Chapter 23

It only took a couple minutes for the room to switch back to business mode and soon enough even Commander White was clearly not paying attention to me as she hopped in and out of calls to the ground agents.

Seeing her end a call with a scout unit and looking at a tablet for info on the next person she needed to contact I tapped her knee as she was sitting beside me on this highly padded bench/throne. "Is there anything I can do?" I asked and before she could even respond an operator standing against the wall managed to stride over and hand me a headset.

Commander White gave the operator a glare and as I looked down a bit, I saw her putting another headset beneath the booth and I realized they were just waiting for me to ask or something...

The Commander then gave me a tablet with a keyboard to lay on the little desk in front of our bench. "Here just summarize the mission details they send you on the tablet so we can review it later. Also, the androids on the ground have been told that there will be a human running the comms for some of them and we have done a lottery on who gets to speak with you."

Before I could say anything in response. The mic crackled to life and I could only read the little prompt telling me to at least confirm the connection. "This is the command. What's your status report." I asked trying to sound professional but only silence was my response for a moment before a loud joy joy-filled squeal made me almost throw my mic off my head.

'That brings back memories of joining a Call of Duty lobbies and a squeaker making their mating calls...'

"This is unit 9B, and this was to be the regularly scheduled contact. I apologize for any inappropriate comms manners as I am heavily surprised to be speaking to you, sir." The now-named 9B spoke in a rush through the mic.

I quickly assured her it was fine and started taking down her information about the machine lifeforms congregating in the upper portions of where Florida used to be. "Excuse me, repeat what you just said?" I asked incredulously as I swore, I misheard her.

"Understood sir. I stated that Machine Lifeforms have now started to wage war against what seems to be mutated crocodiles and other large, mutated reptiles hiding within the swamps and despite them overwhelmingly holding the advantage of technology and fighting from a distance, I have seen Goliath class Machine Lifeforms be dragged into the deep swamps and not resurface."

Florida Man strikes again, I suppose...

"Affirmative. I have marked down the details you have given, but could you describe the enhanced lifeforms found within the swamp?" I asked and I wished I hadn't as what she described was obviously not natural in any way and honestly was making me think the Machine Lifeforms have started genetic manipulation or even testing whatever magic was native here on the wildlife.

"Ok, so thirty-meter-long gators weighing several tons and able to literally crush machine lifeform alloy bodies within their teeth along with powerful acid-spitting Mosquitoes and a bunch of other abominations are noted down... Ok thank you very much for your hard work 9B I would suggest bunkering down somewhere you can still do recon from a safe distance, or I personally suggest you prepare for pickup, and we can send a scout unit to take over your assignment with some stealth technology."

"Sir if you ask, I will stay here and watch them eternally if you promise to talk to me every few years..." Before I could respond, I felt Commander White tap a button on the side of my headset and I could hear her speak through the noise-cancelling headphones.

"Unit 9B you are ordered to reposition and engage any Machine Lifeforms on the East Coast to the North of your placement and when you reach DC you are to cut inland to start eliminating the Machine Patrols at these coordinates." Commander White ordered and for a moment I balked at the order for a single android to be sent on what amounted to a suicide mission where she had to clear hundreds of miles of terrain.

But 9B didn't seem to have any problems with the said order, as she cheerfully affirmed her understanding and set up a check-in, in a couple weeks to be resupplied by drop ship.

I took off my headphones after hearing the static of an empty line and looked over to Commander White as she was also taking a small break. "So is such long search and destroy missions common?" I asked keeping any of my thoughts from coloring my tone.

Commander White nodded solemnly and obviously understood a bit of my thoughts. "Yes, such missions for B models are fairly common with E models having less specified missions as they are attuned to killing high-value targets and getting out of the field whereas B units have much more efficient frames and are able to battle for a much longer amount of time even if they are about half as strong as E units.

