CH 13 Calm before the storm
A week after the attack, Allison was recovered and back in school. A mass of workers helped clear the base of wreckage and debris. Buildings that could be repaired were, buildings what weren't were torn down. All the Stug wrecks from the battle were trucked off to Zeita Corp for study and rebuilding.
The new base commander, a middle aged man dark haired stern looking man named General Stockwell, called for a staff meeting the day after his arrival. Arrivals to the conference room that now bore a large plywood patch where the outside wall used to be, was Major Franklin, John and Cameron Connor, John Henry and Mrs. Weaver. John Henry and Cameron were bandaged to cover their bare metal that had yet to grow skin back.
General Stockwell and his aide, Major Burns, eyed the arrivals. "This is rather odd, four civilians, two of which looks like they belong in the hospital, and an Army Major is the entire base staff?" he asked.
"The rest didn't make it," Major Franklin stated. "Let me do the introductions. This woman is Mrs. Catherine Weaver, an AI in a machine body. Beside her is John Henry, who is also a machine AI, Mr. John Connor, our top tech, and his wife, Mrs. Cameron Connor, who is also a cyborg AI. I take it you have read the battle debriefings?"
General Stockwell eyed him. "Yes Major, I've read the reports. From what I read, these AI's of yours seemed to have tipped the scale. They are very efficient in battle, but why are they here now?"
"Excuse me, General, we belong to no one." Mrs. Weaver said sternly. "It is the Army that was assisting us. My associates, The Connors and John Henry, defended this base as part of our goal at defeating Sky Net that still remains lurking about."
"Major," General Stockwell said firmly, "I don't know what you're pulling, but you will either shut your machines up, or turn them off."
"Cam, don't!" John barked as Cameron shot to her feet.
Mrs. Weaver also stood up, glaring at General Stockwell.
"Wait, please!" Major Franklin begged. "General! Mrs. Connor, Mrs. Weaver and John Henry are not 'my' AI's. They are fully independent and sentient. We are helping them fight Sky Net. THAT was why the base was attacked, Sky Net tried to destroy them. They are the only thing keeping Sky Net down."
"You have no control over your creations?" General Stockwell asked.
"WE did not create them," Major Franklin stated. "Mrs. Connor and Mrs. Weaver came from the future, Mrs. Weaver built John Henry specifically to fight Sky Net. He and Cameron are the ONLY reason we are not all dead, Sir!"
"Sky Net was the creation of the Air Force. Look at how well you did at controlling it," Mrs. Weaver said dryly.
General Stockwell looked at Major Franklin and asked, "Those automated mini-Stugs, as you call them. Can you use those to keep these AI's in line if the need rose?"
"Those Mini-Stugs are mine. I control them," Cameron stated flatly.
"Mrs. Connor bought them from my factory, the military does not own those vehicles." Mrs. Weaver added.
Seeing the General gape at them, Major Franklin nodded. "That is correct, Sir. Those machines belong to the Connors. They are using them to defend our base. If it wasn't for them, we would have been
completely wiped out, as well as thousands more people dead. After Sky Net was done killing everyone on base, they would have continued on to the towns and cities. We believe the gas attacks were designed to cause confusion so Sky Net's ground machines could destroy the bases, then the cities."
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, General Stockwell asked, "What military defenses does this base have?"
"The company of Army reservists that arrived with four humvees and two Bradly fighting vehicles. That's it. Our forces are spread rather thin at the moment due to world criss , General." Major Franklin stated.
"You are telling me these cyborgs actually run this base," General Stockwell said, sounding irritated.
"Mrs. Weaver," John Henry said, shifting his gaze to look at her. "All internet connections are back on line. No trace of Sky Net present.
"Thank you, John Henry." Mrs. Weaver replied.
"He has restored the internet after that massive attack we suffered?" Stockwell asked.
