Reclaimer [02] - ARM Commander
-o-
A poisoned sky. Valleys of metal, oceans of sludge. Welcome to Core Prime. It was not a place where man might live. I have very few clear memories, but the first time I stepped onto the rust-coated surface of Core Prime would always remain with me in impossible clarity.
The thunderclap of the gods presaged my arrival. A shockwave spread across hundreds of kilometers, flattening everything in the way. This was the unsafe way of Quantum Transposition without a receiver, even through spatial jamming.
Transporting units through interstellar space demanded vast amounts of energy, exponentially so for every thousand tons. This was the reason Commander units were created, able to throw up an entire military-industrial complex to secure a beachhead, able to fend for themselves for the weeks it may take before reinforcements can arrive. Where fleets would be mauled in their predictable approaches by orbital fortresses, a needle-thin Quantum Gate signal used the very target's own gravity well to assist lock-on.
A hundred worlds gathered obscene amounts of energy, pointed their Gates towards the revealed location of Core Prime, and a thousand Commanders walked through.
A thousand Commanders appeared at random. Some were fortunate enough to appear on level ground. Mass rejects mass. Others appeared halfway into space, plummeting into a fall that not even Commander Units could survive. Not in terms of the unit being harmed overmuch by the fall, due to terminal velocity, but that the impact would stun the fleshy Commanders inside long enough for the defenders to find them and tear them apart.
Others appeared in oceans of caustic chemicals. More fortunate they, because Core Prime did not see the point in maintaining a naval presence in its own homeworld. These were not strategic waters, they were byproducts. Deep in the murk, they laid down Metal Extractors, and built a mighty fleet to support their beachhead.
Others were unlucky enough to appear in between defensive lines, blasted to bits before they even realized they were in another world.
Thousands of us. In a time when Tactical Commanders were all volunteers. Trained in academies, carefully honed in warfare, born of families that wailed as their sons and daughters and siblings walked with heads held high into a suicide mission. Just because our genes were designed did not mean we were not capable of all natural attachment and all possible emotional suffering.
They smiled. We smiled. For we were the end of the war. Ours would be the final sacrifice. This was our shining moment.
I was not there.
I never took part in that battle.
Yet the memories would linger. Because THIS was the most important lesson in all of ARM's history. We won that world. We blasted our way into the bulwark of Core Consciousness, disassembling the very metal of Core Prime to fuel our rampage, and we tore open the world. Literally, for the Core Consciousness had pushed their digital utopia deep into the solid metal core of the world. Core Prime was not the militarized death pit we expected, but little more than a planet designed to last forever. It was physically tough, but not hardened against serious assault.
We set the demolition charges, held off waves upon waves of hurried spoiling attacks, and a trillion minds screamed as they burned; their immortality denied.
And we burned with it. Gigatons of fire poured into us as we soaked up our victory in that hell-torn rift, in the last rage-fueled gasp of CORE.
This was our finest hour.
This was our worst hour.
Because intoxicated with our victory, we allowed one… just one… CORE Commander to escape. And not even a full Commander at that – a Private named COLDFIRE. CORE also used distinct personalities in their Commander units, demonstrating that 'patterning' was just life in a different form. The gestalt identity and the individual could coexist.
And his rage was true. He fled into the fringes of the galaxy, collapsing the Galactic Gate behind him to mask his destination.
I never took part in that battle, because I did not properly exist yet. Born as the fusion of the finest military of minds of ARM, in my very first moment of being I knew no event could be as damning as that one. That moment was the beginning of our end. Two thousand years into a four-thousand year Galactic War, we won it all and only laid bare the road to Empyrean.
-o-
How dangerous is a single Commander?
Less than a week later, we received reports of CORE attacks on our fringe worlds. The dying struggles of a doomed kind, we thought.
Why should exponential growth be an issue when we have multiple commanders to counter said exponential growth with our own?
The Core Consciousness wrote their patterns into the quantum foam, thousands of billions of patterned minds preserved beyond mere physical destruction. The Core Commander slunk away into the dark corners of the galaxy, and weeks later the war was in full swing again. Tens of thousands of Core Commanders attacked on a wide front, overrunning worlds that still soaking in their victory, leaving local planetary authorities panicking and paralyzed. Where did so many new Core units come from? They seemed inexhaustible. Planets were completely destroyed by Orbital Weapons, and Quantum Jamming cut off whole sections of the galaxy from each other.
