Episode 23
Bots on the Ground
Having successfully escaped the box, I followed the map overlay in my HUD to the rally-point to join Merc and the rest of 7th squad. They were gathered in an enormous impact crater formed by one of the artillery rounds. Merc was in his usual combat bot configuration; the same one he used so effectively in the sim. However, here in the physical world, he appeared even larger and more intimidating.
He held a quick briefing before we began our push to the objective.
“Once we start moving, don’t stop for any reason. Keep an eye on the drone feeds in your HUD. They’re going to see the enemy before you get anywhere near him. Don’t attack enemy positions head on. Outflank them on either side and keep moving. Our job is to capture the objective, not to engage in firefights. The following troops will clean up behind us. Any questions?”
I was starting to see another side of Merc. He seemed to genuinely care about his UCCs and made every effort to answer their questions. Consequently, they seemed to know exactly what was expected of them at all times and followed his orders without hesitation. Although I was convinced he didn’t hold me in the same regard as his veterans, I decided I would follow his orders to the letter. It seemed like my best survival strategy.
Merc ordered, “Weapons free!”, as we began our advance. We emerged from the crater and began moving across the battlefield. The terrain had been so chewed up by artillery that it was impossible to maintain a straight course towards the objective. If not for the map in my HUD I would have become hopelessly lost, as we dropped into and climbed out of countless shell craters.
Once on the battlefield, I had expected to hear the sound of nonstop combat, just like in the simulator. But there was only an eerie silence. This was supposed to be an enemy fortress, so where the hell was the enemy?
As we continued our advance, calls came in over the radio from other squad leaders. They seemed confused by the lack of reaction from the enemy.
“Super 2-4, We … uh… have negative contact so far. Anyone see anything?”
“Archer 2-2, Nothing yet.”
Merc replied, “2-7. Negative.”
I didn’t necessarily want to face enemy fire, but the sustained tension of waiting for the first shot to be fired was almost unbearable. I wondered if we hadn’t blundered into some elaborate enemy ambush.
As we crested the rim of yet another shell crater, I could see other squads ahead of us, advancing towards our objective in the distance. We also began to pass the remains of the previous mission.
There were bits and pieces of Marines everywhere. It was distressing to see such carnage. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one unsettled by the sight of my fellow UCCs reduced to fragments.
“Look at this mess.”
“Shit. There isn’t a single intact control module.”
“That’s because Command AD’d ‘em all.” It was devastating to think that our own command could be responsible for the obliteration of an entire troopship of Marines.
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Merc intervened to prevent a mutiny.” Everyone, knock it off! Stay focused.”
Checking the video feeds from the drones flying overhead, I could see that the objective consisted of a complex of low structures, organized into a grid pattern. The architecture looked completely unremarkable. Just a collection of rectangular boxes. It was surprising to me that none of the buildings had suffered any damage. Obviously, Command had not targeted them in the artillery strike. Without any intel on the nature of the objective, I could only speculate about the purpose of these buildings in the middle of nowhere.
Merc came over the squad frequency and ordered us to halt. “7th squad, hold right here.”
DJ asked, “Hey Chief, what’s up?”
“Quiet.” Merc was kneeling, intently examining the battlefield in front of us. No doubt using every sensor at maximum power. “Something’s wrong. We should have had contact by now.”
There hadn’t been any contact with the enemy, and we were getting awfully close to the objective. I had been in plenty of sessions in the sim and never gotten this close to an objective without being fired on by the enemy. But then again, this was the real world. Maybe combat worked differently out here.
I was using the optical gunsight on my AAV’s 20 mm minigun to scan the buildings in the distance, when without warning, one of the Marines in my field of vision, approximately 500 meters in front of us, disappeared in a brilliant flash. I only realized what had happened when the sound of the distant explosion was picked up by my acoustical sensors. I had just witnessed someone get autodestructed.
I yelled over the squad frequency, “Hey, one of our people just got AD’d!” As I warned the others, a series of explosions could be heard, as the squads in front of us began autodestructing before our eyes.
“What the fuck?”
“They weren’t retreating! I saw ‘em! They weren’t retreating!”
Panic began to grip the squad. It was terrifying to imagine being autodestructed even though we were following Command’s orders to the letter. My mind raced. The wave of destruction seemed to be moving towards us. I thought about Cherri. She was somewhere out there, in the middle of this mess.
Merc could be heard frantically contacting Command. “Overwatch, this is Merc 2-7; Cancel autodestruct! Cancel it now goddamn it!”
Command responded with the emotional detachment characteristic of AIs. “Merc 2-7, this is Overwatch. We have not initiated auto-destruct. Standby.”
“We’ve got Marines AD’ing all over the battlefield! If you didn’t push the button, someone else sure as hell did! Disarm the kill switches immediately, before we’re all dead!”
“Standby 2-7.”
There was chaos on the battlefield. Marines were exploding one after another. Some soldiers were hunkered down trying to figure out what was happening, while others were fleeing to the rear, unnerved by the unimaginable carnage.
Merc quickly assessed the situation and made a decision. “Overwatch! We’re withdrawing. Merc 2-7 out!”
He then ordered us to retreat. “Get to the rally point as fast as you can!” No one questioned his decision, despite the fact that it was in direct defiance of Command’s no retreat policy, and grounds for immediate auto-destruction. The squad’s complete trust in Merc’s leadership was inspiring. My respect for him rose dramatically.
As we raced towards the rear, we could hear Command calmly advising, “Negative 2-7. Withdrawal is not authorized. Continue advancing.” Speaking for myself, it felt better to be acting and risking auto destruction by Command, rather than waiting for certain destruction by an unseen enemy.
I wondered, if someone or something else now had control over the kill switches, could Command even disarm them? The answer to that question came in the form of a message scrolling across my HUD. It read, “autodestruct/master/disarmed.” If I were still human, I would have breathed a sigh of relief.
Scanning the other squad members through my optical sensors, I could see a noticeable decrease in their sense of urgency. The level of tension fell dramatically. At least we couldn’t be AD’d with the system disarmed. Anyway, I hoped that was the case.
Command made contact over the squad frequency. “Merc 2-7, this is Overwatch. Halt your unauthorized withdrawal immediately. We are running diagnostics now. Standby.”
Merc slowed to a stop. “Okay, 7th squad, hold up.” We converged in a rough semicircle around our squad leader, curious about what Command’s next move might be.
DJ spoke first. “Hey Boss, do you think they’re going to send us back in … even if the enemy’s hacked the autodestruct system?”
“That’s going to depend on what the diagnostics find, and whether Command is willing to let us go into combat with the autodestruct disabled. But that’s totally against policy.”
Call sign Wicked laughed sharply, and said, “This whole mission is totally against policy!”
That was undeniably true.