"Overdrive" - Chapter 3
"OverDrive"
(C) 2017 Sinclair Diavante
Chapter 3.
"Zoos are becoming facsimiles - or perhaps caricatures - of how animals once were in their natural habitat. If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all."
- Michael J. Fox
Grash inherently did not like the animated wolf assault soldier unit, otherwise known as the AWASU, or just ASU for short. It was the way that they smelled, it made his nerves sing with irritation, and his fur became temporarily unmanageable. He'd spoken at length about the problem with one of the design engineers, but he had insisted that scent did not play a role in the intimidation factor, that it was natural, and benign, but Grash just couldn't stand it, and his job was to work with the things, overseeing first-activation, performing systems checks, and maneuvering them over to Shipping. Their stink was unavoidable, and every day he went home all stressed out, it took 12 degrees* just to comb his fur back to rights.
He would never admit that it went much deeper, into a realm of something instinctual, which, for a Teecat, wasn't supposed to exist, so he was forced to come up with as many reasons as he could to justify his feelings.
There were other things that bothered him, like how they stared at you with their silver iris's blazing like chrome after they powered up. Their brains were tiny, partly due to the thick armor plating incorporated into their skulls, and without a handler linked up, the void-spawn things were stupid, it seemed like they didn't even know how to breathe.
Not that they really had to, the microfusion reactor in the place of where their heart should have been, it produced enough energy to rip the oxygen atoms right out of ambient water molecules, used to keep its blood supply alive and kicking, it didn't matter how poisonous the air was, or even if it was underwater, there was always enough present to survive. Waste heat from the reactor was periodically dumped out through a zero-width wormhole to a randomly designated area, basically keeping the whole universe a little warmer in the process. That area could be non-randomly assigned, such as at the center of an enemy, but it took minutes to open and all the enemy had to do was move out of the way, so that was not useful for non-stationary targets. Toxins could be dealt with in real-time, filtered, absorbed, and countered; or later, with partial or even WBR, aka Whole Biologic Replacement, on their diamond-like carbon servo frames, it was all modular.
The organic parts, externally, were unique, a detail Grash simply did not appreciate.
It made them seem too real.
Oh sure, they'd originally designed them all the same in the beginning, soldiers weren't supposed to have a unique identity. As the Assault Corp's said, if AC wanted you to have an identity, they'd issue you one.
Well, they did.
Those in the beginning that lacked them, they just didn't live for very long, a fact that remained a strange, inexplicable mystery only discovered by accident. So, unique they were, each and every one of them.
They went too far on that, though. Those idiotic engineers gave them personalities and MOODS. Unlinked, they were unpredictable, and Grash had more than once activated an ASU only to find that it didn't like him and wouldn't cooperate. If it's primary energy systems and weapons had been active, Grash would be nothing more than a pulped bloodstain on the composite walls.
Absent weapons, they still had DLC teeth, the fuckers could bite, and they were ridiculously strong and fast. Without their shields active, you could hurt them, yes, and they felt pain, sure. Sometimes that was the only way to get them to leave you alone.
On the field, in the event of complete biologic failure, they were still completely mobile, the musculature only provided minor assistance to the servomotors, and they remained very, very, lethal. If their brains weren't working, though, absent a link because of system damage, they finally dropped dead just like anything else.
For defense and offense, depending on what had been fired at them, ASU's had reactive neutron shielding, the most advanced in the galaxy, compliments of its incredible power core output versus its size. Energy demands of an NS went up exponentially with the area of the sphere, making them inefficient when used in larger applications, such as around a ship. A Teecat soldier wasn't strong enough to carry the reactor needed to power it. That made the ASU uniquely formidable, and far more agile than any wheeled or gravlev vehicle.
