A.I. War : A New Dawn

Prologue

Date: March 4th
Time: 08.00 DAT
Location: The middle of nowhere

It was all over.
We knew this day was coming but no one could have been prepared for what happened. Exactly 2 hours ago every base on the planet had simultaneously been raided by the Senate, it was their last hope for peace and it looked like they had succeeded. Who would have thought that such an immense task could be completed so quickly, what was more surprising was that there was absolutely no resistance. The destruction was massive, all research and technology had been obliterated, every single droid destroyed and every base was ablaze. We had nothing, or at least that's what the Senate thought, but like many other corps we were prepared, for last week myself and a team of our top scientist, engineers and technicians had been moved to a secure location in the desert. With new identities we were to prepare for the new dawn. I had been given the code name 'Archangel', and it was my job to make sure everybody knew what was going on.

With our original base gone we had the dangerous task of secretly moving everyone to the new base, if the Senate found it then all we had worked for would truly be lost forever. One by one every scientist, technician, engineer and member was moved to safety, their identities erased and new one created, new lives for a new dawn. Once the long task of safely moving everyone was complete we were nearly ready to take on the world, we just lacked one thing.

You could still smell the paint on the corridor, we had been up and running for 5 hours now, fully staffed the base was a completely different place to what I had been used to. When I was first moved here there was barely a dozen other people, now with all the senior members, over 20 active members, 300 general personnel and nearly 500 scientist, technicians, engineers and general labourers, you couldn't move without bumping into somebody. Every post was manned 24 hours a day, training simulations took place around the clock, meeting, duties and personal training filled the rest of the day leaving only a few hours to eat and sleep. We knew the first weeks would be hard but this was bordering on torture. In the few minutes that I actually had to myself, I would wonder if we had made the right decision, after all what's wrong with peace, OK so no one else wanted peace and who could possibly live under the iron rule of the Senate anyway. I couldn't let doubts build in my mind, we had discussed all our options, this was the best and if I didn't focus, well I didn't want to think what might happen if I didn't focus, my part in all this may not be big but it is crucial. I am one of the communication supervisors, I have to know everything that goes on and I need to make sure that the right people know the right information. I also have to make sure that absolutely no information leaves the base without being cleared by our leaders, I have to monitor dozens of channels, internal and external, and watch the scanners for hours on end, some times I'm sure my head will explode.

My first task was to make sure that all internal communication function perfectly and that our external communications were undetectable, if we were going to succeed we need to keep surprise on our side. As far as I had been able to establish, no one knew of us, our new identity help after all if people wanted to find us they would be looking for the banners of BLB, now as SAS we were complete unknown.
Over the passed 4 days production had increased 150%, any day now we would be ready, for what we had no idea, but one thing was certain we would be ready.

Chapter 1

Day One : The New Dawn.
Location : SAS HQ, In a the Desert.

"Beep Beep, Beep Beep."

I awoke with a startle,

"What? Who? What time is it?"

I look at the clock, 06.00 DAT.

"What on earth?"

I pressed the intercom button, ready to yell at the stupid person who dared to wake me at this hour.

"Angel, sorry to wake but they're here..." An excited junior cried across the intercom.

"I'm on my way."

Well what else could I say, I had been waiting for this call all week. Quickly I dressed and headed for the courtyard. As I opened the doors before me stood what I had been waiting for: a fleet of new droids and at the head was mine, a black lacquered Shadow, an exact replica of my original droid, christening it 'DarkMistress' I jumped in the ****pit and turned it on, the control panel light up, all systems are operational. I manoeuvred my droid into its pen and then head for the communication centre, now for my next task.
As Communication-Supervisor it had been deemed my responsibility to tell the other members and to make sure we didn't have a riot. Days of careful planning would go out the window if I failed to keep everyone calm.

