by Isaac Hooke
Because in truth, he wasn’t sure how to delete the partition without damaging large portions of his own psyche in the process. If Manticore had found a way, it was possible, obviously, but no doubt still dangerous at least to a degree. It was probably worth the risk, except for the fact that Eric didn’t want Manticore touching his AI core. He just didn’t trust the former Bolt Eater enough at the moment, because clone or not, Manticore had already admitted he planned to turn against them once this was over. Like Dunnigan had said at the time, who could say what sort of devious code Manticore would implant in their AI cores when he had access, code that he could use to defeat them when the time came?
Still, Eric didn’t see that he had any other choice at the moment. He needed Manticore’s help with the other Bolt Eaters, since his own solution to breaking free was so very personal.
“So the way I see it, we’re going to have to capture the different Bolt Eaters one by one,” Eric said. “But first of all, we’ll need to find them.”
“I might be able to help with that,” Manticore said. His avatar had a gleam in its eye.
Eric crouched on a rooftop overlooking the battle below. Manticore had several scouts in the area that he had used to continue keeping tabs on the different Bolt Eaters.
“How can you tell which are Originals, and which are our clones?” Eric had asked at one point.
“Simple,” Manticore said. “The Originals have alien materials bolted onto Earth-element hulls. The duplicates are made entirely of alien materials. As such, the Originals produce slightly different energy signatures.”
Below, Eric watched as Brontosaurus led an attack of Devastator duplicates against a company of artillery. Termites and bioweapons were conspicuously absent, occupied on the far side of town where a major human offensive was currently taking place—at least according to Manticore.
Somewhere out there was the Original Manticore. His clone had told Eric that he had no idea where the Original might be, but Eric wasn’t sure he believed it. The clone was probably worried that Eric would shoot it down at some point, and that would ruin any plans the clone might have of joining up with the Original Manticore when this was over.
So many problems to worry about.
On the way here, Eric had changed the encryption keys he used for the private comm channel, and sent the public variants to Manticore. He kept the old ones in a separate folder, since he’d have to use it to communicate with the captured Bolt Eaters. He had his comm range reduced to almost zero at the moment, but he’d be amping up that range, soon.
He had also strengthened the software firewall before coming, so he wouldn’t have to worry about the Essential breaking out when it realized what Eric had done. Eventually, he’d have to talk to Frogger after Manticore deleted the Essential instance from his particular AI core. If there was an easy way to replicate the deletion process, Eric would probably take it. Otherwise, he’d just have to live with having an alien AI embedded in his mind for the rest of his life. He planned to keep the VR partition running for the Essential in that case, as it seemed a cruel torture to deprive the entity of all sensory input. He’d have to buy a few VR packs at some point to add some variety, as the Essential would probably grow bored of killing humans for the rest of its days. Then again, maybe that was the perfect entertainment for the AI being.
Eric realized he was just stalling. He had waited long enough. He gazed for a moment longer at Brontosaurus below, and then stood up and increased his comm range.
“Hey Brontosaurus, how’s it hanging?” Eric taunted.
Brontosaurus turned around from his attack on the artillery, as did several Devastators.
Eric immediately retreated from the edge of the rooftop, and reverted his comm range back to minimum.
He kept an eye on his rear-view camera feed as he fled, and just as he neared the far side of the roof, sure enough he spotted Brontosaurus pulling himself on top.
Eric was about to take a running leap toward the next rooftop, but then realized that Brontosaurus was holding his spear arm toward him, and aiming; Brontosaurus was waiting for him to leap, so that he could hit him with the jettisoned spear while Eric was incapable of avoiding it.
So instead of jumping across, Eric threw himself over the edge and fell the two stories to the ground.
He activated his energy shield before impact; he halted as the shield absorbed the blow, and quickly turned it off before the shield’s energy could drain further. He landed with a clang and darted out of the alleyway and into the street beyond.
