AMP Colossus

by Arseneault, Stephen

  Ashley lay on top of him, looking me right in the face. She smiled a smile that sent shivers down my spine. On the field of battle, she was not the pleasant and warm individual I had come to know. She was a cold-blooded, highly efficient killing machine. I suddenly came to realize why she had risen so quickly in her military career, and why she was so highly respected by others I had spoken to. I could only be thankful that she was fighting for my side.

  I pushed the dead sentinel over, stood, and brushed myself off. Ashley had a strange half smile on her face. It was not one of happiness, but one of determination. She had protected the man she loved, and I was grateful.

  The next room we entered had Duke Ferdese sitting in an opulent chair. He was more or less catatonic. I could only imagine that the Yacabucci field was playing havoc with his android circuits.

  Frost gestured to two of the other Marines in her squad. “Let’s drag his ass out of here and get back to the Deveroe! Colonel! This is Frost! We have the target, Sir. Heading back now!”

  The Colonel replied, “Will meet you there, Frost. Out.”

  The Colonel ordered the rest of our assault team back to the Deveroe. As we moved back onto our ship and the cargo hatch closed, I took note of the enormous hydrogen harvester pulling alongside Duke Ferdese’s ship.

  I turned back towards Ashley and smiled. She smiled back.

  The Colonel spoke. “Looks like everything is going to plan so far, Grange. We have one full harvester heading back to the Grid, we have detonators planted on fourteen of the ships we assaulted, and the web is still at 52 percent. Our fight is done for the day. We are heading back to the Grid with our cargo.”

  I replied, “That’s OK with me, Colonel. I don’t seem to have the fight in me that I usually do.”

  The Colonel looked over. “I’ve seen that look before, Grange. I hope you aren’t planning on going all humanitarian on us. We are hardly out of trouble yet.”

  I replied, “I can hold my own, Colonel. I guess I’m just in a little shock over seeing my wife in action back there, that’s all.”

  The Colonel chuckled and turned with his evil grin. “You did know that you married a Marine, Grange. Whatever it was you saw back there, that is what we are all trained for!”

  The twenty-four ships that had been taken by the Colonel’s men had cost us only four casualties. Two were burns from an exploding plasma cutter, and the other two concussion injuries from the same. When we landed on the deck at Beta Bay, there were six guards waiting to take possession of Duke Ferdese. Once out of the Yacabucci field, he was once again fully aware and in disbelief about the turn of events. He yelled continuously as they carried him away that this was the doing of his evil brother.

  I turned back to the Colonel. “You know, Colonel, there is one more duke out there. I would love to see the two of them facing off with each other. The web has stabilized, and the harvesters are doing their thing. What do you say we take the Deveroe back out and snag us another duke?”

  Frost was standing behind the Colonel and grabbed his arm. “Oh, Colonel, please say yes! Please!”

  The Colonel shook loose of her grip. “I told you before, Frost, to never touch me again!”

  The Colonel then looked back at me. “It might slow their response a little if they don’t have either of their leaders.”

  I spoke. “Let’s do this, Colonel! If you want, you can tell everyone I gave the order.”

  The Colonel replied, “What? So you can take all the credit? I don’t think so, Grange. This is a joint operation. Now get your ass back on that ship, and let’s get us another duke!”

  The harvesters continued to run as we assaulted the Duke’s ship. Again, the sentinels were weak under the effects of the web, and the Duke was easily apprehended. On the ride back towards the Grid, the Duke regained his awareness.

  I spoke. “Hello, my friend! And welcome to the world where Humans rule!”

  The Duke replied, “Mr. Grange! What have you done to my data feed? I don’t have broadcast! Are you jamming my data channels?”

  I spoke. “Why, yes we are, Duke. And this is something you are going to have to get used to. This Duke is now the Duke. Everything that happens from here on—it dies with you when you die. There is no recovery with a new duke body when it’s all over. You are now an individual! You are unique! How does it feel?”

  The Duke looked from side to side at the Marines who surrounded him. “Do you think I fear you, Mr. Grange?”

  I replied, “Well, Duke, if you don’t, you should. Everything you do from here on out, every experience, every recording, every decision—it is only kept in memory right up here in your noggin. And, I would guess it is a limited memory store, and that at some point it will be full and you will have to start dumping things. How does it feel to be limited, Duke?”

  The Duke thought for a moment. “I have underestimated your species, Mr. Grange. You have more determination than other species I have dealt with. I will take this as a learning experience.”

  I looked at the Duke. In an instant his expression had changed, and I knew he was about to act. Before I could move, the Duke stepped back and pulled the two Marines that held his arms hard together. He then swung his fist, punching the next-closest Marine in the chest, sending him flying back into the near bulkhead. The Duke then turned and raised his fist towards Ashley, who was caught off guard.

  I pulled the trigger.

  Ak! Bam!

  The Duke’s torso was nearly torn in half as an explosive round from my still-loaded AK did its nasty work.

  I then stepped over to a stunned Duke. “You can feel pain, can’t you? It won’t kill you, but your programming tells you it hurts.”

  I reached down and pressed a spot on his neck. A snapping sound could be heard as his head unit separated from his body. I grabbed the Duke’s head by the tendrils and picked it up.