"Attention, all corp. members, please leave your post and head to the courtyard in an orderly fashion, there you will be allocated you very own droid"

Now I just had to wait and hope everything went as planned. I headed for the emergency power control room, with everybody receiving their droid there was only a skeleton crew of the most senior staff, who had already been allocated droids, left to run the base and at this crucial time we had to make sure that we weren't attacked. So as a safety measure as soon as the last person entered the courtyard I was to implement an emergency shutdown and arm the automated defences.
For 2 long hours the base was dark and silent, as the last droid was allocated and placed in its pen I was given the all clear signal, with the turning of a key, the base sprung to life. The day had gone smoothly, no riots and no attacks. Now we could make firm plans for our next mission, WAR.

"Beep beep, all senior personnel report to the war-room."

Now what! I made my way to the war-room, Blade, Polgara, Cub, Bitoz@AstoR and Nukehead were already there waiting, I was first to arrived followed by Suicide_DJay : our construction manager, Elrohir, Colt and Yoshimitsu: our research specialists, Shesha : our other Comm. Sup., Blaze, Plug and Wulf Blade: our military advisor, Lexx, Exhileon and stonaboy: our financial advisors, Musada and Crimson : our representative and Gringo : our approver

"We've called you all here to finalise our plans, we need to be ready to begin phase 2 in 27 hour."

So 27 hours, that wasn't as long as I had hoped for, training sessions would need be increased, duty shifts would need to be increased and of course sleep would decrease. It took all day but with my finalised report I headed to the war-room. This time I was last to arrive, I made my apologies and sat down.

"OK Angel, lets here your report."

I stood up and handed everyone a copy of the information I had gathered.

"Firstly, internal communication is up and running perfectly, over the day everybody will be given this personal communicator..."

At that I passed around half a dozen small metal objects, 1/2 cm in diameter.

"These must be worn at all times, with them we can contact anybody at any time."

Blade examined one.

"Very good Angel, discrete, what kid of range do they have?"

That was a good question, at the moment all I knew was that they worked within the base grounds and surrounding area, I hadn't dare venture to far from the base in case I was seen.

"They are still being tested for range, but I'm told that the range will be almost unlimited."

Polgara nodded, with that, I continued to give my report, so far only a few other corps had been detected, I gave every single detail I knew, numbers, location, type of activity. For now it was quiet, maybe too quiet, I had only been able to detect one of the larger corps, was this because the others had given up, or had they just be able to evade my scanners, only time would tell.
The next report came from our Financial Advisor, it was short and straight forward, off the 500 mill we had stashed away before the Senate raid, we now have less then 10 mill.

"Do you have any idea of the cost of setting up a new base, 200 mill went on the droids alone." FA said in his/her defence.

We would need to send personnel out scavenging. The reports from the construction manager and the Research specialised were similar, construction and research points had mostly been used up in the early days. There were no reports from our representative or approver, until we were established the jobs were pretty low key. Next up was our military advisor.

"OK so simulation and training exercises are being held around the clock, every single person is being assessed on fitness and tactical knowledge. In a matter of days we will be as prepared as we can be."

With that our leaders summed up the meeting.

" We know you've all worked hard this last week and we know that the next few days will be even harder, but if we are going to succeed this is the way it has to be, once we are established you will all be able to enjoy a well deserved rest, but for now its back to work, good luck and keep up the good work."

Feeling slightly proud that my hard work had been recognised I headed to the communication centre, I now had to give a report to the rest of my staff and then it would be back to work, monitoring the comm. channels, any day now they would come alive with activity and I needed to make sure that the very second that happened we would be ready to join them. War was coming, it would be bloody and many would die, if we wanted to come out on top we needed to be ready from the start.
We had done well last war, but we had been slow to start and it had taken the tactical decision of a merger to make sure that we went down in history as a top corp., This time we would get it right first time and begin at the top, or at least that was the plan, but first we need to make sure that every single member of the team was prepared.

Chapter 2

Day 15
Location: My Quarters.

"BEEP, BEEP"

I slammed my hand on the alarm button.

"God what time is it?"

I look at the clock, 6:00 DAT. For the past ten days we had been training around to clock, there was still no sign from the other corps that the war was about to start, this waiting was really getting to me now, the silence on the radio was driving me crazy. I was born to fight not wait and I was ready to fight. I headed to the war-room for yet another meeting. Everyday they had been the same.

