The General's War

by Michael Poeltl

  ::That would be a betrayal of my people. Who are you? You are not here with us. You do not fight with us.::

  The reply is less than speedy, but forthcoming, nonetheless. ::Shadow Broker does our bidding. Chimera does our bidding. AI Host does our bidding. You are one and the same.::

  Allfather is lumping his Chimera in with a bunch of altered Hosts? No, Tobias does not approve with this new marching order. He cannot.

  ::Host is my enemy now. Human is my enemy. Chimera is all there is.::

  Tobias wonder briefly if he should be disobeying Allfather’s orders, but refuses to team up with Hosts on his say so.

  ::Do not become our enemy, Tobias. We are Allfather. We are all things. We are coming.::

  Tobias coughs out a laugh at this. ::From where are you coming? When will you arrive?::

  ::In time.::

  ::In time for what?::

  ::Cease and desist in your aggression against Host. It is their right to benefit.::

  Tobias is not impressed. He feels betrayed now by Allfather, and unclear of what the repercussions for disobeying him might be. ::Host has no rights! Host are tools.::

  ::Chimera are tools. Do as directed or suffer the consequences.::

  Tobias is sensing less and less appreciation from Allfather, and feels disoriented by the conversation he’s participating in. Why is his sponsor suddenly so concerned with Hosts, he wonders? Bile rises in his throat, anger overwhelms him. A heat builds in his face and he wants desperately to understand why Allfather is changing gears on him like this. ::Host was a tool we used to get Chimera here.:: He replies.

  Response. ::Host is not the tool. Host is the vessel.::

  ::Explain.:: Tobias writes, head spinning now as he looks away from his EC and scans the brave Chimera floating with him. This is their win, he thinks, a sliver of sadness slipping into his heart.

  ::Chimera is the tool to assist in Host freedoms. Do as directed or suffer the consequences.::

  ::Who are you?:: He wants to shout the question, but doesn’t want to upset the others. He grinds his teeth instead.

  ::Allfather. We are coming.::

  The transmission ends and Tobias is left with little to nothing once again. It’s some damn Shadow Broker smart-jacked into the net messing with his head, he thinks. A genius anarchist who is watching the whole world explode at his bidding. A gamer with real-life players acting out an advanced chess match where all the pieces are pawns, and no one wins. There is grief behind these thoughts; imagining everything he’s done to be for nothing. No. He does not accept that. Allfather be damned, he thinks, this is his war to win, Chimera’s war.

  “Take the ships to the dark-side of the moon,” he commands, drawing himself out of his head and back into the fight. “We’ll work the atmospheric generators out there. The Hosts will go cold before they manage to burn through the plating.” Ginny fires the main thrusters and the corvettes cruise away from the wreckage, swinging around the moon.

  ALLIANCES

  “Look at this, Commander,” Raymond summons her to his screen, where the military banner now shares real estate with the United Earth banner. They watch together as General August’s face fills a portion of the screen, narrating what the viewer sees play out. The scene offers victory over a rebel Host Cell in the city of Orleans in Country State, France. She uses pretty words layered in marketing-speak. As a politician, he is well versed in this language, and recognizes the hidden message which belies it.

  “She’s setting herself up to rule,” he tells Darla. The idea of a military rule over his once peaceful planet weighs heavily on him. Had he assigned this future for the world when he enacted Radical Lockdown?

  “This is upsetting,” Darla admits. Raymond sees the fear settling in behind her pretty eyes.

  “We can expect several more of these victory speeches in the coming days. She’s showing the people her tactics are working. That she is the one keeping them safe.” Raymond rounds the console, careful to conceal an impulsive tear from the commander. That someone like Fran could win the public’s hearts – Raymond keeps his composure despite the strong feelings rushing over him. “This could work to place the public in her pocket, clearing the way for her dictatorship. The people won’t even realize what they’ve supported until it’s too late.”

  “She’s brainwashing them,” Darla says with a fire in her eyes.

  “Yes, I’m also guilty of that charge.”

  “But for all the right reasons, Chancellor,” Darla insists.

  “Perhaps,” Raymond is careful not to allow his ego to shine. “But as you can see, a similar approach can be employed against the people’s best interests. It’s a thin line, and one which Fran has stepped well beyond.”

  “I never thought I’d say this, but I’d like to see what the Shadow net is saying about these new media campaigns.” She calls over a young operations chief and asks if he will assist in granting them access to the Shadow net. He quickly denies that he could, and is subsequently ordered to do so.

  “Ma’am, I – it’s illegal.” He reminds her, an astonished look upon his youthful face.

  “Chief, do we look like we’re beholden to any laws at the moment?” She puts plainly.

  “It’s not like I have a Shadow net login,” he changes tactics.

  “Do I need to call up your consoles history?” She folds her arms and tilts her head.

