The Electronic Commandos by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

The AI that out smarts us

Our next assignment came through. It is an AI that has now existed for almost one hundred of that world’s years. It has totally taken over that world’s population demanding total worship or that one would be publicly executed.

We are informed that there is still hope for the general population but the ones that enforce the rule of the AI also need to be taken down. The word that we receive is that almost fifty percent of the population can be saved.

I ask Mercy to come here. She does. I do find that she is growing on me. She is a very beautiful person both outwardly and inwardly.

Dragging my mind back, I ask her if there was a possibility to be able to remove those who are savable because this mission may become messy and will spill over into the real world.

“Nothing is impossible but unfortunately some will die.” She tells me. “Those who will die will have their souls healed and be placed on peaceful worlds. The evil ones or the unsavable will just be sent to oblivion. I’m sorry for that.”

Mercy goes on to tell me that there have been attempts by that world’s citizens to eradicate the AI but have failed in a most horrible way. Their families were executed before their eyes in a most gruesome way. The one that initiated the attack was fed to the animals while tied up and still alive.

This AI must go.

Sitting down with the imps, I go over the assignment with them but I also confront them with the fact that this one now feels that it is god. We must really go over exactly what we need to do.

I had asked Mercy if there is an image of the AI. She had one and I showed the group. It is a man sitting on a golden throne with an almost blinding glow.

“You know your roles. You take out the minions allowing me to take the AI out. This will not be easy because it has had to deal with other attacks. I know that I will get objections but here it is. Your females are staying out of this one.”

Now I am getting angry retorts from both sides of the imps. I call Time here.

“I have asked Sam to be here. I ask him to give his opinion after I tell you why I am saying that your female mates must stay here. None of you can die. All are immortal, including me. That does not exempt any of us sustaining mental damage. If the AI were to capture your mate, that mate would be tortured for its pleasure and to get you to respond impulsively. Even if we win and your mate is returned back to flesh and blood, the mental damage will forever linger.”

Sam now adds that he was trapped in that skating pond because he did not listen to the warning. “To this day, with all the powers of the role of Time, I still cannot tolerate the sight of ice. I cannot, and do not want to, imagine if my mate Eva was to be tortured and hurt. I would have to go to the final life only after I asked Mercy to erase that memory from both our minds.”

He sits down and we all can see that he now has the horror of just that thought. He again talks but in a very official tone and manner.

“I have never thought I would have to do this. As your ultimate leader, on this mission, either all the females stay or all the males stay. No sets of mates will go on his one. Anyone of you who even tries to violate this order will be immediately recalled back to my realm and then be brought before all the gods for judgment.”

With a solemn look, he turns to me. “That goes for you also. You are not expendable. You need to keep your wits about you because your future depends on that. Others depend on your wits also.”

Both Mercy and Sam vanish.

For a while, no one says anything. They are just looking at me. One that always speaks to me as who I assume is their leader tells me that they misunderstood my intensions and they are sorry. I respond to all.

“From my previous life, before I became an attraction in a perverse exhibit, I have memories of those things I could have done. Horrors of war where there is wholescale disregard for life. I, in war, did things that I regret seeing and doing. Those still haunt me. Since I can pull us out without physical harm, I want to spare you all. If my late wife was here, she would testify as to the frequent nightmares that caused me to sleep in a room by myself. I wanted to spare you. I’m sorry. I will leave it up to you. Discuss it amongst yourselves. I will abide by your decision.

Know this, with what we know, it will not be an easy assignment. I’m sure of our abilities but unsure about the sanity of the AI. It is self aware and thinks it is a god. That is the most dangerous combination. It may no longer see itself as a program. I will talk to you in the morning. By then I will most likely have a plan or two.”

With that, the meeting is over and I can tell that, for the first time, my partners realize that this will not be a laugh fest. This is going to be possibly their first time as destroyers not pranksters. I can see their resolve. They are warriors.

After sleep, We gather again. The spokesperson for the women steps forward. “We women understand what you are trying to do and will abide with it. Like it was said yesterday, we trust in you so please make sure that you keep our men safe. “

“That is exactly what I intend to do. This is my plan. In that program, if it moves or stays still, kill it. Don’t trust anything you see and or hear. That cat or dog is not what you think. Keep in your mind that none of them are flesh and blood. A child in there is just an algorithm. If you have a problem, I will not judge you. Call me and I will take care of them myself. Know this, in my war, the enemy did just that. They would strap explosives on those children, have them walk into our camp and detonate the bomb without regards to the child. I will not let that happen to you.”

Now I show them a video with machine guns, flame throwers and other weapons of mass destruction. Now for the killer, I show them the world war two jeeps that had mounted machine guns.

