Territorial Responsibility Zone of the UNSA Protectorate, Avril Dominion
79 kilometers southwest of the First Defense Line of City-21 “Kyiv”
August 13, 2049, 07:04, the morning of the first day after the invasion
The morning sun, peeking over the horizon, was barely visible. The sky was shrouded in dense, uniform gray clouds that resembled a thick fog, stretching eighty kilometers southwest of the former city of Kyiv. Contrary to all meteorological forecasts, the first morning of the “new era of Earth” arrived cold, gloomy, and damp. It was as if Mother Nature herself sympathized deeply with humanity’s plight, shedding sparse tears from the heavens.
Despite the bleakness of the scene, there was a certain serenity to it. Here, far from the battles and apocalypse, nothing hinted at the events that had unfolded over the past twenty-four hours. The quiet river still flowed, and the morning mist still hung over it… The quiet river continued to flow; the morning mist still hung over it… Yet, oddly, there were no birds or insects to be heard. Only the occasional raindrop lazily fell, intermittently tapping the ground. On such a morning, one would typically wish to skip school or work, burrow deeper under the blankets, and sleep in.
But for the heavy strike drone, “Owl-5312,” there was no time for sleep; it continued its duty. The first flight under the new command had been eventful, even engaging in combat — the drone had detected and destroyed an intruder. Now, the machine flew at an altitude of two hundred meters in power-saving mode, passively scanning the terrain. Only the radar was operational, as the cameras were ineffective due to the thick, low clouds and dense fog on the ground. There was just over an hour left in the mission, and the batteries were down to fifteen percent charge.
The monotonous surveillance flight might have inclined a human pilot towards contemplations of life, memories, and such trivialities. The Owl’s artificial intelligence, devoid of such weaknesses, pressed on. Yet, if it were capable of such thoughts, it would now be lost in memories.
The coordinates provided by the navigation system indicated that about twenty kilometers away was its “childhood home.” A military-technical storage base where it had been delivered brand new from the corporate factory back in the late twenties. There, it had been loaded with knowledge, taught to kill, and kept in a warm, dry container until it was time to fly its first war mission.
In neighboring containers lived its brothers and sisters, and thousands of other autonomous killing machines of various types. The first generation of combat robots, endowed with the right to make terminal decisions — in the absence of communication with command, the AI had full authority to eliminate targets, including humans, at its own discretion. Those were tumultuous years, marked by the division of countries into states and polises, but various non-profit organizations clung stubbornly to limiting the autonomy of combat AIs, constantly decrying the “cost of error” and other “horrors of war” at various forums and conventions.
But the process was already unstoppable – large corporations, one after another, declared their independence from governments that were rapidly losing power. And each of these corporations, first and foremost, began preparing their own army of drones…
Unexpectedly, amidst the calm back here, in the reality, an alarm signal activated, triggering an emergency protocol and pulling the Owl out of power-saving mode.
#Alarm!
#Unstable communication channel with the Protectorate orbital relay stations.
#Switching to packet communication mode.
#Meteorological data packet received.
##Decoding completed. Flight mode adjustments made.
#Attention! Command Data (CD) packet received.
##Decoding. Packet corrupted. Retrying.
#CD packet, attempt 2, Packet received.
##Decoding. Packet corrupted. Retrying.
#Attempt 3…
#Attempt 4…
#Attempt 10…
#Attempt 23…
The quality of the connection catastrophically dropped — the drone reduced its data transmission speed and switched to an anti-jamming protocol. The issue was caused by a sudden surge of static electricity, with small sparks dancing at the tips of the side antennas. The charge level continued to rise, and the emergency dischargers, which helped the electricity flow into the atmosphere, clearly couldn’t cope.
#CD packet, attempt #29, received
#Decoding… 98…99…100%
#Decoding completed successfully; order loaded:
“Coordinates 49.929005, 29.749158: significant biological activity detected. Strong electromagnetic disturbances present. Orbital observation impossible due to weather conditions. Maintain contact with the secondary drone, conduct reconnaissance with all available means, transmit data in batch mode, activate autonomous combat protocols.”