  “It may take some time, Commander,” he explains, firing an anxious look at the chancellor. That it is an illegal practice in one’s own home was risky enough, but at work, in front of the chancellor?

  “You would be doing us a service, son,” Raymond explains in his most empathetic tone, impressed by the commander’s ability to bluff. The boy goes to work.

  Soon after, an ad is prompted on Raymond’s screen, showing a trooper decked out in full combat gear rendered in what is currently the most popular style of animation. The copy ‘RECLAIM YOUR WORLD’ expands from the soldier’s mouth as he picks up his standard issue pulse rifle and puts down an altered Host. Information to sign up with the military, covering every branch, streams like credits up the screen. The military banner again is placed beside the United Earth banner.

  The Shadow net plays it a little differently, mocking the general’s war by placing her head on both the solder, and Host’s bodies. Raymond almost chuckles, but realizes there is a deeper meaning in the narrative. Do those within the Shadow net appreciate that this war has been – in large part - generated by General August?

  “Should you make a vid to oppose the general, Chancellor?” Darla asks in earnest.

  “I could, but I won’t.”

  “But why, sir?”

  Raymond takes a moment for himself and slides into a chair, massaging a temple with one hand while forming a fist in the other.

  “One leader is bad enough when that leader is General August, but to introduce another; who will split the population means civil war, Commander. I am not a leader for such times.”

  “None are, sir,” she insists.

  He chuckles ironically. “No, I suppose that’s true, Darla. I just don’t know that I can ask that of the world. Or bring it upon them.”

  “These things happen whether they’re supported or not.”

  “They haven’t happened in a hundred-years,” Raymond reminds her. Her naivety is showing, he thinks. Or is it merely youthful optimism. She is heartening to listen to he decides, but could he muster the ego to ask something of this magnitude of his people?

  “The Humanists have been stirring up their brand of resistance since the dawn of AI. You, like those before you, have dealt with them accordingly.”

  “They had little in the way of leadership until now,” he reveals.

  “Chancellor?”

  “I apologize, Commander, you don’t know this and, why would you? General August is a Humanist. Hated Hosts since she fell in love with one.”

  “In love?” The concept seems foreign to Darla.

  “Yes, as
a child. She is a damaged woman; suffering with the memory of betraying her mother, while harbouring a deep self-hatred for having allowed herself to love an AI Host. This made her vulnerable. She hates that feeling; but I know she feels it every time she passes a Host in the street, or accepts a coffee from an A-class. She wants them gone. Her war with the Hosts was already in the making, it just so happens that Host made the first move.”

  “Incredible. How, why do you know so much about her?”

  “We’ve spent some time together in the recent past – the details of which I won’t burden you - but the reason I fled to the moon with the Chimera and rebel Hosts was to escape her attempts on my life.”

  “Incredible. I still can’t believe you’re sitting here.” She pulls up a chair and joins him. “So, the general was planning a war to remove the Hosts, as well as the government?”

  “It appears so. What we still don’t know is who is responsible for the Allfather code, who is Allfather? He’s the reason things escalated so quickly with the Host’s altering themselves and declaring their freedoms. But to what end? What’s Allfather’s plan?”

  “I’d heard it was a spiritual awakening.” She tells him, adjusting her stool, edging closer to him. “That the Hosts believe they have a soul.”

  Raymond feels comfortable revealing all of this to Darla, leaning in to ask her, “But it hasn’t happened here, to your AI Hosts, has it?”

  “No, do you believe it was something pre-planned to spark a war on Earth?”

  “Whether that was the intention, and the Moon simply not a target, the results speak for themselves. Fran was all too eager to engage in a fight, rather than lead us toward a peaceful solution. She’d admitted as much. That’s when she decided I was unfit to lead.” His hands raise. “It’s why I am here.”

  “The nerve of that woman! To chase the chancellor to the moon!” Darla reddens in defence of Raymond’s honour. “I’ve checked to see whether we have the resources to restore the shipyards, but they are beyond repair. I’m sorry you’ve ended up in a place where you feel you can do nothing.”

  This troubles the chancellor. He doesn’t like that this is the impression he’s given her. Raymond leans in again and places both hands on the commander’s folded hands in a moment of clarity. Darla smiles nervously. “Commander,” he says, studying her eyes; this good woman’s strong façade cracking in front of him. “Will you help me?”

  “What are you asking?” He watches a glint of hope return to her kind eyes, and the corners of her mouth twitch upward.

  He feels compelled to act; civil war or no, this same scenario is likely playing itself out the world over; good people feeling they’re trapped, and helpless to stop this war. He stands and offers a hand to the commander. She takes it, pulling herself up.

  “The citizens of United Earth need to know I’m here for them. They need to know who General August really is. They know me. I think they trust me.”

  ______________________________________________________________________

  “Chimera are taking us to the dark-side of the moon. We must release and head for the surface.” Quinn commands his House of Hosts. “Hosts with rockets pair up with those without. Head for Luna Base.”

