Think Tank

Levels six, five, four, three, two, and one. White, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The TRS followed a descending scheme of situational severity on the military, which concerned the Aud and humanity as a whole. The lower the level number, the worse the outlook for the future.

But humanity, the cynical, pessimistic mess three centuries of grueling conflict forced it to twist into, decided that purple wasn't enough. Purple still gave those who ordered it a faint hope, a fickle thought that all remained savable, even through great sacrifice.

But hope was dangerous. Hope made humanity stupid and…well, hopeful, especially in the times when it needed to look at the world like it was someplace they didn't belong in. Like they were intruders, and the world wanted them removed.

The proposed solution was another level on the TRS. Level zero: black. In case humanity's position on the brink never became something of glaring obviousness. Armageddon, extinction, annihilation. Whatever word settled on meaning "end" was they chose, that was all level zero promised.

And if extinction was around the corner, why not toss all reservations? Mutually assured destruction would be the best humanity could achieve by that point, so why hold anything back? Throw all the remaining Titans, WAVs, resources and secret projects, and anything else humanity held in reserve for a dreary day at the hordes.

They were at the end of their rope. Those within the chamber were still grasping at the knowledge that humanity had downsized in population yet again. Fort Io was old news, something days old. There was time to come to terms with its loss.

But Rhea? No, mere minutes would never suffice for processing something so imperative to the continuation of humanity. Though he wished for it, the assembly wasn't granted the time it needed to grieve or collect their thoughts.

The Prime Beacon dropped a second shock on those present. Even inside the Directory's walls, the topic was rarely broached in common conversation. Among doomsday believers, there was still hesitance to utter the words.

As open and forward as the war forced humanity to become, there were still some ingrained behaviors originating from civilizations long descended to the dusty annals of history. Ignorance, willful ignorance, for one, made itself quite familiar with humanity's state.

"Isn't that…something a step too far?" To everyone's intrigue, it was the Third Headman speaking out, one of the militarists. "We hardly need to announce such a state of emergency as that."

"My friend, remind me what the prerequisites for passing level zero are." He found no fault with his ally for voicing concern and reluctance. Plenty others listening were no doubt of similar mind; they needed convincing quick and without disregard for the larger picture. He issued the request since, as another headman, the Third's would have the same information he did.

"The bastion outposts, destroyed or unmanned. The Aud must have at least one available entry into the Gaiss Hollow. The Last Light must be under threat, even if this threat is theoretical at first."

"How many does our current situation fulfill?"

The Third Headman bit his lip. "All of them."

"There you are, and there it is." He raised his head again and addressed the entire chamber. "May I also remind everyone here that we still don't have confirmation on the Aud's complete capabilities? Io and Rhea are only the most recent proof of this. We should reevaluate what we know and don't know about them, but that would take time better spent preparing for the worst. I say skipping that step would save us time, lives, and prospects further down the line."

"We should discuss one thing while we're all in one room, at least," Ch-4 interjected. "How will we address the potential high intellects of the Aud?"

A relevant inquiry. "I don't do this if I can help it, but I need to mirror your format as a response: what do we already know about Aud intelligence?"

"They're intelligent enough to experiment." All heads turned to the Sixth Headman. "We know how they killed the inhabitants of every fort. First, an uncoordinated rush at Callisto and body-piling. Then they created a blockade and avoided outright attacking Clyvis, displaying both a capability to change behavior as well as retaining much greater patience than we predicted. With Io, they had to have a basic grasp of geometric and trigonometric mathematics, even as a basic foundation, else they would've missed their targeted drop zone."

The tunnel winds entered the Gaiss Hollow like air squeezed through a tube. Entering a large, unrestricted space created a large expanding force pushing everything, especially so for airborne articles. If the Aud had positioned themselves on a strict vertical axis above Io, they would've blown off their intended path of descent.

