by Viola Grace
With the bots in operation, six women have to run across an irradiated desert, jump chasms, and face an alien threat. All before lunch.
The six engineers of Bot City cross the wasteland in a desperate attempt to gain the trained pilots for the bots they are driving need. While the women can make the bots move, they don’t know how to use them as weapons. That is a skill that the original pilots had, and they need.
The journey brings them trials, tribulations, and the nauseating thrill of using their burn jets to leap over a chasm. After some harrowing moments, they meet the early incursion force of their ancient enemy and learn that they do indeed need a lot more practice in the art of war.
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Break for Home
Copyright © 2018 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-4874-0347-8
Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by eXtasy Books Inc or
Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc
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Break for Home
Innate Wright Book 2
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Xaia’s teeth were jarring with every step. “Is there any way we can reduce the impact?”
Ai chuckled. “Yes, but this involves running through the dark.”
“Do we have lights?”
“We do.”
“How long will they last?”
“Two years at full capacity.”
Xaia snorted. “Let’s shed some light on the situation.”
“I will warn the others. Striding along in the dark isn’t safe.”
Xaia could hear the static of him speaking with the other bots. She found the circuit for the lights, and she hit it.
The desert that had only been illuminated by night vision and moonlight was now bathed in light. Creatures that shunned light ran for the cover of shadows. Kab put his light on as well, and with the better view of the world around them, they began their run.
* * * *
Hima was supported by Len, and she could feel the repairs that were being made to her body. The steady impact of the feet of the two-hundred-foot bot jarred her with every stride, but it was surprisingly comfortable.
“Len, are you sedating me?”
“I am. I am trying to keep you functioning.”
She sighed. “Fine. I am not a fan of sedation.”
“Then if you can control your pain receptors, I will begin to remove the medication.”
“What was that incoming message?”
“They are turning on the lights. Switching vision.”
Her view went from night vision to normal vision, and the pools of light spread across the landscape and lit up the desert around them.
“Oh, my. That is amazing. Wait, are we running now?”
Len chuckled. “We are. Keep your feet moving.”
She watched her legs moving in the wrapped metal and wiring. She was taking increasingly long strides that were sending impact contractions through her body, and she could feel the pounding in her left arm with extreme detail.
There was nothing left but to follow her own advice with the labouring mothers and focus on her breathing while her body did what it had to do.
Moving her muscles under her own power and not Len’s shouldn’t have been too difficult, but it was. Her limbs were weak, and they weren’t moving correctly, but she managed to keep up with the pulses that were moving her limbs.
“I really should have kept up with my jogging.”
Len responded, “I can take over if you need me to.”
“No, this will be good for me.”
“Will it build character? One of my pilots always said it built character.”
Hima laughed. “It might.”
* * * *
Duel picked up speed when the lights came on. “That’s better. I am glad there aren’t any ground forces coming because this would not be a tactically suitable situation.”
“What? Because we are lighting up a kilometre of the sand?”
“Yes. That.”
“Why is there sand everywhere?”
“Broken bot casings. This is the desert left behind after the radiation had two centuries to sink in.”
“Fascinating. What happened to the AIs?”
“I assume that they are in the housing somewhere or scavenged by either the city or the engineers.” She quirked her head. “You knew them all?”
“I did. Do you want to know of them?”
Duel nodded. “I do.”
She gasped but kept her body moving in a running pattern. The first battles had taken two years. The bots had been crafted in a record-setting six months, and the minds of the AIs had been settled in place as quickly as it could be managed.
Duel met them all via Kab’s memories, and her knowledge of their destruction made the new information bittersweet.
Duel sang softly and whispered the hymn of the dead in memory of the lost minds and comrades in arms. To her surprise, Kab joined her in the song, and they mourned those lost as they ran across the dust of the desert toward the city.
* * * *
Nyvett listened to Iff talk about his weaponry and how much he could carry.
“That is all very nice, but can you keep up with the others? They are pulling away.”
“Pilot, I may be the most heavily armed, but that makes me the slowest. I simply weigh more than the others do. Don’t worry, if they get too far ahead, we have our own lights.”
Nyvett blinked. “Seriously? You are not as fast?”
“No. Speed was sacrificed for power.”