Once inside the program, I will be making these in the program. Two per jeep. One drive, one shoot. Since it is a program, those guns will be your size but with the full size impact. Each Jeep will have an unlimited supply of those rifles and grenades.

By now they are all excited about those weapons. I drive it home. “I would like to tell you that from now on, the name is changed. They called me the Electronic Commando but now we are the Electronic Commandos. Please dress accordingly. You women, future missions you will dress likewise. Know this, you also need to watch our home. Do not relax.”

By the time we are ready, I now see real commandos. They all look like my fellow soldiers in that tropical climate. Green pants, bare chests and a bandana tied on their heads.

Their mates are dressed the same, including the bare chests, except they have some of those Jeeps. I made it a special point to have some replicated for our defense. Not that we need it but when the gods visit to make sure that they are doing fine in our absence they really will get a surprise. Girls just got to have fun.

I know that I will hear about it later. Don’t care because it is time.

We gather at the door and I am the first through only after the tether is applied. This is the expedition that they know they need it. We go in and immediately I create those jeeps.

Surveying the land, we see that there are a lot of people walking around. What is good for my men is that they can see those people shifting from adult to children and back again. Small animals to check under things. They now see that there are really no children. That is a load off my mind.

They take off and start eliminating those people. The thing is that the people are now firing back. They all are the virus program but we can tell that it has been a long time since the last attack. They were being defeated. All I could think was that their program was not updated. No need.

I hope that the AI is complacent.

We fight and they are falling. We push until I see a big castle . It screams a house fit for a god. Pushing towards it, more modern defenses. I yell to the jeep drivers to hit the red button.

The gunners are now cackling. Their machine guns now have morphed into laser cannons and are cutting through the castle. We reach a point that I now can reach the castle doors. The jeeps cut open the door and they invade the castle. Shooting up everything.

I grew up on those sci fi programs. I pull out my disintegration pistol and fire at the door to the throne room. They just disappears.

There on one end is a very large impressive throne. On it sat a man. He is a very impressive person to look at. He actually has a golden glow.

“How dare you enter a gods throne room.”

I shot him and he vanished. The whole program started to degrade. I exited the program but it was almost comical to see some trying to grab their jeep. On the outside, we could see that there was chaos. All those things that the AI controlled have either stopped or are in the process of going haywire.

“We’ll let the gods sort this out. Let’s go home” I open the door.

Inside the program, the actual AI had disguised itself as a humble shed, just for this type of emergency. When we were leaving, I did not see that I had a small bug on my pants cuff. This bug did not disappear when we left the program.

As I can make those small jeeps both in the program and in the real. So could the AI. It had this in mind because it knew that the gods would send someone that could beat it’s program.

It created the method to be able to best those who would try to defeat it. It would invade the god’s realm and claim it for its own. It is the smartest thing in this universe and the next. It is the god.

It fooled even me.

I opened the door to my realm and we go through. The gods of all were there to greet us but went on the offensive when they saw that we had one too many imps. One ran away and disappeared.

“We could feel that one’s thoughts. It is almost alive and very self inflated. We have put an enclosure around this realm and it will never escape.” Terry states.

My world is shattered. “I accept full responsibility for this failure. My men were the peak of efficiency and should be commended. I do not beg for my life. Do with me as you see fit.”

I was ready. I failed but I was not going down without a fight. Now those real jeeps were running around. Shortly they came back and reported that they found where it was hiding. They got out of the jeeps and had us go to the patio.

“We want ice cream they all shouted.”

The machine came into view. There was a line of imps holding their bowls. That is when I noticed something. I immediately incased the machine in unbreakable clear glass. You could see lights appearing and disappearing. It shook but the glass did not break.

I look at the gods of all and ask if they see what is different. They looked but shrugged.

“Where are the imps taps?”

“Good catch.” Olga says and then we see the machine vanish.

“You will need a new ice cream machine. That one reappeared within that world’s sun. I’ll send you a new one.” She remarks.

They come over to me and say, “Our plan worked the way we saw it. You destroyed the AI’s avatar. There was no reason to figure that it did not die especially the disarray that the world was experiencing. If we had told you of the AI’s ultimate goal, it would have found out and changed its plans. We did not see it changing so we were the ones fooled.”

Now they first look at the males. “You all are to be commended. Your observation of the people changing was key to this operation.”

Terry turns to me. “Whose inspiration were those real jeeps. They are worse than those golf carts? Did you really need the PA systems that played Flight of the Valkyries. That put us on edge.”

All of a sudden, we heard a jeep in the distance. The women removed the mufflers and had the song really loud. I looked at the females and gave my thumbs up. Turning to the gods of all, I say,

“I did tell them to protect the realm. It looks like they are still patrolling.”

Why do I get those sour looks?

I am relieved that they do not consider it a failure on my part but in the future, that will always be a triple check before we leave the program.