by Cosimo Yap
Alan turned to the soldiers. “Find your way out of the forest; be wary of traps and enemies. Two of you in front, two behind, with the medic at the center of the formation. Keep an eye out for movement.”
As they continued to walk through the forest Cerberus asked, “Have you done this before? There’s a game in the Arcade that is similar to this test.”
“It’s not too different from playing a real-time strategy game, except without the top-down view,” Alan said. He didn’t mention that Eve was feeding him advice and commands.
Enemy detected ahead. Have the front two soldiers advance forward slowly, the back two soldiers providing covering fire if needed. Keep the medic at the ready, Eve sent.
Alan relayed her orders. The two soldiers cautiously advanced, found two enemy soldiers, and eliminated them with the help of the squad.
“New scenario,” Cerberus said. “Defend the base.”
An explosion sounded in the distance.
“Forward, now!” Alan shouted. The soldiers began sprinting forward; Alan ran along with them. They emerged from the forest to find smoke and explosions. Laser fire intermittently pierced through the smog, but it was all the same red color. There was no convenient color coding to tell friend from foe.
Alan rapidly switched between the different wavelengths of light that he could see; the only one that was slightly helpful showed the outline of a few buildings under attack.
“Follow me,” Alan said, as he ran toward the nearest structure. A guard stood by the entrance.
“Status report!” Alan shouted, struggling to be heard.
“Why should I report to you? You’re a squad captain,” the guard said.
“Well what am I supposed to do, then? Who’s in charge?” Alan asked.
“Aren’t you part of the raid party?”
A message appeared, notifying Alan that he was now part of the raid group called Defenders. An interface appeared, similar to group messages, but with layers. Alan could send messages to either individual NPCs, which were named Defender 1 through Defender 100, or to a specific squad, or to the entire raid group. He could even customize how messages appeared to others. Alan’s squad were Defenders 96-100. Defender 1 had a star next to his name, which Alan knew denoted the raid leader.
Alan contacted Defender 1.
Alan: Give me control of the raid group.
Defender 1: And why should I do that? Report on what you found in the forest.
Alan: Two enemy soldiers. They were eliminated.
Defender 1: Good. Defend the base.
Alan turned to Cerberus, who shrugged. “This is the scenario. Lead. It’s more than just giving orders.”
Alan began to lead the squad back outside.
No, find the command center, Eve sent.
Listening to Eve, Alan led the squad deeper into the building until they reached the command room. Two soldiers, Defenders 2 and 3, guarded the door, equipped with intermediate-ranked power armor and laser swords. Defender 1 stood before a command table. These tools for war displayed a three-dimensional image of the battlefield, like a chess board, but real-time and far more detailed.
From what Alan could see, the Defenders were outnumbered three-to-one. The enemy also had a tank, while the base had no defense other than a laser shield.
Eve rapidly began making calculations. Alan couldn’t follow all the details, but he got the gist of things: they were screwed if they continued to stand guard and wait for the attackers to advance.
“The base will be destroyed in ten minutes if you continue like this,” Alan said.
“Do not bother me, return to your station,” Defender 1 said.
“Look, if you just concentrate those Defenders deeper in the structure here, move the snipers back there, and prepare an ambush in that hallway, our chances for success go way up,” Alan said.
“Cease your insubordination and return to your station,” Defender 1 said.
Alan stared at the NPC for a second, then told his squad, “Shoot Defender 1.” They shot Defender 1, killing them.
Defender 2 became the new raid leader. The Defender immediately marked Alan’s squad as hostile and sliced through them with Defender 3.
There was a flash of light as the scenario reset. Alan found himself standing at the edge of the forest with his squad, the base under attack.
“Sometimes you will have dumb superiors that won’t listen to you,” was all Cerberus said.
Alan tried leading his squad on an assault of the enemy force—he had seen how they were arrayed and even managed to take out seventy-five enemies before his squad was wiped out by the tank and the scenario was reset. Cerberus offered no advice.
Alan tried hiding his squad in the command room. The Defenders managed to eliminate a third of the attackers before they reached the center. Another thirty were defeated by Defenders 2 and 3, but Alan’s squad still fell eventually.
Alan spent multiple attempts trying to take over the tank, waiting until it was damaged or had reached a certain place in the battlefield before charging it with his squad. It never worked.
“Just because they won’t listen to your commands doesn’t mean they won’t listen to your advice,” Cerberus said.
“What do you mean?” Alan asked. “The commander didn’t listen to my advice.”
“Yes, because he believed you were being insubordinate,” Cerberus said.
“Wait, these defenders have their own personalities?” Alan asked.
“Yes. They have their own abilities and levels of abilities too,” Cerberus said. “Did I not mention that?”
“No,” Alan said.
For the next attempt, Alan remained in the command center, but sent detailed advice as to how the enemy would advance and where enemy snipers were to the defenders individually—information Eve had analyzed from previous runs. This time, they managed to defeat half of the attackers, and a minute before they all died, Defender 1 even promoted Alan to be in charge of two squads rather than one.