"We took it down to keep it from being taken over by Sky Net," Cameron told him. "One of Sky Net's objectives was to take us off line so it could hack into military computers. Before it took us off line, we took down the web to deny Sky Net use of it until we were able to reconnect and restore the servers."
Major Franklin said, "General, these AI's are being helped by the Army. Their presence here, and even the fact they exist is highly classified, Top Secret eyes and ears only. I have been ordered to proceed with our mission as well as I can, with whatever personnel I need to commandeer. At the moment, we need Mrs. Connor's vehicles to maintain security. They are currently deployed to assist our human guards."
"Excuse me," Cameron said. Taking out her cell phone, she told Major Franklin, "It's time to call my daughter," and left the room.
"This is too much," General Stockwell said with a snort. "An AI has a child?"
"We do," John said as he eyed Stockwell. "And yes, Cameron gave birth to her. Before you ask, you do not need to know the details."
"General," Mrs. Weaver said firmly. "All you need to know is that we are here. We will continue to defend the base until you receive enough forces to do so yourself, then we will return to our corner of the base."
"Major Franklin," John Henry said, turning to him. "Monitoring the hospital I discovered Mrs. Franklin is out of surgery, and is expected to fully recover."
"Thank you, John Henry," Franklin said with a smile. "Do you know what room she will be in?"
John Henry was silent for a moment, then said, "After recovery, she will be moved to room three two five. Her expected time of arrival there is between three and three thirty pm."
Major Franklin looked at his watch and said, "Thank you, John Henry. General, I cannot stress enough the need to keep these cyborgs functioning and doing what they do best. Protecting us as well as their own families. As for the Air Force element on base, at the moment you and a few techs are it. The hangars and command buildings got hit hard. I am certain you will receive reinforcement as soon as possible."
General Stockwell nodded slowly, still absorbing what he'd learned. "This is all highly unusual, but apparently these AI's very effective. Thank you for the briefing, Major. We will support you however we can."
.
After going through the battle against those Sky Net machines in the woods, Allison focused her elective study time on battles. The textbooks only told what battles were fought and the outcome. She did find a good reference on the Internet about details of what happened during battles through the ages. One curious thing she found was that despite the weapons used, all battles seemed to rely on a few basic factors. Strength was a large factor, but not always the most important. She found many cases where the smaller, weak force overcame their larger enemy through surprise and tactics.
General Andrew Jackson during the war of 1812, defeated a British force five times the size of his own through superior defensive tactics at the battle of New Orleans. General Lee and Stonewall Jackson never had a numerical superiority over the various Union generals that had gotten replaced one after another due to the fact they could not defeat Lee, even with more and better equipped troops. A couple of the Union defeats were very lopsided. It wasn't until Gettysburg that Lee began to loose battles. Even then, he kept fighting as his supplies and manpower diminished and was not truly beaten until he had pretty much nothing left to fight with. In World War 2, the Nazis rarely had a numerical advantage in manpower, but they swept through France, then drove deep into Russia using better tactics and more advanced communications. It wasn't until their enemies had overwhelming forces and the Germans were sorely lacking in forces, that they were pushed back and defeated.
Studying warfare, Allison came across a book, 'The Art of War', by a Chinese man named Sun Tzu. It was rated as the best book on warfare ever written. Allison studied it. Although Sun Tzu talked about marching men, chariots and bows, she could see direct parallels in modern warfare on how his words still rang true. She decided to study this book in depth.
For one of their gaming sessions, Dan invited Allison to play another battle game, this one was the Battle of El-Alamein. As always, Byron teamed up with Allison, and Becky teamed up with Dan. Of course, Dan took the British side that had more men, equipment and supplies.
During the last hour of class, Allison studied the battle, which was actually two battles. The first was an attack by Rommel, which was stopped. And the second was Montgomery attacking and driving a hole in the German lines to drive them back. Using the teachings of Sun Tzu, Allison knew this was going to be a tough game. The Germans were at a disadvantage, not getting supplies, and the British forces were quick to gain in men and materials.