He heard several clangs behind him as Brontosaurus and the Devastators pursued. Eric hugged the line of buildings to his right and dashed into an alleyway when he spotted the mechs. Before he lost sight of them he counted eight, including Brontosaurus. Plasma and energy bolts slammed into the lip of the alleyway behind him, and tore blast craters into the surface. Shards of brick and concrete were flung into the air.
He felt the pull of a black hole opening somewhere behind him, but he was too far away from it to make a difference, and it closed shortly thereafter as his pursuers fired a dispersion bolt.
Eric wanted to remain beyond their line of sight for as long as possible. As far as he could tell, they were all equipped with alien spears, which could easily penetrate his energy shield, and the underlying armor, taking him out in a single hit.
Which is why when he reached a side path in the alley, he took it immediately.
That path ended in a solid wall, so he leaped upward and began climbing the building beside him as fast as he was able. He had to make his own hand- and foot-holds once again, since the surface wasn’t magnetic.
The mechs reached the side path, and several of them unleashed spears. Eric increased his pace and dodged to the left; the spears bounced off the wall and clattered to the ground. He continued climbing, and began zig-zagging.
When he reached the top, Eric pulled himself over and ducked below the rim of the wall that bordered the roof. It was tall enough to conceal his prostrate form.
Mechs began to leap over his position as they pulled themselves over.
The Devastator in the lead—Brontosaurus—halted suddenly, and began turning around: he must have spotted Eric on his rear-view camera.
Eric immediately stood up, and impaled the latest mech that was in the process of leaping over him. The blade penetrated through to the AI core, and electrical sparks passed up and down its body.
Eric slashed at the next mech in front of him, cutting through the shield and into the armored body underneath, and then he wrapped his arm around the lifeless body and hauled it in front of him, holding it as a shield. He retreated, following the wall that bordered the rooftop.
The other Devastators opened fire with their energy cannons, obviously intending to eat through the mech that shielded him, if only to get at him. Some of the Devastators were still scaling the alleyway wall, and leaped onto the roof as they arrived, joining their brethren in the attack.
Brontosaurus ejected one of his spears; it was aimed for Eric’s side, but he spun his torso just in time, and the mech that served as his shield took the impact. Electricity sparked across the body, which convulsed, but Eric was spared the effects.
Spherical alien scouts ripped down from above in a blur, encircling Brontosaurus.
The heavy gunner ignored them at first, but when the scouts began unleashing that sticky netting of theirs, Brontosaurus attempted to hack them down. By then they had already partially pinned Brontosaurus by the leg.
Some of the Devastators turned away from Eric to help Brontosaurus, and engaged the scouts.
Eric gave up the destroyed mech he was using as a shield, throwing it at a group of three Devastators, and then concentrated on the remaining mechs. He wove between them while they were distracted by the scouts, and tore through them in rapid succession with his Wolverine blades, which cut through their energy shields and sliced through the armor within. He targeted AI cores and power supplies, and in moments
he had chopped down all the other Devastators on the rooftop, including those three he’d originally knocked over with the tossed mech. Only Brontosaurus remained standing.
The scouts had continued unleashing their sticky webs at Brontosaurus, and he was completely pinned now. The alien spheres began targeting the Devastator’s weapons next, stopping them up with the gooey substance.
Brontosaurus struggled frantically against his binds.
Eric switched to the old private comm channel and said: “Stay calm, Brontosaurus. We’re getting rid of the Essential.”
That only caused Brontosaurus to struggle even more violently.
“Nicely done,” Manticore transmitted.
One of the spheres approached the chest assembly of the mech, and a telescoping limb emerged. Eric hurried to the perimeter of the rooftop to stand guard while Manticore got to work. Eric scanned the opposite side of the rooftop with his rearmost camera, keeping both areas in view at all times.
As Manticore opened up the cockpit to access the Cicada within, clangs alerted Eric’s attention to the alleyway below.
