighed. He paced a few steps with Anna’s gun still pointed at him. He was suddenly hit with an idea. “Then finish the investigation…”

  Anna did not understand. “Say again.”

  Roland crossed his arms. “You are on an investigation of me and the Regulators, and we are going to that base. You might as well come along. What’s the alternative? I’m not letting you leave here, you’d have to shoot me. With me dead, the other Regulators would disband and hide, never letting you catch them. Years from now someone else will pick up what we started, and you’ll have an even harder time catching them.”

  Anna thought for a full five seconds before realizing what he said actually did make logical sense. She could continue working on gathering intelligence without taking a particular side. She lowered her weapon and holstered it beneath her blouse. Roland sighed in relief. “Glad to see they programmed you with reason.”

  “This does not mean I am on your side. You are terrorists and I will expose your organization. You will have to answer to the Tribunal.”

  Roland sighed. “I haven’t given up trying to change your mind just yet…”

  “No one must know of my purpose here. Otherwise your organization will be terminated.” Anna stated.

  “No need to be making threats, I won’t be telling anyone. Not that they would believe me anyways.” Roland said with a cocky grin.

  Access Log

  File number 137494

  Android Serial number: 2338

  Codename: Anna

  29 September 2313

  0154 hrs.

  The drop ship sped over the forest so low and so quickly that Anna felt they would rip the treetops right off their trunks. The LX5 Light Armored Hover Transport was a relic by any conventional standards, but the Regulators had done a good job refitting it from industrial chemical movement to troop carrying capacity. For terrorists they certainly were smart.

  Anna still wasn’t completely sure why she was on this mission. Her programming parameters screamed at her to trigger an alarm of some kind as soon as they set foot inside the base, but then her investigation would be over and the rest of the Regulators would surely go underground. However, what if Roland was right? What if the Tribunal was the one who was wrong? Morality was a concept that only humans fathomed, her reasoning power was based on fact. The only problem was, the facts painted both sides as being corrupt. One took away freedoms to maintain order, where the other one allowed just and unjust behaviors simply to keep said freedoms. Both sides lied, both sides hid, both sides had secrets. She turned to Roland who was surprisingly dozing with his head against the side of the aircraft. She made sure she spoke at a decibel where only he could hear her. “How can you trust your partners?”

  Roland blinked his eyes open and looked at her. “What?”

  “You speak as if you truly believe in the cause you fight for. How can you trust that your fellow Regulators fight for the same reason?”

  Roland shook his head. “We all fight for different reasons. Some fight for family, others revenge, or others like me, to be free. Despite what you may think we’re only trying to get the Tribunal to see that not everyone can be ignored or silenced.”

  Anna nodded. Human reasoning was never something she was ever programmed to understand, even though her very inquisitive nature made her question it in every investigation she handled. “Then… how can you trust me?”

  Roland smiled and laid his head back against the interior siding. “I don’t.”

  The drop ship set down in a murky swamp a few thousand meters away from the facility’s exterior gates. Anna, Roland, Marcus and a small security team jumped off as quickly as they could, allowing the transport to move on with only a few seconds delay. Any motion sensing equipment or radar the facility had would think the transport was merely changing course and wouldn’t suspect any incursion teams. Roland and Marcus pulled out an ancient compass and plotted their position. Roland smiled as Anna gave him a perplexed look. “We will have to use these old tools to get to the facility. If they have electromagnetic sensors, we risk giving away our position if we use anything electronic.”

  For terrorists they were very, very smart.

  They managed to traverse the terrain pretty quickly. Anna had to put up with rests and water breaks, even though she could have easily sprinted the distance in a fraction of the time on her own. She remembered she still needed to act human. When they finally reached the edge of the wood line they peered out across an open field to the facility perimeter. Four towers cornered the exterior chain-linked fence. The large factory was in the far northern sector of the base, with smaller buildings adjacent to it. Marcus broke their silence. “No lights, no guards, is this place abandoned?”

  Roland turned his gaze to the field between them and the fence, noticing small holes and uplifted mounds at random intervals. “Not likely, the exterior area is all mined.”

  Roland and Marcus began to discuss various ways to cross the minefield, but Anna was already analyzing the ground. She could pick up faint heat signatures of the computer sensors inside each mine. In a few seconds she had every tiny explosive mapped and a route planned. She took a few steps back and then sprinted forward past the two men. Through a series of cartwheels, jumps, flips and acrobatics, she managed to gracefully traverse the deadly trap laid field in a matter of seconds without setting off as much as a ground sensor. Marcus stared at Roland in disbelief. Roland grinned nervously. “Told you she was full of surprises.”

  Anna went to a control box at the foot of one of the guard towers and pulled a power lever down. Instantly the power to the mines was cut and she noticed the heat waves dissipating. She motioned for the others to follow her.

  They crept from building to building, always staying in the shadows, never exposing themselves. The entire facility was dark and silent; an eerie feeling came over Roland. “They must have this place fully automated or something, still, it’s not like the Tribunal to leave a base unguarded.”