During dinner, Allison sat with Byron, conspiring about the upcoming game.
"We're going to loose, you know that, right?" Byron said with a snort.
"Maybe, if we follow history," Allison agreed. "But, what if we don't?"
Byron shrugged and stirred his rice pilaf with his fork. "Look, they got a lot more forces, especially aircraft. They hold the high ground, right? Not to mention Rommel was a very good general, and he couldn't break through the British lines. He couldn't go around them because of the Qattara Depression."
"Tanks could not go through the Qattara Depression," Allison said, correcting him. "Men can still walk it. I also noticed there was no attempt by Rommel for a beach invasion from the coast either."
"He didn't have any boats," Byron replied.
Allison grinned and said, "And that means Dan and Becky will never expect an attack from either of those directions, will they? They are going to be focused on our front lines."
Byron looked over at Dan and Becky, sitting a couple tables away. "OK, we plan out strategy up in my room."
Allison gave Byron a sly grin. Quietly, she said, "I looked at the recommended strategy. The Germans are suppose to attack and get into the best defensive positions they can and fake attacks, conserving their forces until the British attack. The British are suppose to hold the Germans back and try to reduce the German forces until they have a sizable advantage. Dan usually plays by the recommended course of action. Becky follows Dan's lead. We're not going to do that. Eat up, I've got a plan."
.
As usual, Byron thought Allison was nuts at first as she laid her plans out. Allison took all the historical weather data into consideration, including the phases of the moon. She wasn't going to play by what really happened, she was going to play with Sun Tzu in mind. This game allowed for controlling troops down to the squad level. Anything available at the time, could be commandeered and used.
Since the game required them to sit at separate computers and communicate through a typed chat program (British knew the German codes) Allison and Byron got their plans together ahead of time, and made a code words to indicate their real plans were being implemented.
The start of the game was British retreating to El-Alamein, and the Germans attacking. Officially game wise, Allison had the German command, and Byron had the Italian command. They split it differently. Byron had the 'main attack force', and Allison was controlling the secondary offensives. At the outset, Allison commandeered fishing boats as they gained territory and sent a message to Byron : 'British troops fleeing in civilian craft at sea, can you send aircraft to stop them?'
Byron replied, 'No aircraft available. Do what you can. Don't loose focus on the main battle!'
'I'll send what I can afford to send.'
As Allison hoped, British aircraft came out in force to protect the fishing boats. That must be Becky, she thought. Pleased with this, she sent enough fighters to duel with the enemy aircraft to make it look real as she launched all other available planes at the British ground troops and air bases. At the same time, far from what was going to be the main battle, she send thirty thousand troops south, deep into the Qattara Depression with floats and lumber to get their light trucks packed with supplies and ammo through the giant bog. These troops only moved at night, and covered up with camo during the day.
While the main battle progressed as expected, the Germans pushing the British back, more fishing boats 'fled' the German advance, their holds filled with German troops that Becky was protecting. Allison kept sending fighters out and Becky kept up a solid defense of the helpless fishing boats, even though her air bases were under attack. Strung out, the fishing boats got far behind the British lines and put ashore all on one night.
Allison's plan went almost like she wanted it to. Once the fishing boats landed, they came in contact with enemy guard forces along a wide front. Her troops got rid of the guards and moved inland towards the airfields. At the same time, another German air attack hit the British air fields.
'Invasion force landed,' Allison sent to Byron. As expected, Dan reacted strongly to this new threat, sending a substantial amount of his forces to deal with this phantom threat. Byron kept after the British, and managed to capture the El-Alamein railway station. By now, Dan and Becky's forces were concentrating on the obvious attacks, putting everything they had into the fight along the sea shore.
In four days game time, Allison's landed troops were all but wiped out, and had drawn off half the British forces to stop this invasion. Byron had gotten past El-Alamein by ten miles before the British were able to re group and stop him, and Allison's southern troops were half way across the Qattara Depression, into the marshes. Allison also noted her air attacks had done well, they had gotten most of the British bombers.