Of course, that’s how a human pilot would have seen this directive, while the machine’s brain received several gigabytes of precise data. This included information on what satellites managed to observe through a brief gap in the clouds, as well as updated combat scenarios considering the specifics of the presumed enemy.
The drone updated its algorithm according to the received data and established an additional emergency channel with the second Owl in the group, which was drifting a kilometer to the right. Both of them exited power-saving mode and changed their course towards the target that lay rather close ahead.
The level of static electricity continued to rise rapidly. Despite the Owl’s systems being well shielded, communication completely failed, as did the radar. The active phased array antenna, subjected to the static charge, resembled a heated barbecue grill, lacking only a juicy steak.
Accelerating in boosted mode, both drones reached the designated coordinates within minutes and began a rapid descent below the cloud cover.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
And then, as they emerged from the thick clouds, their cameras revealed a horrifying sight...
A dead forest. From this height, it was difficult to discern details, but it was clear that the trees had lost all their leaves. The foliage now carpeted the roots in a continuous decaying mat, and the soil had turned into a black, foul-smelling swamp. The tree bark had darkened and was partially peeling off. If the Owl’s cameras had been functioning, they could have captured that all visible trees and shrubs were infected and already dying.
Flying over this dreadful grove, both machines emerged over what used to be a spacious and possibly beautiful meadow — now also a rotting bog. At its edge, precisely at the given coordinates, stood a tall concrete fence topped with double spirals of barbed wire.
This used to be an old storage and disposal base for military equipment — neat rows of several thousand containers and hangars, organized into sectors with wide, convenient passageways between them.
Now, in the center, a crater yawned as if from an explosion — over a hundred meters in diameter, filled to the brim with a terrifying biomass — a mush of various tentacles, pulsating organs, slime, and bony protrusions. It was a fully formed and actively growing Shaiszu Nest!
But the true horror lay to the left of the crater. Arranged in squares, large piles of human remains lay scattered. Some were whole bodies, while others were parts — neatly sorted into separate heaps of bodies, severed limbs, heads, and chunks of torsos. The most dreadful sight was the nearby pens, grown directly into the ground, where a few remaining homo sapiens were held — still alive, for now…
Most of these unlucky souls were residents of the “eco-settlements,” popular in this region. They had sought a quiet, peaceful life far from the polis and found themselves utterly defenseless at the moment of the invasion. Now, crowds of “craboids” were hauling fragments of their bodies for processing.
Nearby, similarly sorted, were heaps of animal remains from a nearby national park and numerous farms. Notably, there were no live animals in sight. Apparently, the Shaiszu were only interested in them solely as biomass.
The Nest was evidently operating at full capacity, requiring a large amount of biomaterial, primarily complex proteins, extracted from the remains of Earth’s inhabitants. It was a gruesome concentration camp on an inter-world scale, where instead of soap from corpses, the Shaiszu were producing specific biotechnological products.
Adding to the horrific scene was another monstrous creature, or machine, resembling a massive heap of green flesh with large trunk-like proboscises. Millions of flies, attracted to the piles of corpses from all around, swarmed over the charnel ground, only to be sucked in like a vacuum cleaner. Flies, with their high-protein content, were also being “put to use” by the Shaiszu. Everything was organized efficiently; nothing was wasted.
To the right of the “giant bioreactor,” craboids were systematically extracting raw materials of a different nature from opened containers — gun barrels, charging mechanisms from dismantled artillery installations, missile launch containers from combat drones, automatic machine guns... Anything that could shoot or explode.
And finally, behind the Nest, stood — no, shuffled restlessly — the very biotechnological products of this hellish factory. First and foremost, the cyborg artillery units, with turtle-like shells, massive limbs, and cannon barrels menacingly pointed forward. Squid-like tentacles extended from beneath their armor, adjusting mechanical parts, getting accustomed, settling in, and preparing for battle.
Other models, designed for anti-personnel purposes, strolled nearby. There were many more types here, each with distinct differences. Varying numbers of limbs, teeth, and tails. Some had shells, other tentacles, but all were equipped with some form of implanted weaponry — machine guns, small-caliber artillery, flamethrower nozzles...