It was capable of deflecting any projectile travelling slower than 0.1c which massed less than five hundred kilograms. Slower velocities meant for a higher mass resistance, and vice versa. The closer the origination point, of course, the harder it was for the system to detect it in time, to get the angle it needed for deflection. A perfect sphere produced too many perpendicular attack angles from all directions at once, the hardest to deflect, so the shape was continuously altered. Photons of any coherent spectrum could be instantly reflected and aimed straight back at the source, and that included heat from infra-red. You did not want to shoot a laser at an ASU by accident. High energy beams, such as gamma and x-ray, they usually went in one side, and straight out the other, completely skipping the ASU itself.
The only truly effective way to kill one was to overload the handler controlling it, to come at him with enough simultaneous attacks from enough directions, to get a perpendicular shot through the shield. Breach the power core and it was over.
You couldn't cut them off from who they were linked with, the PPQP, aka phased paired quantum particle, it could transmit and receive enough bandwidth to control its ASU from across the galaxy, and nothing short of a nova would interfere with that. If a star had just exploded nearby, you probably wanted to run, as opposed to taking advantage of any opportunity.
The only other defense from them was when they physically couldn't get to you. An ASU could jump from a standstill, and reach about 10 meters up, which was pretty good for something only two and a half meters tall at the shoulder. If the barrier was thin enough, and there was enough room to build up sufficient velocity, their three hundred kilogram mass could get going with enough Delta-V to turn their shield into an effective low velocity bullet, moving along at about 300 meters per second. That's if they didn't just use it like a knife to carve through what was in the way. You weren't safe in the air, the NS could focus its output, releasing the neutrons instead of containing them. That made for a formidable neutron cannon with virtually unlimited ammunition, so long as there was reaction mass, it could fire at a high rate. Besides, what went up had to come down, sooner or later.
They could wait.
Maybe what bothered Grash more than anything was the fact that only one species could link to it.
Humans.
All ASU's were male, as were their human handlers, though ASU gonads were internal, the only deviation from canine physiology. They were built with reproductive organs because without them, the link didn't work. Humans had them, so what they controlled had to have them. There were other reasons, replicating nature's own hormone production and regulation, for example, was far easier as a joint effort than to throw it out completely and try to manage it artificially.
Grash did not like the fact that humans controlled these monsters for one simple reason. A pack of ASU's were one of the most feared sights in the galaxy, responsible for overtaking countless planets and empires. They were on his side.
For now.
The day would come when Teecat's regretted what they had made, Grash was sure of it. You only had to see the way an ASU and his handler interacted with each other to know, the end of the galaxy was just around the corner. Earthers weren't going to remain ignorant and isolated forever. If they got a hold of this technology, that would be it.
A gentle beep announced the automated gravlev loader as it crept it's way towards him from Storage, dutifully following a blue painted line in the center of the floor, green spinning strobes flickering off the matte-gray composite walls nearby. The lev unit whined in protest as it came up the final ramp nearest Grash's work area. In its two forked arms was an insulated blue cryo-crate, with a single ASU inside.
Today he had just the one to unpackage, wake from stasis and activate, but he somehow knew it was going to be a problem, he could feel it in his whiskers, it was going to take all day. He keyed his emergency NS shelter, making sure it was ready to activate, it was the place to go if something really went wrong. He'd only had to use it once before, but not when an ASU had gone crazy, it was during a surprise enemy bombing run, a few years back. The composite wall still showed the seam from the repairs, and without the NS, Grash would definitely not be around today.
Just the one, he stared at it calmly, breathing deep, couldn't smell anything yet, but soon, that would all change.
The maximum number of ASU's he was allowed to prep, assuming there were no complications, was three. More landed him overtime pay, but the war effort between the Alliance and the Separationists was at a temporary cease-fire, possibly at the end of its bloody 15 orbit life.
Grash highly doubted the war was over, but the politicians loved to fluff up peace time and that would make for a grave error if anyone found out they were simultaneously ramping up weapons production, so it was just Grash and the one ASU today.