  “I don’t like it.” Marcus said, pistol in hand.

  Anna’s motion sensors couldn’t pick up a single blip, and her thermals showed no bodies anywhere to be seen. Perhaps the idea of the base being abandoned was right. They made their way quietly to the factory’s side door and broke the lock to gain entrance.

  Inside were conveyer belts and robust machinery placed about the open expanse of the main assembly floor. Huge robotic arms hung from the ceiling like lumbering stalactites, casting odd shadows on the floor from the moonlight. They found a control room with a vast array of computer terminals and Roland began powering one up while Marcus and the security team stood watch. “Encryption software on this place is ancient.” He said, tapping away on the keyboard. “I could break into this system in my sleep.”

  Anna stood beside him, watching the various windows pop open and shut as Roland poured through the computer’s subroutines. He hacked through another security block and finally found what he was looking for. “Bingo.” He said triumphantly.

  The informatio
n scrolled across the screen like a burst water main. Roland’s eyes aglow with excitement. “Ok… looks like we were right, it’s a mech factory. Sanctioned by the Tribunal over ten years ago for development of a top level unit of some kind. Wait…” He said alarmed. “What’s this? Bios? Psych evals?”

  Roland clicked on a few more windows and sat back aghast. “Oh my God…”

  Anna looked over what he had found. The computer laid out career records, psychological profiles, and accident reports of various individuals in Arcadia’s residency. They were all soldiers or police officers who had died in the line of duty. Their achievements were organized into lists of potentiality and a status bar next to each name classified them as either likely or unlikely candidates. They were each given a number, 0001, 0146, all the way up to… 2338. Anna suddenly came to the realization as well. “They aren’t just building mechs here…” Roland said aghast. “They were building…you!”

  Anna didn’t quite know how to integrate this new information into her databanks. Before she could do anything however; the factory came alive with lights and noise. Heavily armored soldiers broke through the doors and crashed through the upper windows on ropes. They ran across the ramparts and amongst the heavy machinery on the assembly floor. They each took a defensive position and drew down their rifles on the intruders in the computer room. In a matter of seconds they had surrounded and cornered them. It was a trap!

  Marcus took a defensive position behind one of the walls as Roland joined him. Anna scanned the room and zoomed in on one of the armored men’s uniform. “Arcadia Defense Forces.” She exclaimed.

  “They sent the bloody army after us!” Marcus yelled.

  Roland withdrew his own sidearm and padded Marcus on the shoulder. “How many would you say there are? 40? 50? Tough odds even for you my friend.”

  A voice came over the loudspeakers before they had any more time to create a battle plan. “You are surrounded by the best Arcadia has to offer, Gentlemen. I wouldn’t suggest trying to escape.”

  Roland recognized the voice instantly. Marcus turned to him. “Is that…?”

  Anna stepped forward into the open. “Chairman Fairchild.”

  On the rampart high above them, Chairman Fairchild held a microphone in his hand and gazed down upon the bewildered thieves. He had a faint smile across his face and spoke with confidence and security. “Well done my dear, I never expected you would take your assignment so seriously.”

  Jenna and Aaron came out from behind two large furnaces on either side of Anna, ready to neutralize her if the need arose. Anna found herself in a very odd position. “Sir,” She exclaimed, “I was going to bring these two into custody as soon as I was able to capture the rest of the leadership. This raid will only send the remainder of the Regulators into hiding!”

  Chairman Fairchild nodded. “I understand Anna, but I’m afraid I couldn’t allow them to walk out of here with the information they have gathered.”

  Roland yelled to her from behind his cover. “Don’t believe him Anna! He’ll kill us all for what we’ve discovered here! Don’t you get it? This is where they’re making the Androids! This is where they made you!”

  Images began to surge through Anna’s pathways, a siren, flashing lights, a hostage situation, a man with a gun. She blinked incessantly to clear her processors. She looked to the Chairman with an almost pleading stare. “The Tribunal used you, don’t you get that? According to these records you were once a highly decorated officer of the Arcadian Police who died in the line of duty!” Roland yelled, reading subject 2338’s bio off the computer screen. “Anna, you were once human!”

  Anna looked towards Fairchild for confirmation, and she could see in his eyes it was true. She withdrew her Mark III, pointing it at him in an almost violent thrust. Fairchild held up his hand. “Anna, you were killed before your time. Like your brothers and sisters we rebuilt you to serve a higher purpose, to truly protect Arcadia and her people. We made you stronger, faster, and smarter than you ever were. Devoid of emotional clout and corruption, you and your fellow Androids became the true embodiment of a pure Arcadia. You became our Heroes.”

  “Wrong! You became their slaves!” Roland yelled back. “They stripped you of your humanity and sent you out to do their dirty work. Don’t let him manipulate you any further Anna!”