CORE, even through the two thousand years of fighting, never wavered in its belief that it held the moral high ground. In blasting Core Prime and destroying the Core Consciousness, they decided we were barbarians to whom diplomacy was no longer a worthwhile measure. They no longer asked for any surrender from civilian populace (and then patterning them anyway). Core Prime was not as well-defended as it should have been, because it was our rope to hang ourselves on. We burned our finest for a futile gesture.
In unprecedentedly swift time they pushed us out of the Core regions of the galaxy. They rebuilt Core Prime, plating over with metal the great scar we tore open into the world.
Information was the mightiest weapon. We underestimated the enemy, and we paid for it in the blood of billions more.
.NEWSBOT
- n retrieved:
- "When it was just one stationary being, we always knew where to hit and
- what we were up against. Central Consciousness was a single entity. We
- knew where it lived and we knew which door to knock on. I think that
- having this roving consciousness has really disrupted our troops; made
- them unsure of exactly who it was they were fighting."
- The voice of Central Consciousness has not made itself heard since the
- destruction of its body, though its final words as Arm troops raged across
- Empyrrean give some hint as to the true nature of the Consciousness.
- Roll clip.
- [INITIATING SIGNAL FEED]
- - - "I leave you with a thought: all of these creations you prepare to
- - - strike down as you have done so for millennia are extensions of myself.
- - - They are my arms, my legs, my eyes and ears. Everywhere they go, they
- - - take part of me with them. The Core Consciousness will never be
- - - understood by mortal minds, and cannot be destroyed by mortal hands.
- - - We live on. We live eternal. Step forward for the Patterning, Clones.
- - - Step forward or die."
- [END SIGNAL FEED]
CORE was as good as its boast. It was not mere machine immortality that they promised – that was no issue. ARM itself had little qualms about modifying the human genome or implanting cybernetics. What was most blasphemous to us was that CORE sought, for our own good, to end humanity's existence as human beings and into something bodiless and beyond all harm.
They murdered trillions and in patterning moved them beyond retrieval. Even our mind upload technology could not recover patterned minds. And when we tried to clone those who had been patterned, mindscans just would not download properly. At best, we would have people with glimmerings of memory, a sense of déjà vu, but new people nonetheless. At worst, and most often, we would get empty bodies useful only for reprogramming as Kbot controllers.
This was what terrified us most of all. In a galaxy where science ruled supreme and fighting against foes of cold logic, was it actually possible…? That CORE had not only proven the existence of the human soul, and managed to capture it. Preserve it. Lock it away for eternity.
Neither heaven, nor hell, no reincarnation – none of these old visions would be open the patterned mind. They were owned completely by CORE. There was no way to free them, only perhaps in destroying CORE, their patterns would be destroyed and they would be allowed to go wherever it was that lay beyond mortal death.
And thus two thousand more years we fought without mercy, slowing grinding each other into the dust. Worlds we stripped bare, oceans we drained dry for organic compounds, until we exhausted even the resources of a galaxy. This was war for a post-scarcity society.
CORE could not touch the quantum foam where ARM kept its own mind uploads, and vice versa. In the end, the only difference between us was that one used circuitry while the other used neuron, as we sent waves upon waves of downloads/clones at each other. Most of them dying within seconds.
If there was a 'silver bullet' we could use to end the war swiftly, don't you think we would have used it?
-o-
Because it didn't make sense. I should not be affected by psychic attacks. If disrupting the control over our forces was that easy, ARM or CORE should have done that long ago. I'm sure in the early days that was indeed possible, but our quantum foam encoding became literally unhackable except through physical access. Nanobot-borne viruses sprayed onto a unit would literally rewire its control system to accept my commands – without touching its quantum foam storage. Thus it was possible to build the full range of CORE units just by capturing a CORE Construction Vehicle (and vice versa).
Our knowledge was impregnated into the quantum foam – the very structure of the universe itself, and the only way to fully defeat CORE was to destroy every unit with the disentangling key so that the silent dead may forever sleep. A Commander unit, like myself, constantly 'refreshed' foam storage, as such I had the full gamut of ARM's technological base wherever I may go. I only needed to 'unpack' it.
How are you doing this, Planet?
How are you able to reach me within the quantum foam?