In the stalemate that followed, Byron kept exchanging small attacks with the British. He managed to get three more miles farther in the next two days, then messaged, Allison : 'Have to stop and wait for more supplies. When are the reinforcements due?'
'Yes, we stop for now, we are getting low. Reinforcements due in six days, plan attack for then.' Allison replied, meaning that was when she expected her southern troops to be in position. Her troops were getting low, as far south as they had to go to get around the worst of the wetlands to the south. Soon, they would be back up on dry land and able to move much more rapidly.
Aerial recon showed Dan and Becky were digging in for a three layered defense while Byron (in better shape than Rommel had been). Was waiting on supplies to get to him. In the skies, they didn't have superiority, but had done enough damage that the British didn't either. Traveling at night, more supplies got through.
Allison's troops finally got around the Qattara depression, and plugged the road to the British troops, destroying and capturing supplies and equipment on it's way to the front lines. This time, Dan and Becky only sent a small force to deal with the infiltrators. Their force lost badly. Allison went on the attack, leaving enough troops to guard the road, now with British artillery, tanks and ammo to assist them.
'Army is in position, don't let them get away', Allison sent to Byron.
'Attacking' Byron sent back, and began his artillery attack.
Allison captured an air field as Dan and Becky shifted their troops to attack Allison's, while bracing themselves for Byron's attack. Having an air field, Allison flew raids on the British troops as they moved, then landed at the captured air base to attack the reinforcements send from Alexandria. Byron attacked, and made a hole in the British front lines, sweeping north and east to decimate the defenders.
The British were in disarray. Allison only expected to hold the airfield for two days, maximum. She held it for three before the British broke through in their retreat. At that point, Allison pulled her troops south and let them pass and extended her line to the south. The Germans had made it past the Qtattara Depression, and Byron was making full use of the German blitzkrieg tactics, fueled by captured British supplies. The air field Allison had initially captured was re-captured, then they captured another. Their attacks were stopped 20 miles outside Alexandria.
The game ended when Allison made her first air strike on Alexandria's ports.
German victory : Alexandria has fallen.
"YES!" Allison and Byron roared in glee.
Dan looked at Becky. "I want Allison as my partner," he grumbled.
Becky shook her head. "Next game, girls versus boys," she stated.
.
Allison's life returned to normal, and she was loving it. Weekdays at school she did her studies and played with her friends, and weekends at home she got to spend time fun with her parents, Gramma, Savannah and John Henry. She didn't think it was quite fair what John Henry could not go out places with them. He was stuck in his lab, monitoring to make sure that the 'Sky Net' did not attack them again. Her mother seemed very pleased that she was practicing realistic war gaming and taking the underdog side whenever possible.
Byron's birthday came up on a Wednesday. Although it was during the week, her parents came to the school and joined in the celebration. They even brought a new war game for Byron and her to play.
This game was not a historical game, it was a tactical simulation game. The game was still complex and every factor was considered, even the status of each sides' civilian population and production capabilities. It started as two cities spread apart by two hundred miles distance. Each city had equal amounts of infantry, artillery, H/K flying units, and mini-stugs, as well as the same factories, army bases, airfields, training centers, and population. The goal was to take the other city.
Allison and Byron both studied the game's maps. The lay of the land was evenly balanced. The island the map represented held equal amounts of beaches that could be landed on, mountains, forests, rivers and flatlands. They had a great time trying to outwit each other. Byron made the first attack, basically a land grab to take a section of Allison's coastline that had a landing beach with a ridge beyond the beaches. Allison re-took it using half her air power. Byron used all his air power to attack her factories, while he hastily made more units himself. Allison's counter was to destroy his forces, then drive deep into his territory to get her artillery set up, with plenty of reinforcement to destroy two of his airfields, then capture an isolated piece of coastline on his side.