Lastly, positioned around the base’s perimeter were the culprits behind the local communication blackout — the static charge generators. These creatures resembled Earth scorpions but were the size of horses. They crouched as if ready to strike, tails raised high. Instead of stingers, their tails bore crowns of thin, elongated claws, between which sparks danced continuously, crackling into the air.
These entities generated electricity akin to electric rays and, working in groups, rivaled Earth’s drone jammers in effectiveness.
The flying scouts’ cameras captured all this in mere seconds of reconnaissance. But the area of the Shaiszu Base was vast, and the algorithm dictated a second pass over the target along different trajectories to refine the data.
As the electronic brains of both Owls feverishly processed the imagery, sorting objects and forming a report packet, they began their second flyover, attempting to remain unnoticed.
But the attempt failed. Several “turtle-squids” raised their barrels skyward; spurts of flames gushed forth, and short bursts of fire followed. Both smart machines twisted into evasive maneuvers.
Preservation and transmission of data now took precedence, the lead drone’s AI decided. The data packets from both units were merged, processed, compressed, and ready to send. The priority now was to exit the interference zone.
To escape with their invaluable information, the flying scouts unleashed their remaining munitions on the attackers. Unfortunately, due to the short distance, the rockets struck almost randomly. The combined power of the phosphorus charges was just enough to disable three anti-aircraft units and even, it seemed, damage the edge of the Nest, causing chaos on the ground.
Both drones veered northeast, almost out of the firing zone. But the secondary Owl failed to escape. One of the shells exploded too close, and, losing control and smoking, it spiraled down to the ground. Thankfully, the self-destruct protocol did not fail, and it erupted into fireworks display a meter above the ground, preventing capture and taking a dozen small creatures with it.
Breaking free, the remaining smart machine, without waiting for further attacks, sped toward the city at maximum available speed, northeast. As it distanced itself from the Nest, the interference intensity began to drop… only to suddenly spike again.
If the Owl’s brain were more powerful, it might have realized it was flying over not just a field — the ground below was tightly packed and dug up in some places, as if a giant tractor with a hundred-meter-wide tread or even a tank division had laid an entire road towards Kyiv.
The drone continued its flight, carefully scanning the surroundings with its cameras while attempting to transmit data. But the connection never reestablished. Within seconds, the sources of interference and creators of the tracks below finally appeared.
It turned out to be a massive group of shaiszu moving toward the city. On the flanks, “scorpions” ran, providing radio cover. Dozens of hybrid cyborgs with guns, of the most bizarre types, stretched out in a multi-row column. Groups of monsters resembling caterpillars dragged heavy containers with ammunition. These were the ones that had left the plowed earth behind them. And of course, entire hordes of “soldiers,” consisting mainly of “craboids,” “mantises,” and various dog-like creatures, completed the composition of this assault brigade.
As soon as the front cameras of the Owl captured this scene, the electronic brain immediately decided — urgent retreat from the firing zone. Unfortunately, the shaiszu were also vigilant — the ground erupted in heavy fire. Worse still, several swift flying creatures, about twice the size of a condor, shot out from the “horde.”
Sending the data in such a situation became priority number one, and the drone’s AI decided to sacrifice itself. Switching the engines to “Maximum Afterburner,” the machine began a sharp climb, trying to quickly escape the static electricity field to establish a connection.
#Data packet transmission
#Error… connection not established
#Data packet transmission, attempt 2
#Error… connection not established …
…
#Data packet transmission, attempt 7
#Connection with relay ASF-151 established
#Key exchange… successful
#Start transmission
#Transmitting first data block…
#1%... 2%... 3%...
The signal began to break through cleanly from the overheated antennas. But at that moment, the engines running at maximum power drained the last drops of energy from the depleted batteries.
The Owl, almost having completed its mission, froze mid-air, as if suddenly deprived of support, and a second later plummeted to the ground like a stone. The self-destruct charge, with its autonomous power supply, did not fail. A meter above the ground, the drone transformed into a fireball, taking with it the invaluable reconnaissance data that would have been so useful to the defenders of the city. Which was now less than fifty kilometers away from the approaching shaiszu column.