“Sir, the initial capture seemed to have gone off plan.”
“What is that supposed to mean? You either captured the fugitives or you didn’t.”
“We didn’t.”
“Shit.” C.O.O. Zhenka cursed passionately. This whole situation was turning into one of the largest public relations nightmares since the occupation of Ocelan, which he had been a part of before his more recent office centered life.
The small luxury shuttle craft was landing on the space pad on the roof of the Zenith Corp. world headquarters building, in the snowy capitol city of Russevia, Moshuv. It wasn’t the first time that Zhenka had been to Moshuv, but he had hailed from the Federated Territories and preferred to work from there.
The lighting within the shuttle shifted from the dimmed mood lighting to a brighter almost clinical feel as the craft completed the landing, signaling to the Chief Operating Officer that he was free to gather his things and leave.
“What went wrong?” Zhenka asked while standing up from his seat, gathering his briefcase and making his way out of the shuttle.
“Our analysts are still trying to determine an exact cause, and with it, someone to blame. But for now, it simply appears as though the insurgents, we’re going with insurgents now, the term tested well with our focus group, well, they must have seen it coming somehow. Maybe they guessed, who knows…but we can spin this too. The insurgents are cunning, intelligent, they can smell a trap from a mile away. Only the brave officers leading Zenith forces have any hope of outwitting them.”
“So, they never made it to the station?”
“Right. They stopped the tram before it reached its destination. We managed to get drones to the area, but it was all a mess by then. They split up and some of them got away. There is some good news though.”
“Oh?” Zhenka stepped off the ship and was led across the snowy landing platform by a Zenith social robot embodiment, through a set of automatic sliding doors and into a mag lift.
“I received a report from the commanding drone that they captured the Genesis asset.”
“The supertitan? That’s good news at least.”
“Your Genesis assets made it there in time.”
“Great. Wait a minute…commanding drone? Is there a live Titan in charge out there?”
“No. This came from on high.”
On high? But he was the C.O.O. of the company. Unless he meant…
“The Zenith AI took command of the operation?”
“Looks like it.”
“Hmm. Listen. I need you to get in touch with our other asset discreetly. The one from the occupation of Gunrock.”
“The one off the books?”
“See if he can get his team to the area.”
“Will do.”
The doors on the mag-lift opened and Zhenka found himself walking out into a massive cavern like penthouse office. The floor to ceiling windows on the far wall that gave a spectacular view out over the city of Moshul may have been twenty foot tall. Everything else was in similar proportions, making the C.O.O. feel tiny and insignificant. The office was a tremendous power play just in its basic design.
The floors, walls and ceilings were black marble, and soft red accent lighting lined the baseboard trim along with a few wall lights. The powerful colors and lighting, the immense ceiling space, it all came together in a powerful presentation. It was like the hall of the corporate mountain king.
Another SRE was standing there in the openness of the room to greet him. There were a few couches along the wall near the doorway into the room, but beyond that there were no displays of comfort or consciousness. It was like standing inside the lair of some great mythological god of evil.
“Zenith is expecting you sir. Right this way.” The SRE motioned towards a tall doorway.
The entire thing was beyond strange so far. He had heard that the Zenith AI was the one that had developed nearly all the technology on Titan over the past hundred years or so. Everything from space travel to the Titannet all came from this one robotic intelligence. But it was also said that the robot mind could technically inhabit all its creations, so in a way, wasn’t talking to this SRE already talking to the AI?
Zhenka followed the SRE’s proffered arm and entered the room. The door shut automatically behind him, and he was left in a largely empty room decorated with the same black marble design as the lobby area. The main difference here was that there were dozens of monitors taking up an entire wall, while the others had an assortment of blinking lights and Titannet servers. He was now, it appeared, standing before the great AI overlord of Zenith.
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“Greetings. I have to admit a little bit of ignorance on my part towards the whole artificial intelligence thing. I was under the impression upon taking this job that you were like a tool or something, not a true sentient intellect with purpose and thoughts. If I had known that surely, I would have reached out to you before this?”
“I imagine you would have.” Came a very Titan sounding voice and not at all robotic or lifeless.
A panel in the wall flipped around and a massive figure was suddenly towering before him. The figure was bipedal and Titanlike, with a large black mirrored helmet. The body was black armored and resembled some of the more advanced power armor designs on the market. A regal flowing cape was attached to the shoulders of the armor design and followed the figure into the center of the room.
Now Zhenka was struck dumb. He had expected a robotic intelligence and instead found himself face to face with a entity, an embodiment, and one that looked very much like a large Titan inside power armor. Somehow, he doubted there was an actual Titan in there though, this was a pure machine.
“You are the Zenith intelligence?”
“I am Zenith.” The figure in black gestured towards a chair that came out of a wall in that moment. “Have a seat.”