"Were on schedule"

Was what Blade would say as everybody gave reports exactly the same as the day before. The stress was beginning to show in others too, Blaze would spend his days in the training range, and his nights in the base mess-hall sitting alone. Elrohir spent night and Day in her lab, only leaving for the early morning meetings we had each day. Blade, our strong leader was even showing signs of stress, he would spend hours going over every last detail of our reports, I'm almost certain he hasn't slept in days. The only one of us who showed no sign of stress was Polgara, her calm appearance was the only thing stopping us from cracking up completely, for we all needed to stay on top of things, the war would start and we needed to be ready,
Today this seem different, as I entered the war-room I could see someone was missing. I look around at everyone's faces and knew this was bad.

"Last night I heard from some of my contacts in the outside world, Blade has gone to investigate."

Polgara explained that there had been sightings of other droids in the far side of the desert. Were they other corps, or Senate? Would they find us? Were they a threat? These and many other question went round the room, but no one knew the answers, we would have to just wait for Blade to return and give us his report.

"Arrgg!! More waiting"

I blurted out.

"Calm Down Angel, everything will be fine, you'll see."

Polgara was right, she was always right, she had a talent and seemed to know everything.
I calmed myself and gave my daily report, the same as yesterday but no one really seemed to care our minds were now on other thing. So we waited.
It had been 12 days since we had begun phase 2, at the moment it looked pretty much like phase 1, the details were classified, only the leaders knew everything, for my part I had to monitor the radio and watch the sensors, I was the front line if I missed anything it could put us behind schedule by days. On a few occasions I had tried to find out other details, but all departments were heavily guarded so I had to be content with what we were told in the daily meetings.
Once everyone had given there reports we returned to our duties, after a few hours of unproductive work I decided to go to the Droid pens. Dozens of bots stood in each of the pens, I headed for my Droid, I hadn't seen it since that first day when they first arrived, it still looked as black and shiny as before. I would need to thank the maintenance crew, but that could wait. I stepped in side the ****pit and turned her on. As the lights started to flash, I thought for a moment how easy it would be to just take my droid and head outside the base complex. I could easily gather information and not be missed. Easy really, I knew all the codes to the base security systems, I could leave and be back in a few hours and no one would need to know. As I sat thinking, the idea seemed more and more possible, but just as I had finally decided to go my comm. beeped.

"Angel, report to the communication centre."

I couldn't believe it, I was so close to leaving, one minute longer and I would have been outside. That was close, if I had left I would have almost certainly been caught, I shut down my droid and headed for the communication centre.

"We have Blade on long range sensors."

"Wow that was quick."

This didn't look good, Blade had only been gone a few hours. I messaged all the other senior members and continued to monitor Blade position. 45 minutes and his bot was within visual range of the base. I called everyone to gather in the war room in 1 hour. That would give Blade enough time to write his report. Now we waited.
The next hour seem to last an eternity, I continued to monitor Blade as the green blip of his bot got closer to the base and finally after 20 minutes, though it felt like 20 hours, Blade was within the complex. I beeped him on the comm.

"Welcome back Blade, hope you have good news for us. Report to the war room with your report in 40 minutes. Angel out."

Blades reply was short and to the point.

"I'll have my report ready in 10, gather everyone to the war room. Blade out."

That sounded ominous, I contacted everyone to tell them that Blade would be ready in 10 minutes and then headed to the war room. I decided to take long route, passed the droid pen, to see if I could get any clue as to what Blade had found. I approached his bot, turned it on and accessed his black box. What I saw was incredible, hundreds of droids heading south out of the desert. What did this mean? I downloaded the files so that I could study them later then headed to the war room. I was last to arrive, I took my seat and waited for Blades report.
After giving his report Blade summed up simply.

"It's begun."

Chapter 3

Day 16
Time: 12:00 DAT
Location: SAS Headquarters.

"In approximately 11 hours all hell will break loss and we need to be ready for it, I want all droids up and running before them."