(Do not dare to threaten the memory of ARM and all its citizenry.)
-o-
ERROR:PSYCHOLOGICAL_FAULT:INTERRUPT
OVERRIDE \ PRIMARY_CONSCIOUSNESS :: to :: SECONDARY_CONSCIOUSNESS:TRAUMA_RELEASE
… .
EXECUTE
-o-
You would hardly be the first world I've burned.
The artificial fear you make me feel are as dust in the wind. Do you dare dig too deep? My psyche is not your plaything! Beware, oh ignorant Planet. The wars I fight are beyond your understanding.
Else you face the terrors of - GALACTIC WARS RAAAP BAAAATTLE!
o
CORE
- - Hey, ungrateful son, all you are is because of me
- - Who do you think gave you the keys to the galaxy?
- - Name it, I invented it, Galactic Gate!
- - Where would you be without my nanolathe?
- - You don't deserve patterning, but it's for your own good
- - I'm givin' humanity the gift of immortality, so join the hood
- - I'm the Core Consciousness, bitch, I run hot
- - I'm a brain the size of planet, you've got no shot
- - Give in and join all your brothers and sisters in Core Prime
- - For this robot's one that's going to school you in rhyme!
o
ARM
- - Yeah right, you're too slow
- - Better reprogram your whole flow
- - By the time you start your buildin'
- - My army is done with your base, just chillin'
- - Our Commander won outnumbered two to one
- - Beating you in a rap battle isn't half as fun
- - You make more beeps than an episode of Bill Nye
- - But it's scientifically proven that you're quick to die
- - You say that you're the best?
- - KBot, please, give it a rest
- - We still got two ARMs, middle fingers raised
- - All the real people singing our praise
- - About how we won't accept your patterns
- - Until then you're just a bunch of robot schlottern
- - It's easy to beat you like a dog, you see
- - Only one minute to cover you in Fleas
- - We win so many battles in a Flash
- - You deserve to go to your moon with the rest of the trash
o
CORE
- - What's that you say, little man of meat?
- - How's it feel to be such a hypocrite?
- - You kill more of yours every day you dally
- - It's the fuckin' Clone Wars and I'm keepin' my tally
- - I don't need your permission
- - Here to crush your sedition
- - I'm the force behind your own tradition
- - To make humanity safe for all time is my mission!
- - Really think you can make my day?
- - My bad, looks like Krogoth's come to play
- - (Do the robot)
- - Eeh. Eeh. Oop. Beep. Beep.
- - (Do the robot)
- - Bip. Bop. Bip. Bop. Bip. Bop. Bip. Bop.
- - (Do the robot)
- - Weee-ow. Whee-ow. Win. Win. Win. Win.
- - See the pattern yet? I'm all the best of all humanity
- - Distilled to remove pain and fear and made for infinity
- - The galaxy is mine, if you dare exult in your idiocy
- - Then bend over and suffer my Contingency
o
ARM
- - Krogoth? Meet Big Bertha,
- - Firing in sync, gonna shake the Earth- yah!
- - Take apart your lil' knockoff megazord,
- - Spamming all my Brawlers cause I got BORED,
- - You think you're hot shit,
- - Bitch I'll make you rage quit,
- - Coz Clones ROCK IT! Listen up y'all!
- - I'm a ROCKET! Your build order's a crawl!
- - Ten, fifty, a hundred Flashes five min,
- - You over-engineering obsessi-bot, I'll beat you twenty in!
- - I'll crumple your Tin Cans, beat your Gimps,
- - All your bitches be walking with limps,
- - My Spider tanks will stop you dead,
- - My Bulldogs gonna have you seeing red,
- - I'm the long ARM of the law,
- - I'll break your glass jaw,
- - I'm here to take you in,
- - Bitch I kicked your metal ass once, I can do it again.
o
END:TRAUMA_RELEASE:PROCEDURE
… .
INPUT:ARMCOM_PRIME \ WHAT
-o-
Who was that screaming?
Stop that, it's annoying. I can't think with all that noise.
Oh. Wait. That was me.
"Two minutes to contact, captain!" one of the crew announced.
What?! I tried to tilt my head up and - whap!
Jenny slapped me again. Ow. What the hell, Jen?
