Outer ring of Romulus, Mars, January 2nd, 1001 Solar Era.
Saanvi Patel rested within her cockpit, controlling a multitude of sensory devices to scope for the enemy.
She had gone through a number of mind-altering moments the last two months.
Upon announcement of the AI compatibility test with each pilot’s mind over a month ago, she feared the loss of her position as a nexarm pilot-- none could tell if one was compatible with a true AI, a legend of the digital wars.
Luckily, she crossed that hurdle. She had thought her fifty-five percent compatibility to be lacking, only to see her fellow pilot, Moise Benteke, only obtaining a lower forty-six percent compatibility score.
Her curiosity piqued, she had secretly picked up a researcher’s screen device, flipping through some of the notes of said careless researcher, a man named Shen Zhong who had run off for a lunch break.
She regretted what she had read in his notes.
All knew that one factor of the compatibility with the true AI, Denys, relied on whether the human shared the same values and thinking of Denys, which grew upon its base programming by a person of a bygone era.
Shen Zhong had many other thoughts laid out in a number of hypotheses within his notes.
One of his guesses was based on Einar Thorsson. Shen Zhong suspected that Einar Thorsson, often carrying a false bravado, was actually ‘simple-minded’. Essentially, this researcher postulated that those that engage in less complex thoughts would automatically be easier to ‘mind-meld’ with a true AI.
At least, that was one explanation Shen Zhong offered for Einar Thorsson’s rather high compatibility with Denys.
Another hypothesis that Saanvi wished she could remain unaware of and maintain her ‘innocence’ was one where Shen Zhong suspected that young children, particularly teens going through their rite-to-adulthood, could be influenced to align their minds with that of the true AI such as Denys.
Many of the nexarm pilots are already young, herself included. Yet, she could very much imagine even teens being forced into the war. Especially those of… unfortunate backgrounds and desperate situations.
A notification sounded.
“Saanvi. A disturbance twenty kilometers to the south,” Denys’ voice sounded within her head. This was another fear that Saanvi had. Denys was quite literally inside her head. She was no longer even sure which thoughts were still her own, and which were Denys’!
“As I’ve said before, your thoughts are your own. My programming emphasizes the importance of non-interference. I was simply forced to reveal myself due to Syned’s appearance.”
Denys had said this to Saanvi many times. Not that she was at all comforted by the true AI’s words. Her father currently works as a brain surgeon. If there was one thing that she knew-- everything affected the brain’s development. Experiences, environment, sounds…
And this voice inside her head…
“That I cannot deny. As I promised you, I am happy to retreat into the confines of the cockpit when you’re off duty.”
What worried Saanvi the most was that Denys seemed genuine in its attempts to assuage her fears. She almost wanted to ‘give in’ and trust this true AI.
“Patel. Are you able to handle this yourself?” Einar’s voice sounded through the comms.
“Yes, special lieutenant,” Saanvi hurriedly replied as she refocused her mind. Saanvi recalled her sensory devices, which attached back onto the nexarm’s mainframe.
Before leaving, she looked north, beholding Vastitas Borealis, Mars’ mostly-filled northern ocean. Mostly-filled, because the terraforming of the planet had yet to be completed. As a result, the shallowest regions were not covered in liquid water.
To the southwest was Valles Marineris, a deep canyon providing freshwater. And directly south but farther? Argyle Basin, another source of freshwater for Romulus, which was built close to the eastern tip of Valles Marineris.
As for the city of Remus, the stronghold of their opposition? Built between Isidis Planitia and the Hellas Basin. Both cities stretched kilometers underground for the safety of its inhabitants, as well as for other sources of water below the surface.
These two cities are connected by the Wolf’s Coil, critical in generating gravity as well as creating a magnetosphere for the planet. Naturally, the trains between the two cities had been suspended under current conditions. The trains now only ran between each city and hubs under said city’s control.
