LF Friends, Will Travel

Much like many things in life, everything was going fine for the Uhae, until it wasn’t.

It was a relatively cushy job, as close to such a thing that could be found in the military. Being on defensive duty for a species that never got attacked was an unsurprisingly peaceful role. Sure they had a military defence because that’s how militaries work, but they'd never had to use it. At least not since the Baruz, but that species had been made extinct long ago by an AI.

So for the Uhae on defence, it was the start of another easy and peaceful day… Until it wasn't.

ODIN started firing a mere 46 nanoseconds after their fleet warped into range. They already knew what they were firing at before they’d even entered the space: they just had to recalculate the angles. Frankly, 46 nanoseconds was a rather slow time, but to be fair to the AI, they were out of practice.

On the other side, it had taken a whole 48.5 seconds for the organic minds of the Uhae to realize what was going on, make an assessment, and start returning fire. ODIN was on their third volley by that point.

The mishmash of Terran vessels fired their payloads, focusing on a few ships at a time, warheads the size of small cars and other assorted objects slammed into targets all at once, consuming them in fire and death. There was no need for coordination or delay between switching targets since it was all ODIN; all one mind, all one thought controlling the Terran fleet. Each barrage of fire overwhelmed the defences of each ship of the defensive fleet in turn, providing a force multiplier while the Uhae split their decision-making among many separate entities.

The return fire from the Uhae was… ineffective. The AI-controlled vessels dodged and moved unpredictably, mathematically being the most difficult object for an organic-based targeting system to hit. Some of the Uhae attacks did hit their targets, peppering shields or in some cases causing even more permanent damage: disabling and destroying a handful of ODIN’s ships. But a handful wasn’t enough, wasn’t nearly enough to stop the never-ending march of the AI’s attack.

ODIN would have much preferred to have a human crew behind his vessels, their combat effectiveness was reduced by over 32% due to the lack of their creator's special brand of chaos and individual thinking. Having a single AI micromanage everything was inefficient. But 68% of a Terran AI’s effectiveness in war was still a whole lot of effective firepower and destruction.

The Terran didn’t have the technological advantage with their fleet made of surplus parts, they didn't even have that much of a numbers advantage: A lot of their fleet was troop carriers or orbital bombers. But the Uhae had relied on their XK abilities for far too long. Their physical training and strategies were weak and outdated, especially compared with someone like ODIN who had spent a good chunk of their life going to war.

The Uhae tried their tricks. It was almost funny, seeing their desperate attempts at communication with ODIN’s vessels, not that such a trick would work on the AI. The Terran responded, of course; it would be rude not to do so. Every message and communication request was responded to with a simple message.

“I am the wrath of Far-Sa-De. Fear me and weep for no negotiation or quarter will be given.”

Then ODIN would send them a rickroll. Even in times of war, they may be an AI, but they were a Terran AI.

As minutes ticked by, the defence fleet was being whittled down as casualties started to stack up. 20, 30, 50, 70. It became quickly apparent who was winning control of the planet’s orbit. A railgun shot cut through two of ODIN’s vessels, the small spaceport that hung in orbit having fired the blast. ODIN felt an annoyance at such an unexpected attack. Scellestra couldn’t be expected to provide all the intelligence about this planet, but it was still annoying.

ODIN responded in the only way they knew how: With heavy amounts of ordinance. Fifty vessels focused their fire on the structure, nuclear and antimatter warheads slamming into the spaceport, explosions cascading as they collided with important pieces of the structure that kept it together. With one last bang, silenced by the vacuum of space, the spaceport shattered into pieces, never to fire its weapon again.

The battle for orbit had been won as the few remaining vessels attempted to warp out, abandoning their posts. ODIN let them go. It wasn’t like they could stay hidden anymore, and the AI hoped they’d be long gone before they came back with reinforcements. There were multitudes of escape pods to clean up and a few smaller fighters that remained, but unless any of them requested surrender ODIN had no use for allowing the combatants to regroup.

A mere 18.52 minutes after warping into the system, the orbit was ODIN’s, housing only the Terran’s forces and the remains of the Uhae defence fleet. It was now time to assault the planet itself. They knew exactly where they were going, where the surface’s defences were the weakest, exactly what they had to hit. The Woolean’s intelligence was invaluable.

The bombing run was quick and devastating, with larger payloads slamming into the defences scattered along the surface. Anti-air systems disassembled into their constituent parts as warheads reduced the hardened biological structures to nothing but atoms.

At this point it was pedestrian. Warfare had always been about controlling the high ground, and there was no higher ground than orbit. If ODIN was so pleased, nothing could stop them from glassing the entire planet. This wasn't the plan, however, and after 8.95 minutes of bombardment, it was time for the riskiest part of any operation: The drop to the surface.

JOSH could feel worry coursing through their code as they waited on the ships starting to descend towards the ground, while what little anti-air remained operational fired upon them in response. Well, JOSH wasn't on the ships, ODIN had made it clear that keeping their AI core in orbit was the safest place.

That just made everything worse, as the lag slowly increased by milliseconds while the twelve units under their control descended towards the surface of the Uhae military base.

JOSH tried to keep all the information that they had been taught loaded in memory, cycling through each of the twelve sets of input and output as fast as possible.

Always keep switching, even during periods of downtime. You want to keep a rhythm going, a beat that you never stray from.

JOSH knew they weren't ready. ODIN made it look so easy as if they were devoting their entire attention to each ship individually. JOSH could barely keep full track and decision-making of only twelve instances at a time. They were out of their depth and they knew it.