With the next attempt, Alan split his consciousness. One half led his squad to kill as many attackers as possible while the other offered advice to the defenders. Alan got around the need to stay within five meters of his squad at all times by leaving the medic behind in the command room. The medic updated him on how the battlefield shifted.
This time, Defender 1 gave Alan control of a second squad much sooner—the kills his squad racked up seemed to impress him. With the second squad, Alan managed to eliminate two-thirds of the attackers before the base fell.
Finally, on the eighth attempt, Alan won the scenario by having his squad and the squads he gained control of loot fallen defenders and the attackers with specialized weaponry, managing to defeat the tank by kiting it around with a few snipers. The NPCs driving it weren’t the smartest.
“Good enough,” Cerberus said. “The common strategies to defeat the scenario are to either convince Defender 1 to relinquish his command, or discover you just needed to hold out till reinforcements arrive, distracting the enemy force with your squad. But that worked too.”
“What? How was I supposed to convince Defender 1 to follow me?” Alan asked.
“Talk to them. The NPC is quite complicated, with an entire backstory. You could have blackmailed him by discovering an affair with another defender, or plotted with Defender 2 to throw a coup. Anyway, these scenarios are supposed to have multiple solutions, and yours was fairly unusual. Moving on: Defend the planet.”
Alan was transported to the inside of a spaceship with a command table before him. Instead of showing a single battlefield, it showed an entire planet with nearly thirty simultaneous, large-scale battles and lots of additional units moving about or preparing for combat.
Alan could use the table to zoom in on a particular location—but many parts of the planet were covered in black, where the only information that came in was from messages sent by scouts instead of from a live 3D video feed. Eve was overloaded by the information: it took her nearly a m
inute to digest it all, and by that time two of the battles had already finished.
This time Alan was the commander, in charge of ten million defenders against an invading force twice his size with both space support and superior gear. Alongside the command table was a data terminal that contained detailed information about all the defenders; their levels, stats, and personalities were all recorded.
Eve began a list of orders that Alan communicated as quickly as possible.
“Move this unit there. Retreat. Chase them. Prepare an ambush here,” Alan said.
“Lose the bioform mindset,” Cerberus said.
Alan stopped giving commands. “What?” Alan asked.
“You are a Machine Lord, not some dumb ape that depends on its vestigial organs to communicate and show off how large its ego is. Use your abilities to their furthest extent.”
Activate hypercognition and give orders through in-game messages, Eve sent.
Oh, right, Alan replied.
Alan activated hypercognition and split his consciousness. One half handled the macro decisions, the overall movements of thousands of soldiers, while the other handled micro decisions, sending messages down to the squad level and combing through the data terminal to reassign individual defenders. Aided by Eve, he discovered that some of the information on the defenders was incorrect and uncovered a few spies hidden in the ranks.
As the war progressed, and the number of defenders decreased, Eve was able to provide commands with finer and finer detail, which Alan followed.
“Do you feel bad at all, letting your AI do all the work?” Cerberus asked.
“No, delegating is what leaders do,” Alan said.
Cerberus waved his hand before him and the simulation sped up. Time began progressing ten times as fast. Still, the numbers had decreased to the point that Eve was never too overloaded, and within an hour Alan had defeated the final attacker.
Three messages appeared as Alan was teleported before a large metal door that looked like it would fit on an aircraft hangar:
Managing to lead a large force to victory you have gained a new sub-stat of charisma, Leadership! For every five points in Leadership you will gain a point in charisma.
+25 Leadership
Managing to effectively formulate a winning battle strategy you have learned a new Machine Lord ability, Tactical Analysis!
+15 Intelligence + 10 Leadership
Phase Unknown Updated:
For completing the Chancellor’s Trial, you have gained access to the entrance of the Academy Data Vault. To enter the Data Vault, complete the following tasks:
Receive 5 Commendations of every type, 10 Commendations in your program (Rogue).
Win the Game of Assassins.
Receive 1st place in the Champion’s Tournament.
Complete a full course at the Institute.
Defeat either a level 1,000+ Rank A boss or a level 500+ Rank S boss in the Hunting Grounds.
Gain the Chancellor’s approval.
“You’re the Chancellor?” Alan asked.
“Finally catching on, are you?” Cerberus asked. Two titles appeared beside his name: Academy Chancellor and Revenant Agent.
Chapter 12
“I have to fulfill all those conditions to enter the Data Vault? Impossible,” Alan said.
“Seeker has completed half of them,” Cerberus said.
“Can I bring a group of people?” Alan asked.
“No, everyone must enter the vault alone,” Cerberus said. He looked at Alan. “I would suggest you don’t bother trying. No non-Predecessor has managed to fulfill all the conditions as long as I’ve been Chancellor.”
“And how long has that been?”
