Beatless: Volume 1 Read online

  The helicopter, which had taken off from the heliport at Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, was hauling a massive container.

  The pilot, wearing a helmet with a HMD, turned to Sest. “The Japan-stationed US Army and Japanese Army have authorized us for twenty minutes of fly time,” he said. “That’s all the time we’ve got here in the Tokyo airspace. Don’t forget.”

  Sest Ackerman was massaging the back of his muscular neck. The helicopter, which was normally used for transporting troops, had been converted into a drone control center. Having served as an elite among America’s Green Berets, it was the kind of workspace that made Sest feel cramped.

  “All right Ackerman Squad, let’s review the mission before we get started,” Sest announced. “Our objective is the capture or destruction of the five hIEs that escaped during the explosion at the lab. All lab personnel have already evacuated to their shelters.”

  As a mission objective, it was extremely odd.

  The whole idea of hIEs ‘escaping’ was patently ridiculous. hIEs looked like humans, but their every move was controlled externally. Every action was optimal, selected from a specialized program and expansive sampling of behaviors accessed through a central network. In other words, hIEs were nothing more than puppets, dancing on the invisible strings of wireless network signals.

  MemeFrame was a mega-corporation that controlled the hIE behavior management cloud, meaning that Sest and his team were on a mission equivalent to a puppeteer saying, “My puppets have run away, go and catch them.”

  The helicopter rotors were quiet. Silent enough, in fact, that even in the quiet of the night it would be hard to make out the sound as the helicopter maintained its height and wove through the darkness.

  The scramble team rushing to the scene was comprised of three men: the helicopter pilot, Sergeant Thomas Lieu; an operator, Sergeant Major Youseff Malai; and Sest, their captain. None of them commented on the strangeness of their mission. They were professionals.

  Using the transmitter implant in his skull, Sest contacted the HOO tactical command center through a datalink. “Major,” he said, “we’ve arrived at the target area. Beginning sensor sweeps for the enemy.”

  Using the helicopter’s thermal sensor, they confirmed five human-sized heat signatures. The signatures were heading away from the central research building of the MemeFrame Tokyo Research Lab, toward the No. 1 Landfill Island Group.

  HOO used an AI in the command center to formulate tactical strategies for their combat units. At that moment it was providing a tactical prediction. The AI’s suggestion was to allow the hIEs to cross the bridge to Odaiba’s residential district.

  It wanted them to conduct urban combat in a residential area.

  Sest folded his well-toned arms. “That’s nuts,” he grumbled. It was a plan usually held back as a last resort when intercepting unmanned combat units, because computer-controlled weapons could not decide for themselves to attack a human being. In those situations, the machines were simply tools that had to wait for their owner’s permission before acting. In other words, the AI was instructing them to take advantage of the reduced freedom experienced by unmanned combat units that carelessly entered highly populated areas.

  The image of the top half of a woman wearing a military cap slipped into Sest’s retinal display.

  〈We need to reduce the sensitivity of the command center AI,〉 she announced. 〈The client has assessed the threat level of this mission as fairly high. That’s why they requested an emergency scramble from us. But, I don’t think they actually want an all-out war in a residential area.〉

  Major Collidenne Lemaire was a calm commander in her forties. Sest hadn’t the faintest idea of her military background.

  “What should we do about the AI’s strategy, Major?” he asked. Sest’s confidence wasn’t shaken in the face of complications; he was a veteran. He had enlisted in the army at eighteen and served for sixteen years. The guns he used had gotten bigger, and his rank had gone up to Second Lieutenant, but he always stayed the same strong and loyal soldier.

  〈I’m authorizing you to reject the proposal,〉 she told him. 〈The police are forming a blockade on the bridge with their cars, so it wouldn’t be realistic to try and chase the targets into the residential district.〉

  It wasn’t that the major was a humanitarian; she just wanted to avoid engaging the targets on a bridge. “Combat drones were useless underwater,” she would have said. “The light and radio waves of the wireless signals used to control them wouldn’t reach.” For an emergency land combat team that relied on drones, this meant that any target that fell into the water would be out of their reach.

  “What’s plan B, major?” Sest wanted to know.

  〈The No. 2 Landfill Island Group mainly contains academic and research buildings. It’s practically deserted at night. We’ll take down the targets before they leave the area. The client has received authorization from the government to utilize heavy weapons. There won’t be any caps on our firepower.〉

  The list of approved weapons that got sent around was overkill, considering they were just capturing five hIEs. Japan was no longer allergic to the military like it had been one hundred years ago. But the kind of firepower the client was authorizing was insane, especially given that they would be fighting within spitting distance of a residential area. The equipment list didn’t match up with the details of the mission, which meant that their intel was incomplete.

  Sest felt a sharp sting of tension run up the back of his neck. “Youssef, can you give me the intel from the client again?”

  Youssef, the team’s French-African operator, tapped his console’s keys with bony, flexible fingers. “All the escaped hIEs are female models,” he said. “Each has specialized equipment. That’s all we’ve got so far, if you can call that ‘intel.’ If this was all the info it took to win wars, I doubt anyone since the dawn of time would have lost a battle due to lack of data.”