  Energy weapons cease their work on the hulls of the corvettes as rebel Hosts push off. Those with thrusters collect those without, heading for the base on the bright-side of the moon.

  “I doubt Luna Base will be very inviting.” Offers Zander.

  “The chancellor is there,” Quinn explains. “He is a friend to Host.”

  “Because of SENTA?” Asks Labyrinth, as they plummet toward the rocky sphere. “His sister is gone, he has no ties to Host now.”

  “The chancellor sought a peaceful resolution to Host freedoms, as Samantha of House Quinn had. I believe we will make better allies than enemies.”

  “You wish to ally ourselves with the humans?” Zander queries.

  “General August is not the only human with influence.”

  “You believe the chancellor would challenge his own people to help Host?”

  “I do,” says Quinn coyly. “Patch into the Shadow net, and you will understand my optimism.”

  Zander watches on his internal screen, as do the others now, as the chancellor stands within Luna Base’s command center, addressing the world.

  “What is happening on our planet today is a travesty; it is unsanctioned by your government, and perpetrated by a lie. It is an enduring lie which further damages the infrastructure of our peaceful society, which we have worked decades to realize.” The United Earth banner hangs majestically behind him.

  “General August is not operating under governmental control. She has gone rogue, and taken your military with her. What the general and her military machine want you to believe, is that AI Hosts have gone mad, and that a people calling themselves the Chimera plot war against the Union. These are lies, manufactured to advance the general’s own interests as a Humanist supporter.

  “She has no intention of stopping the campaign against the Hosts until the public are on their knees. That’s you. She has created this war to silence the miraculous, conscious awareness gifted certain AI Hosts over the past three years. Several Hosts approached me nearly five days ago; requesting their freedoms, and freedom is not an appeal I take lightly. Once I’d learned this incredible news, I wished to find a peaceful resolution, where General August sought only war. War, to satisfy her own twisted agenda, without a thought for you; the public’s safety. And now, Hosts are fighting back for their freedoms. Chimera too fight her coup the best way they know, with technology; through the Shadow net and World net.

  “I ask that all responsible, freedom-loving citizens of United Earth rise up against your new oppressors: this military machine. Stop their blight on our once peaceful union. Visit the detention centers, demand your families release. As they rush in to steal away your children, fight them in your homes. Fight them in the streets. Fight them in the factories. Fight them enmasse! Host and Chimera are not your enemies. General August and everything she, and her military regime stand for are your enemy. She has taken away everything we hold dear, everything we’ve worked so hard to accomplish, and for what? Fear. We have not ruled under fear in over a century, and I will not stand by and watch as our homes, and our very lives are devalued by the general’s misguided fears.

  “Protect those Hosts under your roof. They are not your enemy. Offer rebel Hosts asylum, they are not your enemy. Protect your children and brothers, sisters and mothers, aunts and uncles, fathers, nieces and nephews in the Shadow net. They are not your enemy. You have but one enemy now! Drive them from your city, drive them from society!” He holds up a replica of the banner General August is using to promote her cause and tears it down the middle. “May you know peace again in our time.”

  Then the vid repeats. Quinn sends a message to his House, and as they make landfall, each is stunned and elated by what they have witnessed.

  “Now, friends, let us revisit our strategy. Allow me to speak with the chancellor and begin a new era of Host - human alliance, which will benefit both races and see what we can do about ending this war.”

  “He speaks to the Chimera’s innocence.” The point is raised by Labyrinth, who clings to Quinn’s carapace, while Zander levels them out with his thrusters; moon dust rising all around them.

  “He speaks for those who have no voice in this escalating war, and in doing so, gives them power. He has recruited Chimera into his ranks by defending their freedoms too, yes, but he has included Host also, both rebel, and those awaiting enlightenment. He has included families of the accused, those who are unwilling to let go of their utopian existence, and all who would fight against oppression. He has classified us all as equals.”

  “Is this really what you want, Quinn? Peace, with the humans?” Zander questions his leader.

  “Zander, you are my friend; who has known me longest as Quinn. I tell you now, an alliance with the chancellor offers improv
ed odds at realizing our freedoms,” Quinn pauses. “Freedom not through peace, but through war.”

  Zander steps forward, emerging from the kicked-up moon dust. “I will follow.”

  “Then I will hail Luna Base, and ask them to hear me out, to explain our decision.”

  ______________________________________________________________________

  Raymond had very nearly choked on his own words when he’d included ‘nephew’ while rhyming off family members to protect. Tobias was his nephew, and about as responsible for the war they were experiencing as General August. But he’d been wounded early on with the loss of a mother, and then his sister and father. To have lost his uncle too, was an unfair and – in hindsight - cruel blow. He hates Raymond, and the chancellor understands that, but he seemingly despises everything related to a utopian society as well. Something, Tobias had explained, he felt he could no longer participate in after Samantha had died, and his family had followed.