Silence.
That was all that he heard during the drop ship ride to the front lines. It is nothing like the old pep talk and briefing on helicopters in the days before the Cortex Wars began. Nothing but the daunting whistle of the unsettlingly flimsy engines of the ship could be heard. Plus it didn't help that the majority of the people around him were AIs: organic bodies, controlled by a bare bones computer where their brain should be.
His name is-no-was Edward Osbourne. Now, no one in the Military has a name in the normal sense: only sets of hexadecimal bytes that translate to a number value that only the commanding brain in the unit can make sense of. Now, his "name" is 31:38:32:33:39 or 18239 in the basic decimal system.
Just then, the briefing was sent to him, not through any hand-held device, but directly to his head through the minuscule wireless card implanted in his brain. As the info simply dropped into his mind, he yelped.
"Heh, yer new, aren'cha?"
He looked up to see the only other non-AI grinning knowingly at him.
"Uh… Yeah. Why?"
"When I started here, I got shook up too, ya get used to it. Name's Jake McDowell or 33:39:37:34:31"
"Edward Osbourne, or 31:38:32:33:39 in that hexadecimal rubbish. I certainly hope you can get used to it, because that was simply terrible. How long have you been doing this?"
"Only about a month, but it seems like it was forever. They say the Vietnam War was bad, lets see some of those old Vets take this on." Jake muttered. Simultaneously the AIs got up and readied themselves, while Edward stumbled up and fidgeted with the safety on his Spas-12 nervously.
I will not get hit. An AI jumped into the pandemonium outside
I will not get hit. Another
I will not get hit. The last AI jumped out
I will not get hit! The Brain bot stepped out
I will not get hit! Jake sighed and jumped out
"I WILL NOT GET HIT!" Edward jumped a split second before a SAM missile hits one of the drop ship's engines to send it careening into oblivion.
He fell through smoke, past bullets, and over the definition of carnage. At the last minute, he fired his jet pack to cushion the fall.
Okay... first thing's first. We need to clear out that SAM bunker. The AIs stayed back to cover the Brain Bot, while Jake and Edward advanced upon the bunker
"Wait," Jake grabbed Edward's shoulder, "There're a couple things ya should know before we go. This ain't like any war ya been in, firstly, now we got jet packs. They play a huge part in pretty much every strategy. Secondly, aim is everything. The things we're fightin' these days, they don't feel pain. Yeah, yeah, it's obvious 'n all, since they're dummies and robots, but I've seen men stronger than you turned to hamburger meat, all 'cause they thought a shot to the knee would drop 'em. Lastly, and most importantly, don't let yer guard down and DON'T hesitate."
"Got it"
"Oh, and one more thing, don't be surprised if ya black out once or twice, that's just the Brain Bot takin' control."
"Okay, lets get this over with." Edward said.