  Sest checked the countdown timer on his retinal display. It had already been five minutes since their helicopter had entered Tokyo airspace. “Put down the container,” he ordered. “While we get the ground unit up and running, I’m sure the major will be negotiating for some more information.”

  The research park had few residential buildings and wide, straight roads that were currently devoid of life. At the client’s request, even ambulances and fire trucks were being prevented from approaching the area.

  The pilot aimed the helicopter for a lonely street, illuminated with pools of white light from the streetlamps, and dropped the container from about twenty meters up. There was an explosive burst of gas from underneath as the container, which was about the size of two standard international shipping containers, came to land.

  Inside the container were two squads of combat drones. Each combat squad in the PMC was comprised of eleven units, same as a standard squad in the US Army. So, between the two squads in the container there were twenty-two drones, each equipped with military-grade armaments. Between them, they could easily turn a little area like Odaiba into a sea of flames.

  At a request from the container’s AI, the helicopter automatically dropped a sensor unit. Sixty-four disposable camera units flew out from the central mother unit and began to swarm around like flying insects, gathering images of the area.

  Sixty-four palm-sized screens opened up on the 3D display in the command center. No humans were picked up on any of the screens, so the operations area ‘all clear’ notification lit up on the screen.

  The No. 2 Landfill Island Group used to be known as the ‘Central Breakwater Outer Landfill Site.’ It had been the first place the rubble from the Hazard, which had taken place forty-two years ago, had been sent. That fact had given it a bad reputation, so no one wanted to use it as a residential area. It was well suited for combat.

  Five forms were picked out by the image recognition filter. A zoomed-in image slid into the middle of the display.

  “Our sensors have the targets,” Sest, w
ho had participated in countless military operations, announced. What he saw out there, running through the night-darkened research park, were five lights of different colors, and five girls, each one like a work of art. For a moment, he forgot that he was currently on a battlefield, in combat.

  “The ‘special equipment’ the intel mentioned must be these things,” Youssef said, zooming in on the image. The hIEs were each in a suit lit by a different color; red, green, yellow, orange, and one that was bright white. Each of them also carried some kind of large, strange tool.

  The HOO combat drones commenced their mission, spreading out from their cubic container. Sest watched their movements through the screen. The two-meter long drones used the terrain of the wide road to conceal themselves. Wheeled heavy artillery drones lurked behind a vanguard of humanoid drones, waiting for their hunt to begin. The frontmost line was made up of floating, mobile smart-mines.

  The PMC’s behavioral cloud moved all its puppets smoothly. Unlike the hIEs, which were built to endear themselves to humans, the military drones had been designed to harm them. But the basic concept of their behavioral patterns was the same; they were to select the optimal behavior to complete the objectives they had been given.

  “Advance the vanguard to seventy meters from the targets, then engage with two rounds of smart mines,” Sest commanded. “Then I want the tank drones to lay down concentrated fire, starting with the unit closest to the targets. The vanguard will hold the line, and the rear guard will react to the targets’ movements.”

  Sest was a soldier, born and raised. The battlefield was his home. The behavior cloud interpreted his instructions, and maneuvered his drone squad. The drones approached their targets, gathering information as they moved.

  Then it happened.

  One of the hIEs, a young girl with her red hair tied back in twin tails, looked directly into one of the cameras and flashed a dazzling smile. Then she started running. The helicopter was running dark and silent, with its lights out and optical camouflage on, but she headed straight for it.

  Goosebumps ran up Sest’s muscular arm. His instincts screamed at him to not let her get close. “Thomas! Get the heli away from that red kid. All units, don’t let her take a single step past the defensive line!”

  In a single instant, the scene erupted in combat. The drones that made up the defensive line opened fire ferociously on the hIE girls. Gunshots split the night, while muzzle flashes lit up the air like fireworks.

  Youssef quietly tapped at his keyboard. No matter what happened, staying as calm as a machine was a vital skill any soldier needed to survive these days.

  The pilot, Thomas, tried to make his voice light to cover his anxiety. “Well wouldja look at that, boss? Our targets are shrugging off .50 caliber rounds.”

  The machine guns mounted on the wheeled drones poured bullets at the hIEs like hoses spraying water. The red-haired girl used a giant blade to shield herself from the barrage; bathing in a storm of a thousand bullets a second, any one of which could have easily pierced 5mm thick steel plate, the little lady hIE was completely unshaken. .50 caliber rounds were fairly standard for military use, but even combat hIEs generally didn’t have the defensive power to withstand them so easily.

  “First squad, units 01 to 03, look for an opening in the red one’s defenses to snipe her body,” Sest ordered. “All remaining units, get those four other hIEs pinned down.”

  Fiery explosions from the activated mobile mines swirled and spread like flowers. The smart mines were key support units in drone combat; their explosive power could tear through the armor of anything but the heaviest Main Battle Tank (MBT) units. The images from the thermal sensors were blotted out with white heat readings.

  But the sound of sniper fire never came. An alert sounded, and a notice flashed onto the screen. All of the armed drones equipped with 40mm automatic grenade launchers — which formed the final line of defense in front of the drone container — had shorted out and shut down.