We had our orders. I headed for the Comm. Centre. I walked down the corridor and as I turned the corner I bumped into Twisted-Rose, as we collided papers went everywhere. Twisted is one of our more eccentric scientist, after an accident during the last war while testing a new gun, which blow up the lab, he hasn't quite been the same as he was. After helping to pick up the papers, I apologised and continued to head to the Comm. Centre, as I left I heard Twisted mutter something but I couldn't make out what, no doubt it was something to do with the top secret project he is working.
Once at the Comm. Centre I headed for my office to begin scanning the channels for corp. activity, we needed to find out which corps were around, it would be a long task and my responsibility, so I set to work.
After just a few hours I found what I was looking for, I headed to the Leaders suite to make my report. I headed across to the other side of the complex, Once there I headed to the end of the corridor to Cub's office, as I knew it was his shift, I knocked on the door and waited.

"Enter."

As I entered I saw Cub behind his desk, his grey hair made him appear older then he was, or at least how old we thought he was, Cub had been found alone in the desert sometime before the first war, after spend a few months with the droid-factory owner who found him, Cub went it alone as an independent Hacker before joining us. His honest and trustworthy attributes mixed with his sense of humour and youthful nature and his determination in arena fights soon helped him raise in our ranks the leader status. Cub stood up from his desk, and offered me a chair, I declined.

"I'll keep this brief."

The small, thin man that Cub was then sat down and looked up at me. His piercing brown eyes often sent shivers down my spine and this time was no exception.

"Firstly the major corps, GODA, TNT and VTS have been active on the radio. Also new corps, MALT and SHC have active. From the information these look to be most likely to cause us trouble over the coming months. WE should watch them carefully."

I handed a completed report to Cub and went to leave.

"I'll inform the others, good work."

With that I left. I decided to take a 'short-cut' passed the research labs to see what I could find out anything on any ongoing 'secret' projects. My inquisitive nature was a blessing in my job, but outside it led me to want to know everything, even things I wasn't supposed to know. Remembering my earlier encounter with Twisted, I decided that that was the best place to start. After using my charm to get passed the guards I headed for Twisted's lab. As I approached the door I could see it was open, I peeked in, no sign of Twisted, I looked around the room, sheets of metal, wires, circuit boards, what on earth is he working on. Before I could think on that more I heard foot steps coming up the corridor, checking everything was how it was before I entered. I stepped outside just as Twisted came round the corner.

"I've been waiting for you, I need to make some modification on your comm."

Twisted muttered something then led me in to where his comm was, I fiddled for a few minutes making it look as if I was doing something, then left. My charm always worked. I headed back to my office, I still had 5 hours left on my shift and had loads more channels to scan. After that I would have to prepare for the onslaught of information as more and more corp. become active for now it was the calm before the storm.

Chapter 4

DAY 20
Time: 23.50 DAT
Location: Mess hall

I had been staring into the same cup of coffee for the past hour. After spending 2 days exploring the desert I had been able to help raise funds for the corp., having said that the leaders had given an award to Twisted-rose for his contribution, with him as a source of income the rest of us had been able to use the researched 'Arena Teleports' we had just discovered. I had just got at off my last arena for the day, the battles were long, slow and not very productive, I had reported my black box records to the leaders and given a copy to research, hopefully they would help us to build a new better weapon.

"Mind if I join you."

I looked up.

"No."

Before me stood Nukehead, the diplomat of the corp., brown haired and green eyed, he was a middle-aged man, serious, honest and loyal. Nuke came from a wealthy high-class family, not that you could tell by looking at him, he had founded a small corp. in during the last war, rather successfully as well. Being easily bored by the high life and annoyed by 'money' driven people he left his founding corp. and joined us. With the connections he has we were more than delighted to have him aboard, so when the last war ended and it was decided that we would form a new corp., Nuke was assured a leader position.

"That looks cold."

"Hmm? Yea. I didn't really want it any way."

I pushed the cup to one side. See the concern on Nukes face I told him about my day.

"Well you'll be pleased to know that the information on your black box and on those of the other members have led our scientist to develop some modifications to our droids."

My eyes lite up, I was just about to get up and go take a look at my bot when..