  I spoke. “You could have kept your body, Duke. All you had to do was cooperate. But, now look at what you made me do. You are nothing more than a head! Oh, and for future reference, don’t mess with the wife! I’ve seen her when she gets angry, and you do not want to go there!”

  After landing, I handed the Duke’s head over to a team of Touchstone’s scientists. He would no doubt have a field day with his new toy. The Duke would be studied, poked, prodded, no doubt shut down and restarted. It would all be in the name of science, Human science. And the knowledge gained would go into our archives.

  The harvesters continued to drain the Duke’s fleet of hydrogen, and one by one the ships and the sentinels still on them were destroyed. Arguments were made for clearing the ships and taking as many of them as we could fit into the Grid’s bays. The requests were denied, as we would not have time to sweep them of any equipment that might broadcast our whereabouts.

  When the last of the harvesters had landed, the Admiral gave a signal, and the final twenty-seven ships of the Duke’s fleet were destroyed. Our detonators made use of a minimum amount of fuel that had been left aboard.

  I was sitting with Ashley in the command center when the rumble of the gravity drive ramp-up was felt. The deep metallic clangs of the actuators locking into place were music to my ears as we began to accelerate.

  I continued to somehow be the luckiest man alive. I wasn’t sure if it would last, but I looked forward to a shot at peace. We needed to fully fill our storage tanks, to rebuild our fleet, and to stockpile the materials that allowed us to live on and maintain the Grid. I wasn’t sure if the new system we were heading for would be trouble-free, but I was sure I was glad to be out of the Colossus Empire.

  Our brush with the Colossuns had been brief. First, encounters with the giant androids, and then finding out that the Colossuns were living beings like ourselves who were ruled by androids with intelligence like we had never seen before in an AI.

