LF Friends, Will Travel

“Guys, I can't move.”

Ivan spoke in a confused tone as he sat on the beach, the idyllic shoreline as calm and pristine as ever. The two AI ‘sat’ at either side of him, unaware of what was going on in orbit.

“Considering the quantities and varieties of the substances you have consumed, I am not surprised.”

ODIN spoke in an unconcerned voice, teasingly making fun of Ivan's partying ways, unsuspecting of the real danger.

“I'm not joking, I can't move and I'm freaking out!“

Ivan's voice had turned from confusion to sheer panic, obvious fear and terror emanating from every syllable he spoke. That got the two AI's attention, his change in demeanour clearly marking that something was wrong.

“This is not normal. I am detecting unnatural broadcasts of energy within the 450km to 550km range.”

Scellestra could feel the change. It was everywhere, almost vibrating off their nanobots. They didn't know what was going on, but something this sudden and prevalent couldn't be good.

Movement. Ivan gave a cry of fear and surprise as the Terran got to his feet with a series of stiff movements, as if each muscle was being contracted purposefully and manually. He wasn't the only one, more commotion could be heard on the beach as tourists and employees alike found themselves moving along without their own thoughts being involved.

“I’m not doing this! ODIN help, what’s happening!”

Squawks of terror and cries of surprise filled the air as tens of other beings were dragged along the sands by their unwilling bodies. ODIN noticed something strange, however: not everyone was moving. Some Parkets flapped forwards inelegantly with their eyes filled with fear, while others were frozen in place, with no obvious rhyme or reason as to why one person had been affected over another.

Or… chosen? A pattern was immediately obvious, disproving the notion that such a thing was random: Every single non-Parket on the beach was slowly heading in the same direction, away from the shoreline, towards the small little resort town that held this area's various hotels and amenities.

“I am investigating. Hold tight, I need more information.”

ODIN's voice was as calm as they could make it, but internally the AI was terrified. A wave of fear and confusion ran through their being as in an instant they left the beach behind, transferring themselves over the planet’s Galnet network to arrive back at their ship. It was from here, they could see just how… fucked everything was.

The airwaves were filled with a strange voice. Every TV channel, and every radio signal, all returned the same burbling static. It took ODIN critical seconds to work out exactly what they were: XK-level signals. ‘Psychic’ abilities were rare in the universe, and the species that did have it all worked the same: Certain species could generate specific electrical signals through audio, visuals, or sheer proximity which connected with the signals that controlled most species' nervous systems.

But these were everywhere. Now that ODIN knew what to look for, they could see the planet practically vibrating through the power being pumped into it. Searching through CCTV cameras and various other records, the Terran AI could see the impact.

Most of the three million beings on the surface of Far-Sa-De were frozen in place, screaming in terror as they were locked down where they stood, streets and homes filled with a cacophony of fear and despair. But a few were moving, just like those on the beach, just like Ivan, like a puppet dragged along by its strings.

What was the difference between those who were moving and those who were not?

Another twenty seconds of analysing the data before an answer appeared. Those who were moving were those of importance. Non-Parket, military, leadership, diplomats, the most valuable people on the planet. Their movements all suggested a congregation at six different spots. Six spots that had…

Fuck.

ODIN could see what was approaching those locations. Ships not of Terran Alliance make. Ships that they only vaguely knew about from whispers and rumours originating from their contacts still in the military. The AI didn’t know how, or why, or even what was happening, but if those ships were what ODIN thought they were, this was bad.

The Uhae. One of the members of the Estorian Empire, a species they were at war with. There were mentions of the species having some form of psychic ability, but this was far past what should be possible. Possible or not, ODIN had to deal with it. Clearly, this was their doing. Clearly, they were under attack. Clearly, it would be up to ODIN to fix this.

It took crucial seconds for the Terran AI to get back to the beach, the 74 seconds having allowed Ivan to make some distance away from their original location, ODIN’s AI core having been carried along with Scellestra as they followed the human down the beach.

“We are under attack. The entire planet is pacified. I think the Uhae are trying to kidnap everyone important on this planet.”

ODIN spoke without announcing himself, unable to do anything as the members of the beach continued their march ever onwards.

“Thank god you’re back! You’ve got a plan right, you’ve always got a plan!”

The panic was evident and shot a dagger of pain into ODIN’s being as they realized that they didn’t have a plan, instead a vague set of ideas to implement.

“Scellestra, I need you to stop Ivan. Block him, dig a pit, whatever. Just buy me some time. I will be back, I need… I need to deal with this.”

ODIN left the pair once more, leaving behind a confused Woolean AI and a terrified Terran Human slowly marching towards an unknown location. Scellestra instantly billowed out from their densely packed form into a less obvious mass, spreading out along the beach until they reformed into a long solid metallic wall, a pulsing blockage wrapping around and containing a good twenty people who were also marching forwards.

Each of them still attempted to walk on, pressing haphazardly against Scellestra’s new form as they tried to push through, failing to make any headway against the impenetrable barrier, the power of millions of interlocking nanobots working under one mind.

Buy ODIN some time. I can do that.

—------------------

There had never been a real zombie invasion in the history of the Terrans. A few unscrupulous weapons manufacturing companies had tried to develop such a thing, but the most anyone could really manage was heightened aggression and increased pain tolerance. “Completely oblivious to danger”, “Psychotic aggression” and “being insanely durable” weren’t things that worked together in the real world.

JOSH, however, was facing the near closest thing. There had been an explosion somewhere outside, and then the crew started acting strange, freezing in place for twenty seconds, before attempting to take control of the ship. Not that this had been a major problem for the Terran AI, considering that they could just lock everything down from their administrator position.