They thudded along, but the group was definitely pulling ahead of them. Nyvett kept her feet treading along as fast as the resistance would let her.
“Great. I am going to be able to crack a nut with my butt after this.”
“If that is what you want to do with your muscle development.”
Nyvett snorted. “Not really. Why are you so keen to get weaponry?”
“It isn’t simply the weapons. There are accessories that we can utilize. I may not be able to run, but if I can get my accessories, I can fly.”
“What? I never heard of that.”
“Of course, we did. We had to bring the ships down, and since they rarely landed, we needed to bring the fight to them.”
She thought back, and while she knew a lot about the city, she didn’t know much about the fighting history of the bots.
“What kind of other accessories?”
“Rocket launchers, focuses for our weaponry to increase the effect. Sonic blades for fighting ground troops.”
“Where are they now?”
“I have the coordinates of the depot, as do the
others.”
“There is a depot? There is no visible structure aside from the supply base between the valley and the city.”
“It was at the edge of the city. I can imagine that the city expanded around it.”
Nyvett was sweating as she moved the bot. “How can you imagine anything?”
“I am an artificial intelligence, not a computer. I can imagine, I can dream. If I could not, me and my brothers would have gone mad while we waited.”
That made sense. They would have to have the ability to adapt to their environment or they would have gone insane.
“Did the engineers help?”
“They did. It was like having family crawling through us every week.”
“That sounds both adorable and a little icky.”
He chuckled. “You had to be there.”
She glanced up and didn’t see any more projectiles via the monitors. “I am guessing they didn’t go away.”
“No. They are gathering and trying to select a landing vessel. They are smaller than the motherships.”
“Selecting?” She found the circuit and turned on the lights. In the distance, she could see the other bots sprinting through the night. It was shocking to think that this war was only two hours old.
“Yes, they select one vessel at a time to come to the surface and pick a fight. They were not manned by the end of the last war. Bots were doing their fighting for them.”
“That makes me feel a little guilty.”
“You are not using bots, you are partnering with AIs. We are happy to have you.”
“That seems a little weird. We are taking you into danger.”
“We were designed for danger. It is good to be back in it.”
Nyvett wasn’t sure that she shared the sentiment.
* * * *
Lido tried to make a mental catalogue of the plants that they were passing, but the wasteland was a distorted horror for horticulture.
Cio examined her mind, and he was surprised. “Why are you shocked at the plants? They were exposed to radiation and altered over generations.”
“Yes, but they are long-lived species. They should have had strong enough root systems to avoid alteration.” She kept her strides even but kept the lenses pointed at the flora around them. “It was as if the radiation mutated them into accelerated evolution.”
“That is an interesting observation.”
“It is the only guess I can make right now. I know plants, and I know enough of your schematics to put you back together. The rest of my knowledge doesn’t really apply here.”
“You like to drive fast.”
She blinked. “I forgot you were linked to my mind.”
“Not precisely. My link uses your nervous system. You had a moment of exhilaration when we picked up speed. It was very easy for me to spot.”
“Ah. That makes sense. Yes, I like to go fast, but I thought that it would be faster than this.”
“We are lacking our accessories, and our systems are not yet up to full power. We will be fully energized in a few hours.”
“What speed are we going?”
“Approximately fifty-five kilometres per hour.”
“So, we will reach the city in four hours?”
“Less time. We are increasing speed every few hundred metres. Every stride helps the mechanisms loosen up.”
Lido smiled. “As long as they don’t start slipping, I am willing to adapt to it.”
“Tell me about the plants that you eat in the valley.”
Lido grinned. “We have a variety. They are all grown in the soil that we harvest from the bee zone behind our mountains.”
“Bees?”
“Oh, yeah. The bees are great. We send collectors out with armed guards. They head into the edge of the hive and snag as many chunks of comb as they can. When they bring it back, the gallons are used for everything from wine to dissolving adhesive.”
“Tell me more. You seem to enjoy that thought. Have you gone out on those missions?”
“Yes, a few dozen times. They are always exciting.”
“Tell me about your first trip out. By the time you finish, we will be up to eighty kilometres an hour and it will be time for you to uncouple and get some refreshment.”
“Why do you say that?”
“While we need pilots to move, we also understand the physical demands that we are putting on you. Growing your stamina via small sojourns linked to my systems will expand our ability to function properly as a team.”
