Jane Jones made breakfast for her teenage son, Jake, while he watched holotube videos.
Jake switched to a local news broadcast:
“This just in … Rebecca Chang reporting … We have another mass shooting happening downtown. Shield officers are deploying jammers to cordon off a parameter in hopes of preventing further shocks. They've flown drones in the area to detect the suspects, but they keep crashing. Authorities advise all civilians in the vicinity with upgrades Level 4 or higher to enter structures marked for zero penetration. Medics are on the way with emergency Faraday protection pods. We have Tim Davis operating our sky drones.”
“Rebecca, the suspects have barricaded themselves. They're firing powerful EMP pulses. We believe they modified robot hunting rifles to attack cybernetic implants.”
“Tim, do you mean they modified the rifle's pulse to target implants made for humans?”
“It seems so, Rebecca. We've seen this pattern before. The hunter rifles are perfectly legal to own, but their modifications are not. This is just one of the twelve mass EMP attacks to occur this month in the downtown area. The federal government recently declared EMP attacks a national epidemic.”
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“Thank you, Tim. Please keep us updated. I have Dr. Eugene Smart, a retired defense industry research cyberneticist, here with me. He's the author of the recently released book, 'From Bullets to EMPs, Will the Violence Ever Stop?'“ She turned to face Dr. Smart. “Doctor, what can we do about this? In the past, we stopped bullets with body armor and shields. These EMP strikes saturate the environment and people feel too powerless to stop them.”
“It certainly seems hopeless, Rebecca. I've been advocating for a nationwide ban on the personal storage of hunter rifles. I’ve also been advocating for mandating public tracking of their pickups and returns. However, some lawmakers claim it violates their constitutional right to defend against potential robot invasions. Which is just absurd.”
“So that's it, Doctor? For every attack, it's the luck of the draw and we just need to hide?”
“Well, not exactly, Rebecca. I'm also a consultant for a private research lab and we've entered human trials. If all works well, we should have a countermeasure soon.”
“How does it work, Doctor?”
“Well, I can't disclose all the technical details, but once ingested—”
Jane shut off the holotube video.
“Mom, I was watching that. They were gonna talk about us.”
“Jake, honey, it's only the news. They won't mention us to protect our privacy. You need to finish your breakfast and don't forget to take your nanites. Remember what the doctor said …”
“Yeah, I know, Mom.” Jake sighed. “Five times a day to keep the EMPs at bay.”