After that short explanation, I didn't gain say their actions as I could see they were certainly doing the best they could with the mining drones they had that were constantly traveling back and forth to the nearest asteroid field but sadly the technology they had made it so even with basically infinite energy using the weird Maso energy it still didn't allow them to build large enough machines to gather vast quantities of material. Not to mention they also had to constantly worry about if they made the mining machines too advanced that the Machine Lifeforms down on the surface would take over them.

The next few calls went about the same, well minus the whole rabid Florida creatures uprising against their fetters. The reporting androids were generally extremely glad to hear from me and talk to me about their mission and even managed to throw little questions about the things I liked and anything I wanted to do back on the moon base which I tacitly dodged around and just complimented them on their good work on the mission and to come back home safely making them 'Extremely Motivated' for them to do so.

But the next call is what messed with me as the garbled voice frantically began sending data and Commander White took over and had the android stream their situation to the main monitor and I watched how completely fucked over the androids were as I could see a ridiculous sized sprawling industrial complex literally pushing through what seemed to be massive sheets of ice.

"Confirmations on Behemoth class Machine Lifeform production facility. Engaging Project Gungnir." An operator spoke and then a moment later the station started vibrating lightly and I grabbed Commander Whites's hand as for a moment I was scared the station was going to be blown up and I would have to attempt an emergency portal of darkness with no idea of how to do so.

"Calm down Jake... We are using the idea you have given us for large rods of dense metal to be launched out at orbit and with the planet being tide locked it is rather difficult to miss, thus the name." Commander White soothed me making me sigh in relaxation and White continued her explanation without even bringing out a blueprint of the machine sending the metal rods.

It thankfully wasn't a gas-powered launcher as making explosions on a space station sounds stupid as hell. No, it was a magnetic launcher and honestly looked pretty similar to the crossbow-shaped one from Doom just without the constant energy field and apparently it would send a fifty-meter-long pole made of Tungsten and some other metals weighing more than seventy-five tons hurtling towards the earth.

So, with the force of the magnetic launch combined with the energy gained with reentry, the missile would impact the planet with the force of a small atomic bomb, but obviously without any of the fallout.

The Operator called out to the android still broadcasting the video that was becoming fuzzier as we watched it. "Unite 4S evacuate the scene immediately, payload is inbound. I repeat payload is inbound."

Somehow the voice and video cleared up as obviously the pod accompanying the android somehow managed to boost the signal or get past the Machine Lifeforms signature signal jamming.

The pod looked away from the Machine Lifeform base and looked towards its android and I could only grimace as I saw the large piles of machines surrounding the obviously mangled android I could see it was missing both of its legs as well as an arm. But still, the android managed to speak through its messed up vocal cords, and as the video focused on his form, I could see the wounds on the android's chest and knew even without its legs that it was going to have to be decommissioned.

"Ugh, at least a Human is able to watch over me as I finish my final duty." His words may have been confusing for us up here at the station, but a loud rumble answered his fatalistic words were answered as a massive Goliath scooped him up, and even with the pod blasting massive lasers at the Goliath not caring about the power or damage it may be causing itself but even still, we could see the android pull out its black box from its chest.

"Permission to use Black Box Reaction to destroy enemies and stun the behemoth in the distance." The android managed to get out as the Machine Lifeform brought it up to its face.

I only absently heard the confirmation so I could only squeeze out a couple of words in response before the screen became a white light and then abruptly went black as the pod was obviously destroyed in the explosion. "Thank you for your service 4S."

I would like to think he was able to hear my words, but I could hope that was the case. "White I think I will head to my quarters for a while," I spoke still playing that scenario over in my head.

"Very well Jake. Let me finish my duties here and I shall join you shortly." I nodded and then moved onto the elevator and my way into the main hallway obviously distracted and in deep thought about the situation in the world.

Finally, I reached the room that matched the gold engravings on the key card I was given and after scanning the card I only vaguely recognized the clothes on the ground as Commander Whites and just climbed into the bed and just stared up at the dimly lit ceiling.