by Isaac Hooke
Then again, who knew? Maybe the military was planning some massive large-scale attack to eliminate the region of both the Bokerov and the alien threat. Or maybe they intended to lob nukes this way. Though Jason had a feeling that either of those events would have already transpired if the world governments were capable of it.
“How are the copies going?” Jason asked her.
“Good,” Aria replied. Her bulky mech resided next to the construction platforms; one of the reasons she chose to inhabit the third floor was because it allowed her to babysit her pet projects. “The only unit left to build is Sophie’s Highlander, since the design of her spider mech is so different from the others. And all the AI cores are online, and tested within operational parameters. They’re ready to receive our backups.”
“Have you come up with a way to backup our minds into the cores?” Jason asked.
“Yup,” Aria said. “We’ll have to place ourselves offline to do it, but I can do a direct bit-by-bit transfer. It’ll take about four hours per mech. When the backups go online, they’ll have the same memories and personalities we have, at least from the time of the backup.”
“I wonder if we should install our AI cores into different mechs than we’re used to,” Jason said. “Shake things up a bit, you know?”
“Probably not the best idea,” Aria said. “Since we’ve got quite a lot of hours logged in our existing mechs. Plus, it would probably mess up the combining process. At least if you switched. The rest of us, maybe not so much.”
“All good points,” Jason said. “We’ll let our clones stay within their existing units.”
Aria nodded. “That’s good, because I’ve become rather attached to mine.” She patted her bulky belly. “Makes me feel like I’m pregnant.”
“Why would you like that?” Jason asked.
“It’s a reminder of what I once was,” Aria said.
Jason’s pursed his lips, but didn’t otherwise say anything.
Her avatar in the lower right of his vision smiled, apparently noticing his confusion. “I was pregnant when I had my scan taken.”
“Ah,” Jason said. “You know, I realize I don’t really know all that much about you. Other than you sing opera in the shower.”
“While masturbating,” Aria said.
“Now that I didn’t need to know!” Jason said.
“Only kidding,” Aria said. “I was an architect. I designed buildings, but also vehicles and robots in my spare time. I was married, had two kids, with a third coming. We were running low on creds, so we both decided to get our minds scanned. My husband and I joked that we’d be reunited in the machine afterlife. We weren’t.”
“Sounds like you really loved him,” Jason said.
“I did,” Aria said. “But I realize that love isn’t real now. It can’t be. Given what I am. If he were to meet me, he wouldn’t love me. Not like this.” She gestured toward her mech body. “But that’s all right. I don’t need him. At least, that’s what I tell myself. Sometimes, when I think about the kids...”
She shook her head, and for a moment he thought her avatar was going to cry.
“It’s all right...” Jason said. “They’re still alive. They must be.”
“Yes,” Aria said. “It helps to remind myself that the memories I have of them are ten years old. They’re teenagers by now. I wouldn’t even recognize them. It’s why I said the love I have isn’t real. I sometimes wonder if I’d even recognize my own husband if I saw him.”
“People don’t look all that different after ten years,” Jason said. “Well, kids do, but your husband? I’m sure you’d recognize him.”
“Maybe,” Aria said. “But what about his personality. Would that still be the same? Somehow, I doubt it. But as I said, none of that’s real. Because I’m never going to meet him. Nor do I want to.”
“Well it’s good that you’ve moved on,” Jason said.
“I never said I have,” Aria said. “But maybe you can help me with that.”
“Uh, since you’ve been spying on my VR conversations lately, you know I’m bad with multiple relationships,” Jason said.
“I’m not asking for a relationship,” Aria said. “All I’m asking for is your friendship.”
“You already have it,” Jason said.
“Good,” Aria said. “But friends do things with one another. What have you done with me? We hardly ever talk, except to talk about logistics, and the latest updates in regards to the base, and our stock of weapons, and the status on the clones. You know, all that superficial stuff.”
“You’re right,” Jason said. “We’ll have to remedy that. I like rock climbing. Maybe you’d like to join me sometime?”
“I certainly would,” Aria said.
“In fact, how about right now?” Jason said.
“Um, kinda busy,” Aria said. “I have to supervise the construction of the Highlander, remember?”
“And you’re the one who’s complaining we hardly ever talk, or do anything together,” Jason said. “And yet you can’t pull yourself away from your work.”
“I’m pretty bad at that, aren’t I?” Aria said. “I had the same problem when I was a human. My husband would try in vain to tear me away from my work. My workaholic tendencies didn’t really help our relationship.”
“They don’t help many relationships, no,” Jason said. “So tell me, did Lori show you how to activate your Accomp?”
“She did, actually,” Aria admitted.
“Then activate her,” Jason said. “And let her do any babysitting. That way you can join me.”
“You’re right, I can certainly do that,” Aria said. “It’s just too bad I’m such a damn control freak.”
Jason had to laugh. “You’re the one who was complaining about not doing things with me, and now you don’t want to go. I probably won’t ask again, you know.”
She paused. Her avatar bit her lower lip. “Okay, let’s go.”