“Enough personal training for today,” Cerberus said. “You may retry and practice the challenges as you see fit. I have other business. Meet me by my capsule at 0800 tomorrow.” Cerberus opened up a menu and then disappeared.
A blue portal opened up; it led back to the center of the obstacle course.
Send the information about the requirements to enter the Data Vault to Sidestep, Alan told Eve.
Very well…
Sidestep replied: Thanks for the info—no way in hell we’ll ever meet those requirements. GL.
Alan spent a few hours working out in the obstacle course and then went to bed, wondering what tomorrow would hold.
***
“It is time to continue our hacking lessons,” Cerberus said. “And what better way to improve than upgrading your base? Please enter the capsule; it will take you directly into Cyberspace.”
Alan looked over at the white capsule. A message appeared:
You are about to enter an unregistered capsule. Are you sure you wish to proceed? Unknown operations may be performed while in capsules not registered by Administrators.
Remembering the pain that had occurred the last time he entered the capsule, Alan hesitated.
“I really am quite busy,” Cerberus said.
Alan got in.
***
Alan found himself floating above the Citadel, two figures by his side—Cerberus and Eve. Of the two, Cerberus appeared more robotic. Alan’s base was now five times as large, the size of a small town or army base. The boundary of his domain was ingrained in his mind.
Cerberus’s domain in Cyberspace was shrouded behind a shield that extended as far as Alan could see.
“Let us begin the remodel,” Cerberus said. A message appeared:
Give Cerberus permission to construct additional buildings in the Citadel?
Alan hesitated, then accepted.
The handful of bunkers in Alan’s base spread out until they were in the middle of the four sides of the Citadel. Multiple structures began construction.
The shield generators moved to the northeast corner and upgraded themselves. Layers of metal and wires formed on the generators before Alan’s eyes. Two layers of shields covered Alan’s new base.
Alan’s barracks moved to the northwest corner. Three additional barracks formed, and all four buildings began evolving. The originally dull rectangular structures turned into a brilliant white hospital, a supply depot, and two state-of-the-art training facilities.
Two massive, sixty-foot-tall metal pylons constructed themselves in the southwest corner. They coursed with yellow electricity that energized the surrounding base.
Another structure that looked like an auto garage constructed itself in the southeast corner of the base, with an open garage door that revealed tables lined with tools and chemicals. Alan recognized it as a research center.
At the center, the final structure began to construct itself into something that Alan could only describe as a true citadel. The size of a small skyscraper, its tip reached nearly 150 meters high, about 500 feet in the air, barely touching the top of the shields that covered the base. It was layered with concentric circles that rose higher and higher the closer they were to the center, similar to Minas Tirith. But unlike the fictional Middle-Earth city, this structure was made of dark metal, and its center tower seemed to serve a purpose, as energy was drained from its surroundings and gathered at its tip.
A series of messages appeared:
Small Force Fields upgraded to Large Force Fields.
Three additional Barracks constructed.
Barracks upgraded to Medical Station.
Barracks upgraded to Supply Depot.
Two Barracks upgraded to Training Facilities.
Two Energy Pylons constructed.
Maximum Computational Energy increased by 200.
Research Center constructed.
Armory constructed.
The Citadel is now at 94% of capacity.
Mental Resistance has been increased.
“What just happened?” Alan asked Cerberus.
“Do you think I stole your points? You paid for all this.” Cerberus spread his hands outwards.
“And what does all this do?” Alan asked.
“Let us take a tour,” Cerberus said, f
lying down to ground level. Alan and Eve followed him.
Cerberus pointed at the shield generators. “You know shields, they do what shields do: absorb outside attacks.”
He gestured at the energy pylons. “These help power the various structures and also grant you additional Computational Energy.”
He walked over to the upgraded barracks. “The training facilities allow you to train more advanced units. The supply depot decreases the maintenance cost, the upkeep of Computational Energy required to keep the units active. The medical station repairs damaged programs like an injured marine unit or Eve. It is also able to heal your own mental health over time.”
“My mental health, like if I’m crazy?” Alan asked.
“No, not your psychological well-being, but mental health, your health in Cyberspace. Like when you are in the Game, you have health, and when it runs out, you die. Don’t run out of mental health.”
“Why, what happens when it runs out?” Alan asked.
“It varies from brain damage to real life death,” Cerberus said. “Again, don’t die while hacking. Do. Not. Die. Do you understand?”
Alan stared at Cerberus. “Okay, got it, but isn’t hacking super dangerous, then? How strong am I? How much health or defense do I have here?”
“Up until now you have been hacking in what is known as Commander-mode. You have only commanded units, and your AI, to battle. The only way you could have suffered from a mental death is if your entire base was razed to the ground.” Cerberus smiled, and looked up at the center building, the Armory.
“This building changes that. It not only allows you to develop gear for your units and AI, but also allows you to venture onto the battlefield.” A metal door opened and Alan entered the Armory.