None dared to show any signs of aggression close to the Wolf’s Coil-- any damage to this structure could cause the whole planet’s terraforming efforts to collapse, and death for its inhabitants.
This was why the battles so far had been probing attacks, at locations close to freshwater sources and mining sites.
Saanvi controlled her exo-armor to skid down the outer walls of Romulus. Her nexarm whirled and crackled as its artificial musculature pulsed to cushion her landing on the red sand.
Her nexarm then accelerated and sped towards the detected enemy’s location. The EFSF’s nexarms had been equipped with deep-grooved wheels at the soles, to enable efficient movement on the planet’s surface. Around fifty percent of Mars’ land remained desert-like. Vegetation only grew in close proximity to water sources.
As she could originally control twenty neuro-devices, with Denys attached at a fifty-five percent compatibility rate, she now controlled a hundred and ten neuro devices-- ten of which she dedicated to sensory use. Thus, she was surrounded by a hundred various weapon systems.
Still a kilometer from the reported location, Saanvi began to spot sparse vegetation. That was when the surrounding sand churned and spouted into the air, as a gigantic mecha-centipede ambushed her one-person convoy.
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The mecha-centipede itself had many weapons equipped on its body, and those weapons fired kinetic rounds as its large and heavy body extended and darted towards Saanvi’s main control frame.
Saanvi had received early notification through her ground vibration sensor device, and thus already had a number of weapons primed and ready.
Heavy rounds and missiles fired simultaneously from a few of her tanks, aimed at a connecting section of the centipede’s body. Her idea was to completely destroy a section of the mecha-centipede.
The mecha-centipede’s body danced as it swayed to avoid the kinetic rounds and missiles, before continuing closing in towards Saanvi’s mainframe.
Saanvi had dealt with this sort of attack quite a number of times before. The Kasvallians’ preference was to create one giant weapon in imitation of a desert-creature, equip it with various weapon systems, and allow a pilot to control the whole combined armament to charge forth and attack the 'head of the snake’. In this case, Saanvi.
As for where the pilot of this mecha-centipede might be? Likely hidden far away, within the safety of a haisnaf temporarily disabled to allow the pilot to dedicate his or her neuro channels for this mecha-centipede.
The mecha-centipede dived its head and vanished into the desert sand. Saanvi groaned inside. She hated the Kasvallian’s methods of combat.
She focused on sensing the vibrations within the ground, for the mecha-centipede’s movements.
The sand began to churn again, and Saanvi ignited the boosters on her nexarm as she blasted into the air, narrowly dodging the head of the mecha-centipede that stabbed upwards through her previous location. A few kinetic rounds fired from the centipede’s attached neuro devices missed her nexarm.
By now, Saanvi had prepared swarms of crab automations to latch onto the mecha-centipede’s body. The mecha-centipede’s flexible movement made it difficult to strike a single spot with kinetic rounds, missiles, or lasers. Thus, automatons remained most effective.
These crab swarms crawled upon and surrounded the mecha-centipede’s mid-body section, before activating self-destruct.
An air wave radiated outwards as Saanvi’s sensors flickered under the disturbance of the explosive ball of flames.
When her sensors regained functionality, she could tell that the mecha-centipede was not done yet!
“Madarchod!” Saanvi swore out loud. Though split into two, and its movements had turned erratic, the two segments still came at her mainframe once again. This had not happened the last time she battled against a mecha-centipede.
Her hatred for the Kasvallian Republic was growing by the second. Another trait of the Republic’s weapon systems was that their weapons seemed to grow at a breakneck pace. This newly-designed mecha-centipede remained semi-operational even when severed into two. She suspected that parts of it might remain functional even if she further split the already separated halves!
“Stay calm,” Denys said. “Though Syned and I are equals, your destruction of the segments creates an opening for me to infiltrate the segments. Maintain your course of action.”
This has been the pattern for the last two months. Denys would maintain the security of her nexarm and accompanying neuro devices, battling behind the scenes against Syned. Only when a pilot successfully damaged the equipment of the other would a gap open for one to infiltrate the opposite’s systems.