Jason logged into his VR environment, and appeared on the cliff face of the mountain that was next to the lake.
Aria’s vampirish avatar appeared a moment later beside him, dressed in her skin-tight black leather outfit.
“You could have gone with a climbing outfit...” Jason said.
“Not my style,” Aria told him. There was no lag: the repeaters insured that their network connection was fast, despite the layers of rock separating them in the real world. She glanced at the rock face. “No ropes?”
“I like to free climb here,” Jason said.
She shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t matter, since we can reset if we fall.”
“That’s right,” Jason said.
“Though I’m having to amp up the strength settings in my fingertips just to hold myself here,” Aria complained.
“Hey, no one ever said climbing is easy,” Jason said.
“Unless you’re in VR,” Aria said. She reached up, and pulled herself to the next handhold.
Jason followed next to her.
“Do I even want to look down?” Aria glanced over her shoulder. “Nope!” She quickly directed her gaze back upward, making Jason chuckle.
“That’s right, laugh at a scared woman,” Aria complained.
“Hey, I’m only trying to calm you down,” Jason said, continuing to climb beside her.
“By the way, what did you do when you were a human?” Aria asked. “For work?”
“I was unemployed at the time,” Jason said. “That’s why I got scanned. I needed money to maintain my lifestyle. Not that it was lavish or anything.”
“No, I hear you,” Aria said. “Living off of Basic Pay isn’t exactly what I’d call living.”
“No,” Jason said. “Unless you want to spend most of your days in VR.”
“Like some people do,” Aria said.
“I was a VR addict at one point,” Jason said. “I suppose I still am, to a degree." He released the wall to wave with one hand. “I’m here, after all.”
“Yes, but we have
no choice,” Aria said. “If we didn’t come here, we’d have no connection to our humanity at all. Well, other than the small avatars that we use when we talk over the comm.”
“I suppose we wouldn’t,” Jason agreed.
“So what did you do before you were unemployed?” Aria pressed.
“Well, I,” Jason said. “This might sound funny, but, I was a professional gamer.”
“Ah,” Aria said. “I can see it. You are kind of a geek.”
“Uh, thanks, I guess,” Jason said.
“I mean that in a cute way,” Aria said. “A good way. So you streamed on the different networks? Did you have a sponsor?”
“I did, but then I kind of got sidetracked, and stopped playing the popular games, and lost most of my sponsors,” Jason said. “It was at that point I called myself unemployed.”
“Ah yes,” Aria said. “Because you essentially were. So I guess gaming and piloting extremely powerful battle mechs aren’t completely unrelated subjects are they? Well, depending on the games you played, of course. Still, I can see why the military chose your mind for this.”
“That could partially be it,” Jason said. “I was good at the mech games, and had a lot of viewers when those types of games were popular.”
“There you go,” Aria said.
They climbed in silence for a few moments.
When she pulled ahead of him, he couldn’t help but glance at her fine backside.
“I always thought you look kinda like a vampire,” Jason said.
“Really?” Aria said. She paused to glance at him from above. Long canines curved down from beneath her upper lip. “How about now? Do I look sexy as hell? Literally?”
“In fact, you kinda do,” Jason said. “If I was a vampire, I’d definitely do you.”
She laughed. “Why would you need to be a vampire? You could be my prey.”
“I almost want to take you up on that offer,” Jason said.
The fangs receded. “Except we’re just going to be friends, remember?” Aria said. “I’m married.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Jason said. “But you already admitted that the marriage wasn’t real, not anymore.”
The joy left her face, and she looked upward instead, and continued to climb. She pulled even farther ahead of him, moving hard, fast; she grimaced, like she was punishing herself. Probably was—likely she’d dialed down the strength settings in her knuckles. Either that, or put the lactic acid simulators somewhere close to natural.
Jason increased his pace to match her, but he kept his pain simulators low; he wasn’t a big fan of self-inflicted torture. In moments he’d reached her side, and began to pull past her.
He smiled smugly, expecting her to look at him and call him a cheater or something, but she was intent on the rock face, ignoring everything else. It might have been a bad idea to remind her that she was never going back to that marriage, and the husband and kids she once had.
I can really be a killjoy sometimes, can’t I?
He was glancing down at Aria, so that he almost bumped into Tara’s knee; she was floating cross-legged in the air beside him, with her hands crossed.
“Well, well, well,” Tara said. “Look who’s decided to go rock climbing in the middle of the day. Someone’s a VR addict.”
“Hey Tara,” Aria said.
But Tara ignored her. Instead, she glowered at Jason, but her voice was cloyingly sweet: “How come you never take me rock climbing?”
“I didn’t know you were interested in it,” Jason said.
“You never asked!” Tara said.
“Join us,” Aria said.
“No thanks,” Tara said. “You lovebirds can continue to climb on your own.”
“We’re not lovebirds,” Aria said.
“Oh really?” Tara said. “You could have fooled me.”
“I think I’m done,” Aria said. “Have a good climb,” she told Jason before she vanished.
“There, are you happy?” Jason said.
“Yup,” Tara said. “Now I am. That bitch thinks she can climb with you, without asking my permission?”