  Sest’s team had lost all their biggest guns in a single instant. “Get them back online,” he urged.

  “I can’t even tell what hit them,” Youssef said, his fingers stopping on the keys. He felt as though the air had grown viscous. Even when running in the depths of the Amazon, you would never see every single wheeled drone in a squad shut down at the same time.

  “Get the tactical AI on it,” Sest ordered him. “We just got hit by an enemy attack. Have it analyze the enemy’s weapon.”

  But the AI, which based its combat directions off the records of a wide array of past battles, simply gave them a 〈Judgment Pending〉 notice and went silent. Even Sest drew in a sharp breath at the abnormality of the situation.

  Thomas, the pilot, turned to them from the cockpit. “Flowers, boss! MemeFrame’s got its girls using flowers,” he said with a whistle.

  At his comrade’s light comment, Sest returned to himself. His eyes searched the screen for danger, as if to reclaim the few seconds he’d lost in hesitation while reacting to the strangeness of their situation. Flowers of all colors were blooming on the road, which was paved with recycled materials.

  The hIE girl with red hair, who had been pinned down by the machine guns of the wheeled drones, was free. Her weapon, a blade larger than herself, shone vividly crimson.

  Sest tried to predict her next movement. What would he do, in her position?

  She was undamaged, despite having stood in the heart of the smart mine explosions. Having shown them her inconceivable defensive power, she smiled. Apparently she was enjoying this quite a lot.

  “She’s coming for the container!” Sest yelled, at the same instant the red light made a beeline for the container.

  A thin line of light cut its way through the night. It pierced through the center of the container, then vanished. The landing container, built to withstand shots from MBTs, distorted with heat before a massive hole opened in one side.

  In the helicopter, over twenty warnings flashed across the operations screen. The landing container doubled as a relay station that transmitted vast amounts of battle data. Feeling the performance of their puppet strings failing, the drones raised alerts about the abnormality.

  Just then, right as they had received a decisive blow, the tactical AI came back with a response: 〈There is a high probability that the short was caused by electricity from the high voltage wires underground, used by the laboratories, flowing into the drones.〉

  The high voltage wires of the landfill island were kept in a common trench over ten meters underground. The targets not only knew this, but also had the ability to pull the wires from ten meters underground and use them to attack.

  A contact came in from Major Lemaire. Her expression was neutral, but Sest knew she had used the damage taken by his unit as a bargaining chip with the clients to the best of her ability.

  〈The client has disclosed further information,〉 she told them. 〈Don’t try to get them all. First, take down whichever seems easiest.〉

  Data appeared, printed across the 3D screen.

  “Youssef, read it. I can’t take my eyes off the battle.” To Sest, the fight below had mostly been decided, but he didn’t have the authority to order a retreat himself. He requested authorization for a retreat on a confidential line.

  The answer was ‘no.’

  He ordered the drones to fall back and re-establish their line.

  The new intel from the client, summarized by Youssef, began to print across Sest’s retinal display:

  〈Class Lacia humanoid Interface Elements. Information on their intended use is blank. They’re equipped with devices loaded with quantum computers. They can make advanced decisions on their own without relying on a network.〉

  A caption appeared on the screen showing the red-haired hIE that had blown away the landing container.

  〈Type-001 Code: “Kouka”〉

  The hIE girl “Kouka” swung her weapon around, something between a giant blade and a large cannon, her excited smile il
luminated by the firelight.

  〈Type-002 Code: “Snowdrop”〉

  A girl in a white dress, who looked even more childish than the others, had sat her butt down demurely on a pile of scrap that had once been humanoid combat drones. Her dress was decorated with luminous green accessories, and all around her, flowers from every season were blooming in an abundance that was completely unthinkable for the location.

  〈Type-003 Code: “Saturnus”〉

  A girl with disheveled flaxen hair had stabbed something that looked like a spinning wheel into the ground, and was turning some kind of lever on it.

  〈Type-004 Code: “___”〉

  There was a shadow, moving too quickly for the realtime video to capture it. All that could be seen were dancing lines of radiance, drawn by the hIE’s shining orange lights. Humanoid drones around the shadow didn’t even have time to react before they were shattered like fine china.

  〈Type-005 Code: “Lacia”〉

  The final hIE looked like a girl about to enter the time of her life when she would be the most beautiful. The expression on her face was straight and pure. She was lifting something that looked like a black coffin in her delicate hands, and using it to deflect incoming bullets with no sign of effort. Cracks ran down the length of the coffin, and it released an explosion of pale blue light.

  In that instant, the control center screen was disconnected. At the same time, the tactical control system went down as well. The helicopter was kicked out of silent flight mode, and air turbulence shook the vehicle. The sound of the rotors, which were no longer being controlled by AI, echoed in the night sky, sounding like a giant electric mixer in the air.

  Sest grabbed onto a nearby machine to prevent himself from falling within the suddenly stalled helicopter.

  “The HMD’s dead!” Thomas, the pilot, swore as he tore off his HMD-equipped helmet with one hand.