  Anna’s processors were a firestorm of data. More flashes came, an operating table, a sting that stretched down to the very fiber of her being. Cold steel replacing what once was flesh. Wires replacing what was once circulatory system. Fairchild yelled back, “I saved your life, brought you back from the brink! I saw your true potential Anna, I saw what you could really become.”

  Roland ran to the computer screen, searching for anything that might help him. A kill-switch, memory core, something. Finally he found what he needed. “That’s it! A control chip!” He yelled, “Anna, feel at the base of your skull, right where it meets the spine. Hurry!”

  Anna’s hand trembled as she did as she was told. There at the exact spot that Roland had named was a lump of some kind. Her connection chip to M.A.D.R.E., theoretically if she were to remove it, then she would be free of the Tribunal’s control. Her programming would no longer override her logic circuits. In a sense she would gain free will.

  Fairchild reached out to grab her attention. “Think on what you are about to do, my dear. Your entire existence is because of the Tribunal! Are you really going to throw that all away to side with terrorists? “

  Anna looked down to the floor, her mind a whirl of questions. Everything she had been programmed to believe was a lie, but could she really side with Roland and his band of criminals? Could she really turn against everything she had ever known and fought to protect? No program or memory could help her now; she had to make a decision. Side with the Tribunal, or side the Regulators?

  Chapter 8

  Access Log

  File number 137495

  Android Serial number: 2338

  Codename: Anna

  29 September 2313

  0400 hrs.

  Anna dug her nails into the soft skin layer of her outer coating and gripped the chip as hard as she could. She pulled back and ripped it from its port at the top of her synthetic spinal cord. Sparks flew from the base of her skull as she yelled out in what sounded like pain. Chairman Fairchild dove for cover. “Open Fire!” He yelled.

  The factory became alive with gunfire as the Regulators and Tribunal forces traded rounds. Anna fell to her knees and dropped the chip to the floor, looking up just in time to see Aaron plow into her.

  Marcus and the few other Regulator guards fired off their weapons, but they were simply trying to scatter the Tribunal forces as best they could. “We have to get out of here.” Marcus screamed to Roland.

  Roland’s fingers were flying across the keyboard, trying to download as much information as possible. “Not without this intel, this is what we need to hold over their heads.”

  “What about the girl?” Marcus yelled.

  Roland looked to his right, watching as Anna kicked Aaron back, sending him flying across the room. “Looks like she doesn’t need saving.”

  Aaron planted his feet on the floor, carving a path back into the far wall. He slammed into the concrete siding, leaving an imprint of his outline. He pushed himself out, stalking towards Anna like a wild dog. Jenna stood by idly. “You realize she outmatches you.” She said.

  “The odds favor a joint assault.” Aaron agreed.

  Jenna’s processors were still attempting to class Anna’s friend/foe calibration. “Having difficulty, Android 2338 still designated as friendly contact, my circuits are unable to distinguish anything she has done as illegal…”

  Chairman Fairchild yelled out to Jenna over the commotion. “Override code 02739!”

  Jenna’s eyes flashed a series of colors, as if she just lost control of her brain for a second. She shook her head, trying to counteract the sudden wave of confusion that took her. “I… what’s happening
to me?”

  “Jenna, target Android 2338, apprehend her immediately.” Fairchild ordered.

  Anna looked on in shock. Jenna’s eyes flashed again a series of colors, her gears sputtered as if her logic circuits were trying to override Fairchild’s demand but somehow couldn’t. Finally Jenna agreed. “New mission verified, moving in.”

  Aaron cracked his knuckles. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

  “You’re not supposed to be able to do that…” Anna remarked. “Androids are incorruptible! We take our orders from processing threats, not from any one source!”

  Fairchild stood, straightening his suit and tie. “Yes well, a little insurance policy I installed years ago. Just in case.”

  Anna’s gears started turning faster than she could possibly comprehend. Her insides felt as if they were building up so much friction she might catch fire any second. Her face became a flush of heat. This must be what the humans called rage, and she knew exactly what to do with it. She shot forward, slamming her fist into Aaron’s midsection so that it almost impaled him. Jenna immediately tried to kick at her, but she dodged it, catching Jenna’s leg and shoving it, sending her sister spinning. Aaron wasn’t easily phased, he pounced forward, attempting to capture Anna in a bear hug. He was successful in wrapping his arms around her, but when Jenna recovered and sent her fist forward to impact with Anna’s face, her target was no longer there, her fist instead impacting Aaron’s with enough force to dislocate his robotic jaw. Anna cartwheeled away, standing her ground a few paces from her advisories. Jenna pulled her fist from her comrade’s head, Aaron quickly reattaching his jaw plate with a few clicks and whirs.

  Both attacked, sending Anna into a fury of kicks, punches, and blocks. Anna expertly countered most strikes, the fight looking to Roland like an old karate movie in fast forward. His mouth was agape, when the beeping from the console finally brought him out of his stupor. “Yes! Download complete.”