Everyone in the military was an expert when it came to war, just ask any soldier or non-com. Until the battle was lost, then everyone turned to their superiors to assign the blame.
The lone outpost he was serving, designated Gamma-4D, housed five thousand troops and two dozen ASU's. Soon to be two-dozen plus one, but unofficially Grash had an inside line on channel G, that's gossip, and one was being DC'd because the handler had been caught participating smuggling arms to an independent buyer off-world.
Once an ASU took a link, that was it, they took no other, though any handler could link up with a new ASU, later, but that practice was rare. Humans were fragile, emotional creatures, they bonded too closely with ASU's, and in the event of a loss, they had mandatory downtime and psych workups performed.
Even though humans fought for Alliance objectives, they were still not considered much better than slaves, because their role as a handler for an ASU was officially denied. Most everyone knew the truth, though, so respect could be found, especially among the troops. Some preferred to pretend handlers didn't exist, others, like Grash, merely hated the fact.
Grash walked over to the crate and dialed the eight digit security code required to open it. It beeped acceptance of the code with a flashing red light, he stepped back and waited for the lock mechanism to cycle.
Water vapor shot out of a split that ran down the middle and sides, quiet hinge motors flowered the walls open until they came to rest on the worn carbiron floor. A vaguely canine shape stood within, covered in protective wrapping, which Grash sliced open with a utility gamma blade.
The shear amount of protective covering always amused him, it would make for a pile larger than the cryo-crate, somehow defying the laws of space and mass.
The first sign of fur under a subsequent layer he removed indicated the coloring of this one. Dark gray like the carbiron floor, he could see one dramatic swatch of bright red stripe curving down the front left shoulder.
Grash continued to unwrap the ASU, exposing the head, the hindquarters, the legs. Red was the only accent, but it was bold, this must be a mistake, or a joke...
Centered on his back was a large diamond, as red as blood, with curving spikes trailing down to wrap around the front and rear legs, and a similar pattern on the forehead.
It looked like a void-spawned targeting reticule, this was absolutely ridiculous!
How did this ever pass QC? Grash already knew what the human was going to name him, they had no imagination whatsoever.
Grash felt through the fur of the left leg, above the knee, and found the optical port, inserting the tip of a coiled cable from his diag console. It responded with systems readiness, slowly but surely, internal diagnostics began, and the reactor initiated safety interlock release. A dull vibration began to ensue, the sensation of which always made Grash dart a glance at his NS. If something went wrong with reactor startup, though, he'd never make it to its safety in time, and he knew that. Supposedly, they were triple checked at the factory, but mistakes can happen.
Reaction mass successfully collapsed into a cascade of fusion, the process was surprisingly silent, and Grash designated reactor overheat wormhole output to coordinates A1, the center of the uninhabited planet that the outpost was built on. A safe place to put heat that wasn't detectable by anyone.
Already the ASU was bringing up internally scanned details of the planet, it's nearby region, and it was combining it with downloaded data from satellites in orbit, secure x-net encryption keys had been successfully generated and accepted. This was looking good, it was gaining awareness and basically taking a look around.
Grash instructed the system to begin blood-warming and circulation. It accepted the request and the stasis chemicals reverted themselves into harmless byproducts.
He opened his eyes and turned his head to stare right at Grash, and he immediately noticed that this one had a peculiar intelligence behind those chrome irises, and it seemed a little... unnerving, but Grash just told himself he was being foolish, it was just the smell getting to him, the same as all the others, it always did this.
Then they narrowed and the ASU growled, it came out as a deep, menacing tone, and Grash dropped his diag console to the ground. This was a first...
"Oh, you grumpy, void-spawned beast..."
Grash only barely made it to his NS shelter in time.
*The Teecat home-world, Qurin, rotates on its axis once every 30 Earth Hours, allowing the sun to move 180 degrees through the sky, horizon-to-horizon, in about 15. Thus, a Qurin hour is commonly referred to as 12 degrees of stellar position change.