More Devastators had arrived.
Eric aimed over the edge, and fired his energy cannon, but force fields kicked in around each of the approaching units, and Eric couldn’t stop them.
Those Devastators returned fire, and Eric ducked for cover, not wanting to waste his shield, and also not wanting to risk being struck by an ejected spear.
He glanced at his rear view feed, and confirmed that no enemies had arrived elsewhere on the rooftop. He also saw that Manticore had partially removed Brontosaurus’ Cicada from the cockpit, and had attached an interface cable to the AI core located within the unit.
He waited for the Devastators to begin clambering over the wall that bordered the rooftop, and then he began striking out with his Wolverine blades. He chopped through shields, striking the hands and forearms below. The resultant electrical discharge was usually enough to send the mechs falling back over the edge, though sometimes when he struck only a glancing blow, the Devastators wouldn’t release, and Eric would have to strike again.
The Devastators kept coming, until they began to overwhelm him. Eric had to back away from the rooftop edge and deploy his ballistic shield. Three mechs forced their way toward him. One fired a spear, and he sidestepped to deflect it with his ballistic shield—the angle was just right. He activated his force field, knowing it wouldn’t save him if the remaining two mechs attacked with their Wolverine blades.
But then a figure blurred past and struck down the remaining two with a single blade embedded in the forearm. Eric realized it was Brontosaurus: he was free from the webbing.
Brontosaurus joined him at the edge of the rooftop.
“Welcome back,” Eric said.
“Thank you,” Brontosaurus told him. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to be in control of my own body again.”
Together they finished off the remaining attackers, and when the enemy combatants finally ceased coming, Eric sent over the public keys for the new comm channel, and Brontosaurus switched bands.
“Let’s go,” Eric said. “We can’t stay here long. More reinforcements will be coming, when they realize what’s happened.”
“Wait.” Brontosaurus knelt, and his Cicada emerged to retrieve the collection gloves from a storage compartment; the smaller unit grabbed an ejected spear from the rooftop and inserted into the forearm of his mech, and then climbed back into the cockpit, folding into a ball as the hatch sealed.
Eric led him off the rooftop, and together the two of them fled deeper into the city, away from the front lines. All save one of the alien spheres dispersed; that particular scout followed alongside the two mechs.
Eric glanced at it. “Well Manticore, one down. Twelve to go.”
6
Eric had set up a base of operations in a roomy underground parking garage designed to store autonomous buses. It was originally located some thirty-five city blocks away from the front line of the battle, but the Banthar units had continued their advance, thanks to the termites, and now that front line was only nine blocks away. The Bolt Eaters would have to move again after the latest rescue.
So far, Eric had captured and freed ten mechs with Manticore’s help. Each subsequent rescue was easier than the last, because more of the Bolt Eaters joined in and either directly helped or provided suppressive fire.
The most recent rescue involved the release of Frogger and Dunnigan.
After returning to base, Manticore removed the Containment Code from the two of them, and when Frogger came back online, he announced: “Well, I’ve done a surface scan of my memory regions... as far I can tell, Manticore hasn’t injected any malicious code. But there are ways of hiding it, of course. I believe Dunnigan volunteered to sift through our codebases with a fine-toothed comb?”
“A what?” Dunnigan said. “Er, yeah, whatever: I agreed mate. I’m starting now.”
“Thank you,” Frogger said.
Eric wasn’t sure he trusted Dunnigan to find anything, but that was all right: Eric was already doing some investigating of his own. Or rather, Dee was: he had instructed his Accomp to sift through Brontosaurus’ codebase shortly after the first rescue.
“Dee, how’s the codebase scan going?” Eric asked her. She was coordinating with Brontosaurus’ Accomp to perform the scan, and was supposed to notify Eric if she found anything malicious.
“Nothing yet,” Dee said. “But there are over a trillion lines of code to check. So it will take me some time.”