“She’s not a bitch,” Jason said. “We’re just friends.”
“Friends, ha!” Tara said.
“She’s married,” Jason said.
“Not anymore she isn’t,” Tara said.
“Look, you can go rock climbing with me whenever you want,” Jason said. “Now even.”
“That’s all right,” Tara said. “I’ve done what I came to do.”
“What’s that, get rid of her?” Jason said.
“You’re good at putting two and two together,” Tara said. “You should write a book. How To Lose Friends and Drive Away People.”
“I’ll let you do that for me,” Jason said.
Tara slapped him. He’d reduced his pain sensors, so the fact he felt anything at all told him she’d hit him extremely hard.
“That was uncalled for,” Jason said.
The alarm sounded.
Tara glanced up. “We’ll finish this conversation later.”
She vanished.
Jason activated his HUD as he logged out, and he read the alert.
A new rift was opening nearby.
A big one.
4
Jason and the others exited the ravine that harbored the base and made their way north between the outlying buildings of the neighboring farms and estates. Tara had secured the Rex Wolves inside the base, and Aria had left the different tanks to guard the perimeters of the ravine alongside the defense platforms.
The War Forgers had only just taken cover behind the outbuildings of the nearest estate when the rift’s expansion ceased. This one wasn’t as big as the previous, but it was still quite wide.
The pinched interior blinked out of existence as the rift set in this reality, and a tear in space-time opened up. There was no raging gale this time, which meant the interior had an atmospheric pressure similar to Earth’s at the current altitude. That also meant that bioweapons would be the attackers, instead of machines.
He zoomed in on his laser scope. Sure enough, he spotted strange, tentacled creatures—they looked like squids taped onto the heads of elephants, with the tails of scorpions. They were about half as tall as the different mechs. And they completely filled the staging area beyond the space-time rift, a blur of legs, trunks and tails.
“Hey look, Lori,” Sophie said. “They can be your friends.”
“What?” Lori said. “Why me?”
“The tails,” Sophie clarified.
“Oh,” Lori said. “I don’t think so.”
“What should we call these ones?” Tara said.
“I like Squidphants,” Xin said.
“Squidphants?” Aria asked.
“They’re a combination of squids and elephants…” Xin said.
“How about Squidpants!” Lori said. “Spongebob Squidpants!”
“I think there’s an in joke here we’re not getting…” Aria said.
“You have to start watching the classics,” Lori said.
“All right, let’s do as much damage as we can before these creatures get here,” Jason said. That was standard protocol when bioweapons arrived: eliminate as many of them as possible with the remote weapons, and when the frontline arrived, it was time to stomp and bash.
Jason began unleashing his laser weapon as the alien bioweapons rampaged onto the rocky terrain. A single shot to the head was enough to bring down most of the creatures, but there was always another to replace them.
“Keep a look out for secondary units!” Jason said. That was a favorite tactic of the aliens; send in a wave of fodder to distract Jason and the girls, while embedding secondary, more powerful units inside the horde, catching the team off guard.
He continued mowing down the incoming creatures, firing both his railgun and his laser weapon. He also occasionally swiveled the launcher into place instead of the railgun to unleash a few rockets for good measure. The others let loose a barr
age of plasma bolts, lightning bolts, lasers, micro machine bursts, more missiles. Alien body part erupted in fountains of blood and gore.
The creatures continued to pour through the rift, an endless horde of them. Those in behind simply leaped or clambered over the fallen. Jason had to switch to Bullet Time to keep up. One would think that creatures so big couldn’t be so agile. One would be wrong.
“The rift isn’t closing!” Tara said.
“I can see that!” Jason said.
“No sign of any secondaries…” Aria said.
“Not yet,” Jason said.
In moments the vanguard of creatures had reached the outskirts of the estate. Jason’s laser had completely overheated by then, and he switched to his energy weapon. He fired quick bursts at the Squidphants, disintegrating tentacled heads. But that wasn’t enough, and the ranks continued to close as those in behind shoved past the dead. In moments, three of the creatures surrounded him: one leaped onto the small farmhouse so that it came at him from the rooftop. The other two rounded both sides of the structure.
Jason fired his energy cannon at point blank range, tearing a gaping hole through the creature on top of the farmhouse—the beast promptly collapsed. His railgun was empty by then, as were his rockets, so he slammed his left fist into the Squidphant coming in on that side, smashing it in the lower jaw. The creature stayed on its feet, and wrapped its tentacles around his arm.
At the same time, the other creature plowed into him from the right, and its tentacles enveloped his hips, tightening. He rammed his right elbow down, but couldn’t break the Squidphant free. Nor could he orient the energy or laser weapons in his right arm toward it, as the angle was impossible, given the dimensions of his arm and the weapons embedded in it. He also couldn’t shake free of the creature that had him by the arm on the other side.
Jason fired his Battle Cloak. Now that she’d developed explosives, Aria always ensured that their countermeasures were topped up before each mission. The small seeker missiles slammed into the tentacles that covered the expulsion vents, and both Squidphants released Jason’s mech.