Back and forth they went, gaining and loosing ground. The game lasted until the next Tuesday when Allison feigned with a frontal attack in her own territory that Byron had been making steady progress on advancing into, then when Byron's forces were committed, she surged out directly at his city with a force she had been building up in the forest near the coastline she had captured early in the game.
.
While Allison was moving well into fourth grade, the world situation caused by the Sky Net attacks was still dim. Wars peppered the globe. North Korea and China allied against South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, who were getting assistance from their allies. Israel was on it's knees. First it had taken a severe internal beating from the Sky Net machines, and now Iran was leading a united Arab attack against it in reprisal from the Israeli attacks against them since the machines that attacked them bore Iranian markings. So far, the US, Russia, and European powers were not joining directly in the fighting, but the situation between them was very tense.
John Henry had sent out messages telling the waring countries that all the attacks had come from the same place, and even proved every type of vehicle in each initial attack was the same. No one wanted to listen to him. A few weak hack attempts were even tried against him.
Allison stayed in school as the wars slowly got worse. Recovering from the initial Sky Net attacks, China made a major offensive against Taiwan, the closest island nation to them and one against South Korea. While the South Koreans held out, and with the help of the US and other countries, they struck back with a major counter offensive, Taiwan was loosing badly. China got a beachhead, and drove halfway across their island before the Chinese were stopped. Japan did not attack China directly, but sunk hundreds of their ships and downed a thousand planes to control much of the south China sea as they prepared their own offensive. What was left of Israel fought furiously in the small corner of their country they still controlled. The European countries got together and sent troops to Israel to help, which prompted Russia to aid the Arabs directly with troops and equipment. When Russia attacked south into Europe, the US got into the war with troops also.
.
The air base the Connors were at became thick with activity. Cameron now had fifty of her mini-stugs, Catherine Weaver kept another thirty around her plant to protect it. Drones marked with only 'Connor' on their fuselages roamed the skies, searching for enemy aircraft as all the Air force combat drones left and returned on missions. Instead of controlling the drones individually, Cameron used John's 'semi-sentient' AI program to run them.
While Cameron was busy with base defense, John Henry stayed on his hunt for Sky Net, monitoring communications and the web. Satellites were coming down, others got put back up into orbit. He shifted from one to another, noting the reception was getting worse as more satellites were destroyed.
Allison came home on a weekend to find only Gramma Sarah, who had retrieved her from school, was the only other one in the house.
Frowning at not being able to see her parents, Allison asked, "Gramma, why can't Daddy and Mommy come home?"
Sarah offered her a sad smile and hugged her. "They are busy with the war, hon. It seems like everyone is fighting, except for Sky Net."
Allison carefully returned her hug. Thinking about all that was happening, Allison let out a gasp and pulled back. "Gramma! Can you show me who's fighting where?"
Sarah eyed her. "Why do you want to know?"
"Please?" Allison asked.
Sarah took Allison into the living room and sat her on the couch and got out a map. Patiently, she showed Allison which countries were at war, and with who. Allison studied the map closely.
"Sky Net used submarines, right?" Allison asked.
"We think so, yes," Sarah agreed.
Speaking as she thought, Allison said, "Sky Net tried to attack us, and used attacks in other places to distract us. That's what mommy said." She tipped her head slightly, then added, "So if all these countries are fighting each other and it's getting worse, then Sky Net won't need such a big distraction."
"Allison, every country is now expecting an attack," Sarah pointed out. "Sky Net can't attack anywhere and have it be a surprise."
"Yeah, they can!" Allison insisted. "Gramma, usually the web is open to everyone, everywhere, right? Is that still the case?"
Sarah shrugged. She then got it. "Sky Net is no longer in the US. It moved to a country that we can't see their Internet," she said thoughtfully.
"And since Mommy or John Henry can't see it, it can take over someone elses' web," Allison reasoned.
Sarah eyed Allison for a moment, then ran to the phone and called John.