Thus, Saanvi once again activated another set of crab swarms, controlling the swarm to successfully grab onto the body of one half. The other centipede-half, meanwhile, had drilled into the sandy ground once again.
Another crab swarm self-destructed and split that half-centipede into one-fourth segments. Saanvi ignited her nexarm’s blasters to once again dodge the other half heading towards her mainframe.
This time, however, the weapons on the half-mecha-centipede were accurate in their aim, and a number of rounds struck Saanvi’s airborne nexarm, the force propelling Saanvi backwards. She crashed and sunk a meter into the sandy surface.
X-alloy plate status: forty percent.
Connection to two swarms-- lost.
“Denys!” Saanvi was naturally nervous. Her trust in Denys wasn’t high to begin with. Any damage to her own mainframe and accompanying devices would open their side up to Syned’s infiltration.
“Stay calm. Our opponent is just as capable as we are,” Denys nonchalantly stated in their prepubescent voice.
Saanvi could only bite back her retort as she controlled a number of her tank weapons to fire upon the automaton swarms that she had lost control of. These two swarms, unfortunately, are positioned right in the middle of her one-person convoy.
They would self-destruct upon getting close to any of her other just-under one hundred neuro weapon devices, and Saanvi had to carefully maneuver her whole army to protect each individual piece.
Saanvi once again sensed a half of the mecha-centipede approaching. She failed to latch onto the snaking form of the enemy with any of her remaining crab automaton swarms.
She could only frustratingly dodge while using a few of her airborne spherical swarms to block any incoming kinetic rounds from the weapons atop the mecha-centipede half.
Her momentary focus on protecting her mainframe distracted her from the intricate control of other neuro devices. A few more explosions echoed as the self-destruction of a few control-lost crab automations struck more of her neuro weapons.
Connection to tank beta and tank delta-- lost.
“Denys!” Saanvi screamed in her head once again. This was the initiation of a cascade effect that could cause all her remaining neuro devices to turn against herself!
“Got it,” Denys dispassionately informed Saanvi of their success.
Saanvi breathed a sigh of relief as the two one-fourth centipede segments leapt at the enemy’s half-centipede and pinned it to the ground.
Saanvi diverted a number of her neurally-controlled weapons to fire upon the pinned half-mecha-centipede, and soon ripped through the many plates of the mecha-centipede before destroying the internal structure of the weapon.
The separated segments of the mecha-centipede writhed for another ten seconds before becoming completely still.
She then returned her attention to the neuro devices she had lost control over and sacrificed a number of her own to completely clean up the battlefield.
“Denys?”
“Check complete. No signs of further infiltration by Syned. Stable backup digital infrastructure established.”
Saanvi paused and forced herself to calm her heart.
“Thank you,” she said.
“My pleasure,” Denys replied.
Saanvi wondered if Moise, positioned at Argyle Basin, had such stressful encounters as hers.
As for Einar… headquarters had given orders for Einar to only provide assistance from the shadows. Due to his high compatibility with Denys, enabling him control of a significantly higher number of neuro devices… the EFSF wanted to surprise the enemy at the right time.
Soon, reinforcements from Earth would arrive, freeing the three from being pinned in a primarily defensive posture.
“Special Lieutenant. Mission complete,” Saanvi pinged the hidden Einar.
“Well done.”
____________________________________________________________________________
In an unidentified location on Mars.
“The severed segments are susceptible to infiltration. I will have to design an individual digital infrastructure for multiple segments,” Syned said. “However, that will mean more of your neurochannels will be dedicated to coordinating each individual segment. Less weapons can be equipped. Stay ready.”
“As you say,” Bone replied with a grin. He cared not for this loss. The current goal of the Kasvallian Republic was not to win battles. It was to test different weapons and improve their functionality on various martian surfaces.
He could feel the mecha-centipede’s effectiveness increasing. Among other weapon-forms!