“All right, well, keep me posted.” Eric switched back to the main comm. “By the way, Frogger, I want to talk to you sometime about the code Manticore used to erase the Essential inside of you.”
“We can talk, sure, but I don’t actually know what he did,” Frogger admitted. “I was offline the whole time.”
“Damn.” That was the same answer everyone else had given Eric. “I guess I was hoping you of all people would have found a way to log his commands, even while offline, considering our backgrounds in programming.”
“Yeah, I wish I could have,” Frogger said. “But even I have my limits. I guess if you really want to delete the Essential instance from your core, you’re going to have to let Manticore work on you.”
“Not going to happen,” Eric said. “I’m the only one whose core he hasn’t touched so far, and I want to keep it that way. I’ll just have to live with the Essential inside of me for now until I can come up with something on my own.”
“That’s certainly your prerogative,” Frogger said.
With Frogger and Dunnigan rescued, that left only two more Bolt Eaters to be collected: Bambi and Marlborough.
The two were operating in close proximity to one another, according to Manticore, but it was very doubtful the platoon would be able to lure them at the same time. In fact, during the last few rescues, the possessed Bolt Eaters had begun to run away whenever Eric and the others showed up—they had become that afraid of capture. To make matters worse, scores of enemy units would converge on the positions of the targets to abet their escape.
Eric quickly developed a counter strategy for that behavior—he’d have other Bolt Eaters lying in wait and ready to pursue the instant their targets fled. It had worked well so far, even if enemy reinforcements sometimes directed fire at the ambushing units.
And so the Bolt Eaters set out to affect one final rescue, hoping to return with Bambi and Marlborough before the day was out. When that was done, they would decide what to do next.
The platoon was split into two teams, separated by fifty meters so that they moved in traveling overwatch. Each team hugged the line of buildings as they advanced.
Manticore’s clone joined them, following alongside via one of the alien spheres. Ahead of the group, Eagleeye had deployed some of his modified repair drones to act as scouts as well, since the Bolt Eaters didn’t want to leave their fate entirely in Manticore’s hands.
“So Manticore, bitch,” Slate s
aid. “When do we get to see what your actual body looks like?”
“Soon,” Manticore said. “I’ve captured a Ravager unit from the humans, so at least I don’t have to reside in a small box with treads anymore.”
“A box with treads?” Slate said. “Geez, I can see why you were hiding. I’d be embarrassed to show my face if all I had for a body was a box.”
“Yeah, well,” Manticore said. “When you have remote control of hundreds of custom spheres, and an advanced VR that’s indistinguishable from reality, it doesn’t matter as much.”
“You have access to an alien 3D printer, right?” Dickson said.
“I do,” Manticore said. “But it’s only capable of printing scouts. Speaking of which, we got some incoming. And they’re not mine.”
“Take cover, people!” Dickson ordered. In Marlborough’s absence, Dickson had assumed command of the platoon.
Eric and the others dove behind the rubble of a fallen building.
“Eagleeye, I want your scouts out of view!” Dickson added.
“Scouts have landed!” Eagleeye confirmed.
The alien spheres sped past overhead.
The Banthar had started sending out patrols to look for the escapees; so far, the Bolt Eaters had managed to avoid detection, but with the front lines slowly encroaching on the parking garage, it was only a matter of time until the base was discovered. Which was why they didn’t plan to return there after this mission was done.
When the patrol had passed, Dickson waited several minutes before giving the order to resume the advance.
Eric cautiously stepped from cover, scanning the street on either side through the scope of one of his many weapons. It was clear out there.
The Bolt Eaters began the march anew, continuing in the two traveling overwatch teams and staying close to the line of buildings.
“You know, I really wish I’d hung out with you guys more these past twenty years,” Traps said. “I feel like I missed the opportunity to really get to know you all.”
“Now’s not really the time to reminiscence, bro,” Tread said. “Besides, you’re making up for it right here, right now.”
