Bioweapon Revolution
Rise of the Vanguards
An Elipson Novelette
by Gilbert Backers
www.bioweaponrevolution.net
Copyright 2014 Gilbert Backers
Table of Contents
Expanding Domains3
To Protect and Serve10
Demons Become Saviors15
Radical and Violent Plot18
Genesis of the Centurions20
Tayairosko Response23
Next Episode in the Epic Tale24
Expanding Domains
Job Gains
Several men stepped off a public transportation bus in the suburb of a large city. They were at the Northeria Aerospace primary space ship production facility. They were talking among themselves.
They were large, burly men in their late 20's and early 30's. They wore jeans, plaid shirts and carried metal lunch boxes.
They turned around a corner to see a group of people standing around the gates of the facility. The gates were closed and chained shut.
People in the crown were talking. Some were getting angry.
“What's going on?” asked one of the men.
“I'm not sure but I think we're out of our jobs,” said one young man in his early 20's with a dazed and confused look on his face.
The men made their way through the crowd to the gate.
There was a sign on the gate. Inside the gate, there were several armed guards in uniforms and wearing full riot gear with helmets. Their faces were concealed.
There was a woman at the front, crying.
“Susan? What's happening?” asked one of the men.
“They're taking away all our jobs and giving them to robots,” she said. “I don't know how I'm going to support my little boy. There are no other jobs in town. Our city's being taken over by them.”
One of the other men from the bus stepped up to the sign.
“Due to management changes, the plant is no longer employing human workers?” read one of the men aloud. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
A large helicopter flew overhead. It landed in the courtyard just inside the gate.
Humanoid robotic systems exited the helicopter and proceeded to walk into the production facility's main doors.
“Hey! What're they doing here?” yelled one of the men from the bus. “Hey! They can't take our jobs! We're people!”
Susan turned to him and said, “That's the second one I've seen today. There was one yesterday when I left work. I thought they were new crash test dummies but they're laborer robots from Futurecore.”
The crowd started yelling and pressing against the gate.
“Hey!” said another man from the bus. “We can tear this gate down and stop those robots!”
They started shaking the gate. The gate started coming out of its foundation.
One of the guards turned to the crowd, walked toward the gate, and lifted the visor of his helmet.
The face was masculine. His face was silver, metallic, and seemingly rigid, yet there appeared to be a smile on his face. His eyes were hollow but with a dim, read light in the middle. He aimed his riffle at the crowd. There was a sound, a high pitched sound like a high capacity battery being rapidly charged. A white light shined at the tip of the riffle like a firefly at night. A red targeting laser from the scope placed a red dot on a man's forehead.
All the other guards raised their riffles and aimed them at people in the crowd.
The humanoid robot said in a mechanized voice, loud enough to be hear over the crowd, “Go ahead. Give us a reason to be the next Arrow.”
The crowd went silent. They backed away from the fence in fear. Some of them turned and ran.
Susan walked away, sobbing.
Protest
Several weeks later . . .
People gathered outside of a tall office building in the middle of an office complex. Across the large walkway from the office building was the regional headquarters of the Global Gazette news corporation.
A small stage was brought in with a podium. As the people gathered, a video display screen on the outside of a news building across the street lit up.
“This just in: Cyberline Industries has just released a press report saying that the experimental machine city known as Vanguard Nexus will actually be expanding into the territory of the neighboring nation of Hasvin. The amount of land the Hasvin government is selling to the fledgling, machine nation is twice the size of the territory The Republic of Ontasaro sold to Cyberline to start the vast experiment. They have also petitioned other nations around the globe for the right to purchase various properties and legally convert them to be part of the the independent nation of Vanguard Nexus.”
The people gathering started booing and shouting.
One man yelled, “The machines are already taking over! They're buying up property like people, now! The government should've never given them the right to own property. They're not people! They're not!”
“Let's just shut them all down!” said another angry man.
“Yeah, they took our jobs now they're trying to buy land and make their own nation! Then they'll attack us and kill us all in a war!”
The microphone sounded.
“Now, gentlemen,” said a mild mannered man standing at the podium. “Let's not make them out to be demons that they are not. We can still manage them and stop them, peacefully. That is what we're here to do. By gathering here, outside of Senator Nathan Tom's local office, we are drawing attention to the growing plight of working class people around the Republic and indeed, around the world because of Futurecore Technomatics, Cyberline, and their revolutionary robotics design. I present to you our first speaker, Susan Johnson.”
A blond haired, blue eyed woman took the podium.
“Hello, my name is Susan Johnson. I was employed at the Northeria Aerospace plant for 10 years. I have a son to support. I've been a single mother since my husband died 4 years ago. But two weeks ago I lost my job along with everyone else at the plant. We were replaced by machines. Machines from Futurecore Technomatics replaced us and we are now out of work and unable to support our families in these tough economic times. Why is it so tough? Because people across this nation are loosing their jobs to machines created by the same evil corporation that built the Arrow that killed hundreds of people. Yet the military and private corporations still contract out to Futurecore Technomatics and are eager to replace people with machines.”
“Why are we outside Senator Nathan Tom's office? Because he's a parliamentary advocate for Futurecore Technomatics and they helped finance his last four campaigns. He has been supporting legislation to allow the automation of occupations across so many industries and he profits from it along with his friends at Futurecore. This has to end.”
The main doors to the office building opened and three humanoid robots walked out into plaza. They were followed by a gray haired, White male wearing a dark blue, two piece suit. Two more robots, identical to the first three, followed behind the man.
“Hey!” said one of the people gathered in the crowd. “There's Senator Tom and he even has robot body guards!”
The crowd started murmuring and raising their volume. They started waiving their protest signs.
Several people threw tomatoes at the Senator.
The machines intercepted them.
One person opened up his jacket to reveal a clear glass bottle with a clear liquid and a cloth that ran from the liquid to hang outside the top o
f the bottle. He lit the cloth and threw it at the Senator.
The robots guided the Senator back, away from the bottle hurling through the air. It hit the ground in front of the machines and erupted in flames.
“Weaponized assault!” said one robotic guard in front of the Senator. It reached for a large handgun in a holster built into the outside of its thigh. It aimed at the man who threw the Molotov cocktail. The other two simultaneously did the same.
The two behind the Senator drew their weapons and flanked him, putting their backs toward him scanning the area for additional threats.
The forward three gunned down the man. Their bullets ripping his body apart, tearing pieces of his clothing and revealing parts of a bullet proof vest.
They then opened fire on the crowd.
The person standing next to Susan at the podium was hit in the front chest several times, blood flying out his back. Susan tried to run toward her son on stage. She was hit in the leg.
Susan fell down onto her knees, bracing herself up with her arms. She looked up and reached out to her son.
As her son, Kevin ran toward her, a round shot through his head.
Susan could see the blood exploding from the armor piercing round's exit. Her son's body fell in the direction of the bullet as more ripped through his body.
She cried as she crawled over to her son's bloodied body.
Sirens sounded as the crowd tried to disperse but were gunned down.
An Interview
Several days later . . .
A woman sat in a chair in a television studio across from a man.
“Dr. Zoran,
Rise of the Vanguards: Bioweapon Revolution: Book 0 Page 1
