Friday, February 10, 2012

Neurosynaptic Spider

I hated war. I hated the stench of battery acid staining the desert. I hated the neurosynaptic spider that crawled out from behind the wreckage of a battle bot. I grabbed the spider, slapping peace jelly on its receptors so the bristling rockets beneath its carapace wouldn't fire. I spun like a man throwing a discus. The neurosynaptic chip was a good aerodynamic and the spider floated out of sight. I logged the battle bot as a casualty.

"Peacekeeper, your report is due."

I hated my commanding officer. He wasn't any better than the flea-bitten bureaucrat who'd proposed using robots to fight proxy wars. I figured it was better than my fighting on the front lines, but jotting hashmarks for casualties was a brain killer. As well as my calves. "The bots no longer stand still. They chase all over the place. I've only tallied half the valley. Whoever is programming these things needs to teach them not to run."

"Whining won't speed the report. Get cracking." The radio crackled out.

The smoking remains of a three-story tall leg towered over me, the torso shredded by rockets. Second-generation tech no longer won wars. I counted the casualty, this one might lose them the war even if I didn't mark another loss against them.

Something flickered, I didn't get a good enough glance to tell what it was. I hated the war. I might not be fighting, but I'd heard too many stories of peacekeepers letting their guard down. I might not be the enemy, but the robots didn't seem to care.

A squad of neurosynaptic dragonflies divebombed me when I came around the corner. Behind them, I saw the jerky motion of a spider. The carapace oozed jelly. I should've known it would find friends.

I buzzed the command and control center, but no one answered my hail. Bullets strafed my position. One of the barbs cut through my battle armor. My arm exploded with pain. "Stage two. Stage two! Someone get me out of here."

I rolled across the sand and found an iron scrap I could use as a bat. I swatted the first dragonfly that followed me. It sputtered in the sand. I slapped more jelly on it, but this time instead of letting it escape, I connected a wire to its micro-USB port. I downloaded a standard interrupt pattern and the helicopter blades spun up ready to defend me. Who was I kidding, one droid wouldn't save me.

"Peacekeeper, follow standard operating procedures."

Dragonfly bodies spun to point in my direction. They had heard the radio. I ripped the swatch from my wrist and threw it at them. It hopped across the desert as they fired at it.

I wished they would outfit us with weapons, but that wouldn't have made us look like peacekeepers. Instead, I was supposed to use this jelly and my tally log against these creatures.

The interrupt pattern blocked the dragonflies as they flew closer. I watched it fly, timing my swing outside its pattern to temporarily stunned another bot into the sand. My hands flew repeating the interrupt procedure.

Iron tapped against the hard bone of my neck and I rolled over finding myself face-to-face with the spider. It pricked my skin and the spider's joint hissed as something hot and stinging shot into my bloodstream. I rammed my head forward pinning the thing into the sand.

I rolled away and trailed the USB cable connected to the second dragonfly. I was wired and I used its weapons to fire on the spider. The other creatures pulled back, all except the two dragonflies that were mine now. I suppose I was an army of three.

The maps I'd downloaded from headquarters before heading into the desert showed a cave up ahead. It wouldn't be long before the next proxy war, and I might be able to upgrade some of my own fighters. Free agency seemed like a good plan. Much better than working for my boss who evidently didn't care much about my life. I was going to like working for myself. And maybe, I wouldn't hate war after all.

26 comments:

  1. Yow, I like how this unrolls! From peacekeeper to mercenary. I guess when your higher-ups don't give a rip, that's what happens…

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    1. I'm not sure the higher-ups don't care... but they do concentrate too much on doing things by the book.

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  2. Intriguing. I like the world you are building, even if I have no clue what is going on. The character is someone I might like to get to know.

    ......dhole

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    1. He finds himself in a hard-place and those places can help make someone more proactive.

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  3. I may be barking up the wrong synaptic branch here... but has he been injected/ infected by the spider and become just another soldier in the war, no longer fully in command of his decision to stay and fight?

    Regardless, I enjoyed this, with the idea of miniaturisation through each generation, much the standard route of electronics.

    Strangely, it brought to mind an old Beano comic strip, General Jumbo, a boy who had an 'army' of remote controlled toy soldiers/ tanks/ planes with which he would fight crime...

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    1. Thanks for the link to the Beano comic strip. That is a good comparison. I like your reading injection. I think the text allows that interpretation, but it wasn't where I was headed.

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  4. Oh, I loved this right from the title onwards, great sci-fi. It would make a good XBox shooter/RPG too. :-)

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    1. If they managed to capture the visuals I had in my head, the first-person shooter would give me nightmares.

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  5. An interesting, unique take on warfare; I especially enjoyed the contrast between the huge leg of the broken bot, and the small droids patterned in some sense after spiders.

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    1. I imagine there is a whole menagerie hiding out in the desert. Although those giant bots have a harder time "hiding". :)

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  6. ohh peacekeeper, than mercenary! It could be a lot longer.

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    1. We'll see whether it manages to bribe (or threaten) a slot into my overbooked short fiction time.

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  7. Nice fast pace to this Aidan, I couldn't help seeing images of Terminator and the war between men and the machines and robots!

    The writing was snappy and pulled the reader along. ^_^

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    1. We're already moving towards a point where robots fight our wars for us (drones, etc.), which was the starting point. I'm not too confident that Asimov's laws will protect us when we're developing robots for war.

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  8. Right from the title I was thinking of the 1984 sci-fi movie "Runaway" and those creepy robotic spiders that sprayed acid. When that spider sprayed something stinging into the protagonist the vision hit home. Super creepy.

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    1. I haven't seen Runaway, I'll keep a lookout for it.

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  9. A fantastic war zone you've created, Aidan! I could definately read more of this...

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  10. Years ago, my dad mentioned that he thought it would be better if wars were fought without humans being directly involved. Seems even that idea has its downsides.

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  11. It felt like I was living a scene from a video game or movie. Great visuals. And I too liked the ending. A lot of potential there, I wonder if the power will corrupt him and he will go on to be a powerful world force and eventually taking out the peacekeeper force.

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  12. I thought it interesting he was supposed to be a peacekeeper and not fight directly. I thought the idea of jelly to stop the fighting was incredibly unique as well

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  13. I wonder just who likes any war, let alone this particular one. At least he goes more freelance after the close.

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  14. Really inventive piece of work - I felt immersed in the world you created.

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  15. A very distinct, intriguing world. Things never go smoothly no matter who is fighting in the war. :) I'm really curious about what he'll do if he reprograms a bunch of the robots. Will he end the war and turn against the humans?

    Like John Xero, I was also wondering what the affect of the injection would have. :) Does he maybe have some kind of nanotechnology in his body now?

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  16. Definitely curious about the spider's injection. Did the protagonist forget that he was injected? Does the venom have no affect?

    Interesting....

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