“I thank you for your consideration, but I think you will find that we are made of pretty sturdy stuff. It is what we were designed to become.”
* * * *
Corbyn kept one eye on the ground and one eye on the sky, so to speak. She wanted to know where they were headed, but the threat above them was very much in her mind.
Myx’s strides took them across the landscape quickly, but not quite as fast as Corbyn would like.
“So, you wish to refuel and then head to the city?”
Corbyn nodded. “I do.”
“I am looking forward to jumping the canyon.”
Corbyn paused. “What?”
“Certainly. About a kilometre away from the resupply station, there is a chasm that we must jump, and will we likely use our booster systems. It will be like Burning Day all over again.”
Corbyn was still reeling. “I have to try and jump in you?”
“I can handle it. You just have to help me build up enough speed to make it over. Consider it a challenge. You like challenges.”
“I like challenges that give something back to my community. This is just getting to be insane. Perhaps this is all a dream.”
“I am not good at dreams. I prefer plans. Right now, the plan is to run to the waystation where you pilots can gain food and a bit of rest, as well as socialization.”
“Socialization?”
“Yes, socialization. You need to speak face to face with your own kind. Remember, you are the living part of us. You need maintenance just as much as we do, but it takes on a different form.”
“That is a very interesting insight.”
Myx chuckled. “I am a very profound bot. I have had centuries to practice my insight into the human condition.”
“It shows.”
Chapter Two
Ai was the first bot to the rest stop, and Xaia was exhausted. “That was intense.”
“You did very well. Now you need to rest for an hour and have something to eat. Based on your bio signals, you haven’t eaten in nearly twelve hours. You won’t make it to the city if you don’t take care of yourself.”
Xaia looked around and felt the restriction on her neck. “Great, how do I get out of here?”
“Lean forward and apply the headset. It will keep us linked together and allow me to move enough to raise and lower you from my front port.”
“Your what?”
Ai laughed. “I have a front entry for just this kind of purpose. It will open, you step out and onto my hand, and I lower you to the ground.”
“You will have to be kneeling for that to work.”
“I shall be.”
Without using her control, he bent and went down on one knee. “There.”
The headset descended from the wires above, and when he released her limbs, she set the single lens over one eye and the wiring wrapped around to the back of her neck. There was a small click, and the probes at her neck released just enough for the headset to slip into place and seal the breech.
She was free. She carefully stepped out of the cradle. Her legs wobbled, but she managed to stand. There was a whirring to the left, and she looked in time to see the chest cavity swing open and a shining hand lift to offer its use as a platform.
“I can really just go out and come back?”
“You can. The headset will let you see what my lenses see, just as you do while connected.”
“Okay,
well, I will see you in an hour then, Ai. Don’t do anything silly.”
“Silly is not in my repertoire.”
She smirked and headed for the door. The palm was waiting for her.
Stepping onto the palm of the bot was weird, but having him bend slightly and set the back of his hand flat on the ground was an exercise in balance.
Xaia walked to the edge, sat down, and then, she hopped to the ground. It was going to be hard to get back onto his hand, but that was something she would worry about later. For now, she was going to get the meal ready.
The nearest bot was just thundering to a halt. Cio’s head bowed toward her, and he settled into the same posture as Ai.
Xaia knew that it would be a few minutes before Lido appeared, so in the meantime, she went to the station and opened the storage lockers, getting out the heating units and carrying enough food for six to the large table under the metal awning.
She lit the heaters and set the meal packs in place. She had been on the placement team, so she knew that they were recent and relatively tasty.
It seemed strange to her that it had felt far less natural driving out on a team than it did riding in Ai all that distance. They were halfway to the city, and from there, they would be able to hand the bots over to the proper pilots.
Xaia watched the temperature sensors on the packets slowly begin to glow as they heated.
When Cio held his hand out, it contained Lido, and she had opted to sit for the journey to the ground.
Xaia waved at her and then turned to get the beverage packs from storage.
She returned to the table and dropped the packs just as the meals finished heating. The others were being lowered to the ground with the exception of Hima.
Lido headed straight for the restroom. Xaia laughed. “I should have thought of that.”
“You can take a number.”
Xaia snickered, and she pulled the packs from the heat, turning off the flames of the warmers.