"Don't even think about it, the logs show that you've been up for 36 hours, you are in no shape to battle. The frames wont be ready until tomorrow so sleep."

I knew there was no point in arguing, Nuke always win arguments, no matter how hard you try, besides like he said I had been for 36 straight hours and was tired. I got up and headed for my quarters, once there I set my alarm for 6:00 DAT, well he never said how much sleep I needed. I lay on my bed trying to sleep, but Nuke's news had got me excited, I couldn't wait to see what modification had been made, After around 30 minutes I finally drifted of to sleep, when all of sudden alarms began to ring and the lights dimmed red.

"What the hell?"

I jumped up, quickly dressed and headed for Comms. Along the way I bumped into a junior tech.

"What's going on?"

Quickly and barely understandably the tech explained that a spy had been caught in the labs and was currently being interrogated by Bitoz@AstoR, but that it was believed that the spy was not working alone. I continued to Comm., once there I scanned the logs and filed a report of the nights communications, apart from that there wasn't much else I could do. I knew there would be an emergency meeting early in the morning to discuss this so headed back to my quarters to sleep. Tomorrow would be a very busy day indeed.

Chapter 5

Day 21
Time : 06:35 DAT
Location : Science Lab 1

At the emergency meeting, which had just ended a few minutes ago, we had discoved that the labs had been infiltrated and that the computers had been wiped, most like to cover up the thief of research. Now technicians would be working round the clock to restore the computers and I had been asked to help. After a few hours work, basic computer functions had been restored and the activities of the spys had been discoved, several hundred thousand credits had be transfered from the corp to an unknown location and dozens of our more recent research files had been downloaded, unfortately we had caught an uncooperative spy, and the leaders had instigated security protocol 005-A; brainwashing, using virtual reality technology, the subjects memories are stored on disk to be analyzed and new memories are 'given', the subject is then trained and intergraited into the corp. We had no idea who sent the spy or what 'they' now knew, so for now we needed to be on guard even more then normal, so security was increased indefinitely.

"Beep."

I tapped my comm.

"Angel, report to the pen."

In all the excitement I had forgotten about the modification that were being fitted to the droids, most likely the were ready for testing. I made my way to the pen, stopping briefly to give my report from the morning to one of the leaders.
Outwardly their was no sign that anything was different about my bot, but as soon as I got in the ****pit the modifications became apparent, now to try them out. After 9 long hours and 3 slightly successful arenas I returned to base and began analysing my black box. Instantly I could see the difference the modification had made, 2 kills in the first arena, 2 in the second and 3 in the third. I made a mental note to thank research and the engineers as soon as possible, lets hope this was the start of a beautiful killing streak.
My next shift for 6 more hours so I decided to clean up and head for the shooting range. As I Headed for my quarters I gleefully remember the arenas and the smell of chared bots, heavenly.
Back at my quarters I cleaned up then checked to log to see who else was off duty. After a quick scan I tapped my comm.

"DJ, its Angel, fancy some target practice."

"Sure, meet you at the range in ten, DJ out."

I set out for the range. When I got there DJ was already waiting.

"What kept you?"

I glared at DJ, he was quite a character, sometime he would be comical and joking about everything and anything, and at other times he could be so deadly serious that it was almost scary. I gave him a friendly slap on the back and took up position next to him.

"Ok 60 minutes and highest score win and the loser get supper in."

DJ was always one for throwing down challangers, he gave me a cheeky smile, how could I refuse.

"Your on."

After an hour of shooting we compared scores, it was close but I won. I laughed.

"Ha! looks likes suppers on you."

With that DJ frowned at me, I grinned and headed for the mess hall. At the mess hall went saw Elro and Nuke, so decided to join them. I thanked Elro for the work she and her team had done on my bot and started to tell them about my day.After a short but pleasent conversation with Nuke, Elro and DJ, I decided to head for my quarters for a couple of hours sleep before my shift started, I said good bye and left them to it.
As soon as I got to my quarters, I headed for my bed, lying down I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, It had been a busy day and it wasn't over yet.
2 hours later my alarm beeped, I got up, freshened up and set of for comms.

Written by "Archangel"