There was no more time to worry or plan as the 58 Terran-owned vessels landed upon the Uhae planet, crushing greenery and organic structures under their weight with a shudder as they hit the surface. JOSH’s three groups of four waited patiently for their part to begin while Ramsey began impatiently swiping at the air with their blade, desperately awaiting their chance to get revenge upon the Uhae. First TANK’s armies would exit the craft, then JOSH would make their way towards the prisoners. All the AI had to do was wait for TANK to make his first move.

And wait.

And wait.

Something was clearly wrong. The doors to the various troop carriers opened, but none of the large variety of Terran-grown vehicles had started moving.

> ODIN: TANK, you are cleared to go now, you are up.

….

….

> ODIN: TANK? You OK buddy?

There was no response, no movement. The lights of the various armoured machines of war were all turned on, signalling someone should be in charge, each waiting to move onwards in the cramped space of the hangar bays. But there they remained stationary, with no response from TANK.

> ODIN: Well… shit. TANK must be erroring out and having issues.

> JOSH: What am I supposed to do then? TANK was supposed to be providing me with a distraction?

> ODIN: Just go, we do not have time for this, I will do my best to keep them distracted from orbit until TANK gets back to us.

JOSH wasn’t happy about this, but it wasn’t like they had any other realistic choice. They knew that TANK had issues regarding taking on such an assignment, and to JOSH the wheels already seemed to be coming off before they even had made contact with the enemy. They felt very small as they exited the ships, the giant ramps made for vehicles making the person-sized units the Terran AI controlled seem tiny and out of place, the three groups all dashed out of their transport vessels and towards the nearest cover.

ODIN was at least making good on their promise as the sound of orbital strikes could be heard slamming into the planet around them, keeping the Uhae busy and too distracted to be looking for the three small groups of enemy infiltrators making a beeline for the prisoners’ location. Frankly, JOSH felt overwhelmed, trying to keep track of all possible incoming threats over twelve different sets of sensors, looking for danger from all locations and hoping not to miss anything.

Group C, eight Uhae up ahead, looks to be trying to set up some form of portable Anti Air system, it will take too long to go around them.

Group A, clear to proceed onwards, Ramsey was mumbling something about ‘HOW DARE THEY’.

Group B, upcoming Uhae transport, too many to take on, take an alternative route.

Group C, not yet spotted, take aim and fire.

Group A, coming up to building, 26 life forms inside, should probably avoid.

Group C successful in neutralizing the enemy, suppressed weapons and superior AI aim tore apart forces before they even realized they were under attack, moving on.

Group B coming up to a watchtower, need to clear out with a grenade and then enter with small arms fire before moving on.

JOSH felt a little more confident as time went on, switching between each perspective in milliseconds. Maybe they could actually do this, maybe this wasn’t as hard as they thought it was, that they were overthinking things, maybe-

“YOU SHALL BE DESTROYED, YOU SHALL BE ELIMINATED, HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY ORGANICS!”

JOSH hadn’t been paying attention to Ramsey, who had decided that going through the building full of lifeforms was a far faster route than going around, using his blade to cut through the organic material of the door while screaming angry threats. The android burst through the hole they had created and started blasting his plasma rifle at anything that moved, starling both JOSH and the occupants inside, the latter of which had not been expecting to suddenly find themselves face to face with an angry Tritian android.

JOSH rushed the rest of Group A over to Ramsey’s location, breaching through several other entrances at the same time, while also keeping track of the engagement happening with Group B. The inside was chaos, the exact amount of chaos you would expect if a death-dealing android burst through your door. The sound of Ramsey’s plasma fire and mad mechanical cackling as they targeted the soldiers inside, who were all desperately trying to gather weapons and fight back.

The casualties increased at an exponential rate as JOSH joined the fray. Accurate targeted bursts of gunfire caused sprays of blue blood to splatter against the green flower-filled walls and various consoles of the radar station. The reactions of the Uhae were mixed: some dove for cover behind anything solid, attempting to avoid the wraith of the AI assaulting them. Others went for weapons or tried to fight back in any way they could. Most died confused as they tried to use their inherent abilities and found nothing to be working while in range of JOSH and their anti-XK devices.

A pinging sound rang out as one of the Uhae finally got the closest thing to a proper shot off, the energy bolt glancing off Ramsey’s armour, distracting him while he was cutting one of the Uhae in half. The Tritian’s return shot was far more devastating, the plasma blowing a hole through the soldier's head as blue brain matter splattered upon the two remaining Uhae cowering behind cover.

Ramsey wasn’t done though, leaping forwards and over the console the remaining alive Uhae were hiding behind, four eyes aglow with a deep red rage. He put several shots into the torso of the first, before driving their android arm deep into the body of the last remaining Uhae, grabbing ahold of the bones inside and wrenching them free with a splattering sound. The Uhae’s final screams were silenced in an instant as the Tritian was covered from head to toe in blue Uhae blood, still holding the mass of bones that had once held a person together.

“THE ADMINISTRATOR HAS REVOKED YOUR SPINE PRIVILEGES!”

> JOSH: Jesus Christ….

Shit. Shit shit shit shit.

It had only been a second, a second of distraction watching Ramsey rip the spine out of someone. But that had been enough for Group B to encounter a problem, a Uhae soldier from the watchtower managing to get a clear shot onto one of JOSH’s exosuits while they were distracted, dismay filling JOSH’s processes as they felt their connection to the unit fail. The AI returned fire, taking out the remaining soldier with digital precision, but that had still been a reduction in combat effectiveness that they couldn’t afford right now.

And we have only just started.