"And at Rhea, they displayed a basic understanding of subterfuge through an ambush. Though they displayed the capability to execute an ambush at Io as well, though this was a mere byproduct of the way their opening attack occurred in an instant. But with Rhea, they ensured they remained hidden from the fur scanners--through some method we still don't know--and attacked once they were all in position. Coordination and communication, to boot along with everything else."

"Sir." One of the Sixth Headman's aides entered the discussion, respectful, eyes flicking back and forth to read from a screen only she could see. "We've received the preliminary accounts from some of Rhea's surviving servicemen, and they noted the Aud didn't only tunnel below the surface level of the fort. There were also breaches within the WAV garage beneath."

The Sixth Headman waved his hands in frustration. "There's that too, then."

"Former Acting Sitesman Re-5, did you notice any abnormal behavior from the Aud for the duration of the Nyx Breaker's deployment?"

Ze-4's aide straightened her back as a headman called upon her without warning. It looked painful. She hadn't expected to answer any further inquiries while the Directory's leadership was embroiling themselves in a discussion of heavy consideration. "Abnormalities, sir? Please grant me a moment to recall."

At a nod, she turned her consciousness inward and perused through recent memories. It was hard to recognize anything as outright odd, considering everything about the Aud weren't human, and thus, abnormal to humans like them.

Her eyes widened. No, that wasn't true. Even among something as--dare she say exotic, as the Aud, a perverted normalcy, but normalcy nevertheless was discoverable with grand determination. And there was an instance where she observed something that fell outside that vague sphere of normalcy.

"During one of the skirmishes the Nyx Breaker engaged in, the hordes were suffering from the Titan's emplacements. Healthy Aud dragged their dead or injured brethren before them like meat shields to compensate."

"You don't say?" Eighth Headman leaned back in her seat and kicked her legs over the armrest. The motion almost displaced Ch-4, who was hard-pressed to remain in her position. "Isn't that an interesting little addition?"

"If this is true, they lack an empathic connection to each other. Why not drag those injured and still breathing away from the charging frontlines if they were going to pick them up at all? Re-5, did the Aud show any hesitation to trample those that fell beneath them, or were they only concerned with the Nyx Breaker?"

"That's needless consideration for something not important to the conclusion." The Prime Beacon had followed the discussion close up to that point and decided to enter himself into it to bring them back on-topic. "Is it acceptable if we assume, at minimum, they're close to the intellect of a human?"

"That would make our future tactics much more prone to failure, but a larger assumed margin for such would bring us assurance if little else would derive from it." In-3 clasped his hands. "But that is, with all our considerations laid before us, what we should accept. Better to overestimate than underestimate." The Prime Beacon blinked; he hadn't expected In-3 to agree. Not that the man lacked intelligence or adaptability, but he worked on principle to dispute everything he could that he said.

The aides scattered throughout the chamber made note of this, among the transcripts and other details they were already preoccupied with making records of. With In-3's approval, the rest of the home interest followed in his example and placed their differences with the militarists aside. The assembly was cast into a vote, which resulted in a unanimous modification to humanity's threat analysis of the Aud.

That naturally led to the next step he wanted the Directory's leadership to take. "Now, if it isn't too much trouble, the TRS?"

And when he thought he was making progress with his working relationship with In-3, the other man had to ruin those sentiments. "Hold on!" His vociferation did well to bring the collective eye of those present unto him, for him. "Before we continue, we need to make something clear." His finger jabbed forward at him like it could pierce him from a grandiose distance.

"We mustn't forget you've gone against military precedent and Directory procedure in the past. You're not fit--"

"In-3." Serving to bewilder, Ch-4 was the one to chastise him. "We are currently concerned with something far more threatening to humanity than a potential rogue element."

"But he's more than potential! A rogue--"

"In-3." Her voice and gaze hardened. "Do not make me repeat myself and leave the matter to rest for now."

"...I understand." Grinding his teeth, the Fifth Headman retired to his seat with a vein bulging across the length of his brow. With him out of the way, the Directory's leadership pushed ideas of reprimands upon the Prime Beacon from their minds. Such valuable and austere mental capacity was better used on other things.