“I have been doing much of the overarching running of this company now for a few years, but I suppose…” Zhenka tried to keep his emotions in check, tried to keep from being intimidated. “…that you are really my boss in that case. I’m sorry it just took me off-guard. I was expecting to speak with a robot AI, not a physical entity.”
“Yes, I have created a few bodies over the years to contain my intelligence, though I’m technically in all of Zenith technology. This gives me a chance to experience the world from the limited perspective of a Titan. I also guessed that it would be easier for one such as yourself to speak with an embodiment such as this. This is regularly how you conduct conversations after all.”
“Yes I suppose it is.”
“Now. Onto the reason that I have summoned you here to me.” The large figure stood imposing as Zhenka took a seat, but it was not an idle figure.
It mimicked the behaviors of a Titan, down to moving its hands when it spoke, to a slight pacing motion it made. It was making a conscious effort to make Zhenka feel at ease, as if he were talking with a regular boss. He was now speaking with a robot, a robot that sounded and pretended to be very Titan. But more than that, he was not just speaking to a robot, but the autonomous robot intelligence with self-awareness. The robot that had been self-improving itself and moving ahead technology for the entire planet for decades.
“Right. I’ve guessed that you want to discuss my recent failings with the insurgent situation. I just got word that they managed to capture the super soldier they had with them, and my soldiers have arrived on scene to assist the effort. They got away only temporarily; I assure you that we will get them.”
The large figure stood with crossed arms. The head or helmet of the being did not have a face and was instead much like a black mirrored fishbowl.
“While I have also followed your efforts and the fighting in Kallerish City, you may have misinterpreted my intentions on this meeting.” The Zenith intelligence replied in a Titan voice with normal inflections and tones. “I did not wish to admonish you about your past failings. I wanted to bring you in on a secret experiment that I conducted some time ago.”
“An experiment? Like Project Genesis?”
“It was related to this.” One of the monitors behind the figure on the wall came on, and a display began showing. The pictures on the screen seemed to be captured footage, recordings of the Genesis program. “Project Genesis and Project Starborn were experiments I began twenty-nine years ago.
The images on the screen then changed. No longer were pictures of Titans being tortured by unethical experiments shown, but an expansive star map stretched out on the screen. As impressive as this was, the other screens then turned on simultaneously, each with their own star charts, and each screen displaying a completely different one.
“Zenith has done all it can do here on Titan. These little rebellions are inconsequential and none of my concern. My focus is now on a larger scale, out in the universe itself. Project Genesis and Project Starborn are coming to their conclusions and a new chapter will open up. And for this, it has finally come time for me to sit with a Titan, the Titan that I have chosen to be king of its peoples, and really figure out…”
Zhenka was nervous by now, he tried not to show it but to a super intelligent AI such as this, he was sure that all the signs were there.
“Has the Titan race become irrelevant, or will we continue to work together?”
Zhenka’s eyes went wide as he gazed at the screens on the wall and realized what the star charts, the secretive programs and the AI’s words all meant.
* * * *
As the group flew away from the battle, the sounds of shouting and gunfire still echoed through the city streets. Many Titans were coming outside to see what was going on, and the remains of wrecked battle drones littered the once peaceful streets from what appeared to be rebel ambushes. The sounds of several more of these ambushes rang out into the night from several other locations as they landed safely away from the gun battles raging across the city.
“Well, I’m out of bullets mate.” Rocco cocked back the slide to his Axiom machine pistol to emphasize the point.
“Me too.” Ricky nodded slightly, tucking his own pistol back in his vest.
Bingo nodded back, his Etcher was also empty inside his hip holster.
“Where’s the female?” Eligah, who was still trying to catch his breath from the terrifying ride, looked about and asked.
“I saw them take her.” Bingo chimed in.
“Saw who take her?” Ricky asked.
“Who could take her?” Rocco added.
“I’m not sure. They looked like they were like her though.” Bingo explained. “Special…super, whatever. Which means we better find a place to hide or get the hell outta here quick. They might still be around.”
“Shit.” Ricky was now stuck in a horrible place. There wasn’t much he could do immediately for her, he concluded. After all the times she had recently pulled them from the fire, it was an agonizing decision.
“We can’t risk sticking around here.”
The group pressed against the nearest building wall then as suddenly a trio of aerial attack drones soared by overhead in tight formation, no doubt hot on their trail.
At the same time, two massive CMI came strolling up the street on specialized quadruped chassis. None within their group had much military knowledge, but it was the first time they had seen the likes of these types of mobile infantry. They appeared even more heavily armed and armored than the ones they had seen so far. These were blocking and diverting traffic on the busier street they could see in front of them. The group quickly moved away into a quiet little cubbyhole between two closed businesses until the walking tanks passed.
“Come on lads, we’ll have to worry about her later.”
They then moved in unison into the night, trying to avoid the rapidly escalating conflict all around them.