  And then there was the question of the Verna. Were they real? Were there other stations in the galaxy like the Grid? Were there other species who had been plucked from
their prior existences and dropped into a hot zone like us? The questions remained many and the answers few. One thing was for certain: Man, with all his flaws, had once again survived to fight another day.

  ~~~

  What’s Next!

  This Human is asking for your help!

  If you enjoyed reading this book please leave a review on Amazon. If you have general comments to the author or would like to be included on a mailing list for new releases please send an email to: comments@arsenex.com. I like feedback!

  I value my privacy as you value yours. Email entries will be added to a list for notifying readers of upcoming releases or specials. I will not be spamming you continuously, nor will I give or sell your email address to any other entity. If at any time you wish to have your email address removed from the list please send an email to: comments@arsenex.com with the body text of “Stop”. I will happily remove your email address upon request. It’s that simple!

  I sincerely hope you have enjoyed reading this book. The first chapter of the next book in the series is provided below, I hope you will enjoy it as well!

  Steve

  AMP

  6

  Siege

  Chapter 1

  The metallic sound of the actuators disengaging reverberated through the Grid’s structure. We were at our new location. A bright yellow sun shone in the distance. Our harvesters were being readied for departure. Five planetary masses orbited the nearby sun. It was once again time to search for resources.

  I stepped onto the bridge of the Granger as she prepared to lift out of the docking bay. “Captain, which planet are we hitting first?”

  The Captain replied, “The third one. It shows as habitable on all the monitors. The iron content is far above normal. If there are no surprises this time, we should be able to get a minimal fleet up and running in a few months.”

  I plopped down in a chair on the bridge. “OK, let’s get this system surveyed and get our one remaining ore harvester out there and digging.”

  As we sped towards the first of the planets, Ashley sat beside me and spoke. “Are you sure you don’t want to go out in the harvester again?”

  I replied, “Right. I think once was enough. I hate to think of what might have happened to Duane and another pilot had I let them go it alone on Ponik. We might be subjects of the Colossuns right now, working down in the Ponik mines.”

  Ashley laughed lightly. “Or, we might have worked out a trade deal and be well on our way to reestablishing our security. You can’t second-guess these things, Don. While history can be rewritten, the actual events that took place cannot.”

  I replied, “I suppose. I guess I should be happy we made it out of there. I would say ‘in one piece,’ but we lost a lot of good Marines down there on Ponik. That is something that you can’t just shake off.”

  Ashley placed her hand on my shoulder. “They went of their own free will, Don. They died fighting for what they believe in. It is the same thing you fight for every day. Our freedom.”

  I smiled, kissed her on the forehead, and then turned my attention to the view-screen in front of us.

  The Captain spoke. “Scan feeds are coming in. Temperature of about 420 degrees Celsius on the surface. It has an iron core, but it’s not active, has already cooled. The surface layer is about nine hundred kilometers thick. Mostly silicates. It has no atmosphere to speak of. Looks like a harsh place, even for our harvesters.”

  The Captain then gave the order to proceed to the second, slightly smaller planet. It too lacked an atmosphere. It had a molten core and an active magnetic field as it spun rapidly, yielding an eight-hour day. Again, the surface was largely silicates.

  We then arrived in orbit around the third planet. The sensors lit up with data. A healthy atmosphere, a protective magnetic field to shield its surface from the solar wind, oceans of water, and the most interesting reading, signs of life. The red planet’s surface was rich in iron oxide.

  The Captain spoke. “Looks like we have occupants down there. We are picking up weak radio signals that contain unencrypted audio feeds. Translators should have a lock in a few seconds.”

  The Captain enabled the first of the received transmissions.

  A female voice spoke. “Fighting continues in the Danute sector today. The Hargets have once again violated the cease-fire agreement. The initial word from the front lines is that they are holding. Let us pray to Oorah that they continue to do so.”

  The voice continued, “In other news, a Forgo couple gave birth to a litter of pups today that averaged 6.8 kilograms each. The eight Fergie pups are said to be doing well, the largest of the litter coming in at a whopping 10.2 kilograms!”

  A male voice followed. “Oh my! That poor woman. I only weighed 5.4 kilograms, and my mother said that was a chore.”

  The first voice replied, “Your mother was right, Gelmede. You are a chore.”

  I nodded in approval of the sarcastic remark as the broadcast translation continued. “Alright! I find it a good sign that we have happened on a species with a sense of humor. These Fergie people, I think we can work out relations with.”

  The Captain spoke. “Scans have not picked up any signs of ion propulsion or generation. The planet is dotted with small cities, and we are picking up two distinct languages. I’m locking onto another broadcast from the second language now.”

  A voice spoke. “The continued raids by the Fergie criminals are being met with staunch resistance. The King has ordered additional machinists to Danute. A new war machine is under construction and will be ready to fight within ten days’ time.”

  The Captain spoke. “Initial video feeds coming in now. We have the sector identified where the supposed fighting is taking place. Sensors are not showing any destruction to buildings or to…”

  The bridge was quiet as one of the ultrahigh-definition cameras on the Granger zoomed in on the battlefront. The alien beings that inhabited the planet were small, furry green creatures. They stood only thirty centimeters tall. Thousands upon thousands of them labored on a machine that covered an area five hundred meters by five hundred meters. A quick pan of the camera revealed an identical-sized machine being constructed by a multitude of brown furry creatures of the same stature.

  I spoke as I continued to look at the images and touched Ashley on the arm. “What exactly do you think they are doing down there? If they are at war, what is it they are building?”

  Ashley replied, “That is hard to say. Captain? Can we zoom in on the space between the two large items they are constructing?”

  The camera panned and zoomed further.

  Ashley spoke. “That looks like a debris field in between them. If you look closely, those machines they are building have tracks. And take note of the broad path leading backwards from each machine; it may seem strange to us, but I think their war is being fought with those machines.”

  Several additional minutes of viewing passed before a tactical specialist stepped forward with his early analysis.

  The specialist spoke. “With quick scans of broadcasts, we have identified two distinct languages. The Fergie, with the green fur, seem to be in control of the two southern continents. The Hargets, with the brown fur, control the three northern ones. There appears to be no interaction between the two sides except for in this one sector.”

  The specialist continued, “There is no fighting to speak of, but the two sides are both working feverishly on those machines. We discussed this briefly. We do not have any reasonable explanations for this behavior at this time.”

  The Captain thanked the specialist and turned back to the screen. Further analysis revealed the supplies being hauled to the construction sites were on vehicles utilizing internal combustion engines. Still further investigation revealed what appeared to be storage tanks for naturally occurring methane gas.

  A second analyst then came forward with a report. “Sirs, there has been no report of a flight of any type. It appears this civilization is pre-flight. There are al
so very few ships moving between these five continents on those oceans. What we have identified are extremely large barge ships whose movements appear to be restricted to tight shipping lanes. One other item of note: both sides have referred to the name of the planet as Targ.”

  The analyst concluded his presentation and returned to his console. Next up for a report was a lieutenant from the sensor team.

  The lieutenant spoke. “We are having difficulty with many of our sensors. The high amount of iron down there contributes to a magnetic field that is substantially stronger than any we have encountered before. If we are looking for iron ore, they certainly have it in abundance.”

  The lieutenant continued, “The interference given off by that magnetic field is preventing us from identifying other minerals that are on our list of needs. Scans of the rest of this star system have not revealed any spacecraft. The debris field farther on is not mineable with our gear. We are the only ones flying anything around, so threats to us being here appear as minimum.”

  I spoke. “I think the lives of the Fergie and the Hargets are about to get a lot more interesting.”

  Ashley replied, “Why is that?”

  I stood as I continued to watch the view-screen. “They are about to get visitors from space, in a flying machine. That is something they have probably never seen. And let’s face it: we are giants compared to them. When I land a shuttle down there and step out onto that red ground, I will be four times their height.”

  Ashley replied, “I’m not sure we should make contact. If they are as primitive as scans have revealed, we should be able to select a remote location, mine what we need, and leave.”

  The Captain spoke. “I’ll have a team look for mining opportunities away from their cities. I would agree with Mrs. Grange. We should let them be if possible. There is no telling what negative impact we might have if we just show up.”

  I replied, “Negative impact? What about the positive ones we can have? They mentioned war; what if we could bring that to an end? What if we could teach them how to fly so that one day they can defend themselves against expansionists like the Colossuns?”