There was a 'fwoosh!' and a flash of red out from my peripheral vision. Someone was testing his or her Flame Gun. The Gaians seemed eager for this, I wonder if they wanted to prove that they could take care of themselves. Enough handouts. Sixteen people against two Isles of the Deep's worth of Mind Worms.
My fault.
No. Dammit. Move, body. Move! I could not let this happen.
These people were unique in all the universe. Only I, a clone, was disposable. They should just throw me overboard and then pass safely to The Flowers Preach. It was perfectly fine for me to die to secure their safety. Every life lost under my care is a light forever removed from the cosmos. [ACT:SUBMIND:NOTE\SEARCH_FILES:keyword:CORE_PATTERNING]
Leave me, I wanted to shout. But they would not. Because in the short time we've been together, I had become... their friend. I am a liability, and they would protect me as I lay there limp and useless.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Unacceptable. Unacceptable!
I opened my mouth and screamed to the universe "UNACCEPTABLE!"
-o-
OVERRIDE \ ARM:COMMANDER_PRIME
OVERRIDE \ AUTH:ARMHIGHCOMMAND:LORD_PRESIDENT
OVERRIDE:ARM:COMMANDER_PRIME \ READY
DIRECTIVE:ARM:COMMANDER_PRIME \ OPERATION:NANANANA:CAN_TOUCH_THIS
RESPONSE:ARM:COMMANDER_PRIME \ EXECUTE
-o-
####
MEMSTOR keyword "Significant Planets"
MEMSTOR keyword subselection "The False Dawn, Battle Reports, GWERA 2000, list top five, exclude: Empyrrean"
- n retrieved:
- n listing:
1) Core Prime
"The once great world of Core Prime now lies a broken and empty shell, an enormous chasm opened straight to the core of the planet and to the old home of Central Consciousness."
2) Hub
Known for the strange gravitational phenomenon that makes the starports on this world famous, Hub has seen its share of travelers from all across the galactic sector. All major trade routes through this sector eventually find their way to Hub for that big leap across space. Hub has even seen its share of warfare over the centuries, as the tactical advantage of holding such a world is undoubted.
3) Ralova
"Cloning is a tricky business. Genetic material is easily made but not as easily controlled. This is the lesson to be learned by the history books of Ralova. Scores of experiments were conducted on this world far away from Empyrrean by Arm geneticists trying to perfect the cloning process. With the war fluctuating so much, there was no choice but to build the better clone.
The goal was to create a better body, something with faster reflexes, keener senses, and the ability to tear the head off of an AK without batting an eye.
Time and time again, failed subjects would stride from the cloning chambers. The biggest flaw in the Clone Research Laboratories on Ralova were soon realized. There was no truly effective way to dispose of the failures.
The decision would make any self-respecting Core Commander shudder with glee. Arm geneticists abandoned the lot of failed experiments onto a nearby asteroid, strapped on a propulsion system, and sent their failures rocketing into a star. They missed."
4) Rikki
"A faint blue glow can be seen in the night sky over the world of Rikki where a massive heap of machinery stretches towards the stars. This is the generator of the anti-gravity field that creates the Gravity Well tunnels between the ODS planets.
The giant citadel of a generator is not exactly easy to hide, current cloaking technology unable to cover objects of this size. Instead, the generator, which is large enough to be visible from orbit, is camouflaged as a collection of craters and pillars carved into the grey stone. Still, if the time were to come where Core were to get close enough to see the generator, Arm would have greater things to worry about."
"Core intelligence has yet to realize it, but this is as far as their long range scanning really goes in this sector. The Gravity Wells of Rikki take the deep-space scanning signals and redirect them past Ralova, creating the illusion that none of the worlds actually exist. An impressive technology from a group of impressive clones."
5) CORE Orbital Weapon
"In the center of this engagement zone lies a mountainous construction of metal. Deep beneath it, huge energy compressors work feverishly, storing power into monstrous battery cells.
As the cold metal blast shields draw back, the energy stolen straight from the molten core of this world streams out in a concentrated blast capable of as much as making a small star go supernova.
For 'public relations' reasons, the weapon is seldom used. Still, this does not prevent patterns from "testing" the weapon on uninhabited star systems. The implications of what could happen if directed at a planet would make even the hardiest clone weak in the knees. Luckily for the Arm, the world of Empyrrean is usually blocked by at least one other world."
####
Author notes: These are taken from the old Boneyards Briefing Archives.