There was a small moment of satisfaction seeing “Ramsey” being locked away inside his charging cupboard. The Tritian had gotten better, but frankly, JOSH had better things to do than deal with a genocidal roomba while the entire world was falling apart.

The screaming and begging were the worst. They could hear and see them all from their digital position, the cries of not knowing what was going on, desperately asking for JOSH’s help from the voices in their heads. It wasn’t even just on the ship. JOSH had taken a moment to attempt to call for help, only to find the entire planet under the same spell.

They were being attacked by an unknown force. The AI didn’t know who they were, but the six ships that had landed and the six more in orbit were bad news. They could only sit back in horror as they watched from various video feeds hundreds of people being dragged by their own bodies into the unknown hostile vessels, each guarded by the figures who had emerged from them.

Hideous beings: grey, slimy, flabby. Like a giant blobfish, hideous and foul, barely 3 feet tall and flailing around inelegantly with stubbly limbs. JOSH could hear some of their speech as they spoke to those entering their ships, bubbling nasally voices that spoke of the “Curse of free will”. As if these disgusting slabs of meat shoved into the vague shape of a person were the only true harbingers of choice.

JOSH also knew not all of the crew was on the ship. Many had been exploring the planet when… This had happened. The AI didn't want to think about that.

Focus on what you can change, and deal with the rest later.

JOSH didn't know who was attacking them or why, but they did know the how. XK waves had been an interesting area of study for the AI, a curiosity in the universe of what would effectively have been called magic in the past. Something at this scale had never been seen before, but it was theoretically possible if you had enough sources and some method of amplification. To stop it, you either needed to take out the source or provide your own counteracting XK waves.

The former wasn’t going to happen, the scouting vessel JOSH was in control of had very little weaponry, and going against twelve unidentified hostiles plus potentially the local Parket fleet wasn’t a winning strategy. Which left the latter. Blocking XK waves was a known science, JOSH just needed to rewire a few components…

—--------------------

Everything was going to plan. Saelihn couldn’t help but smile at how perfectly everything had been executed. The ships had landed; six were still in orbit and six were on the ground. Various members of the planet were streaming in through the entrance; those the Uhae communal mind had considered to be worth taking with them. They couldn’t enslave the entirety of Far-Sa-De’s population, simply due to the difficulty of moving that many people off-world, but that was never the goal.

The Queen of the Uhae stared down at the Parket that stood in front of her, it taking just a moment to rip the information she wanted from its pitiful mind. Estana. This one had been the first, the unlucky soul who had picked up their communications request. That meant Saelihn wanted it as their personal servant, a trophy of kinds.

“Do not worry my child. Everything is going to be fine, you have been chosen to be part of my entourage. You are to be mine, no longer burdened with your own choices. Isn’t this a glorious thing?”

Saelihn knelt down to get a closer look at the Parket, standing mere inches away from her. Estana was completely still and silent, but not of her own choice, the Uhae’s grip on her mind was absolute. The Queen could feel her thrashing around against the bindings that tightened upon every thought, frantically trying to regain control of her body, as if such a weak mind could even begin to come near her own. This was always the most fun part of new servants, that initial beginning moment when they still thought free will was important.

“Listen to me Estana. This is a good thing, there’s no breaking free, and there’s nothing that can be done. Our will is like the sun and stars, it is eternal and a fact of nature. The others here have long worked this out. Why fight against the natural order of things?”

The few Servants in Saelihn’s private quarters scurried around, the Raha Spy, the mammal with his finger still in a splint, a tripedal lizard. Each hoping to avoid her attention by being invisible and doing their job well, each long since broken.

The Uhae felt Estana relax, and an overwhelming sense of despair as the Parket stopped struggling, mentally going still as the enormity of the situation hit her. Saelihn responded by relaxing her own mental grip, smiling once more as she looked at her new servant. This one would be broken faster than most.

“See? It’s far easier to let others decide your fate, it’s-”

Saelihn was interrupted as in a brief flash of movement, Estana pecked towards her face in a vicious and rage-filled moment of defiance. The Queen immediately redoubled her control once more, but not before the Parket’s beak had left a small scratch behind. Anger filled Saelihn as she rubbed the wound, seeing a small spot of blue blood left behind on a finger.

“That is the problem, Estana, my child. You still think free will is a good thing, meaning when you are given it you make bad choices. Let me teach you.”

With the briefest of thoughts, a section of the wall uncurled, a giant purple leaf folding out at waist height with the smallest of creaking vines. Slowly the leaf filled to the brim with clean fresh water, the living basin silently being filled from an unknown source. Saelihn took a moment to let the confusion root through the Parket’s mind, before forcing Estana to take a step forwards and dunk her head through the surface.

There was a moment of silence, as seconds ticked by, and then the water began to bubble and churn as Estana struggled to hold her breath. There was a flurry of feathers and movement as the base body’s instincts to breathe fought and lost against the pure control that the Uhae had over their victims. Saelihn could feel the pure panic and terror flooding the Parket’s mind as water began to enter her lungs.

She relented for a moment, letting the bird lift her head out of the water and take a few choking breaths before once again being forced underneath. There were less than 2 litres of water in the basin, but Estana was still drowning in it, nothing stopping the Parket from lifting her head to safety, apart from her own body betraying itself.

Then, once again, she was released, a spray of water splattering along the floor as the Parket fell in a heap, coughing and spluttering as the avian tried to remove all traces of liquid from her lungs, no thoughts of defiance left at this moment: Just terror and pain.

“See, I don’t like doing this Estana, but a child must learn. You must embrace the gift we are giving you, your true everlasting purpose. I do hope your lessons are quick.”

Saelihn left the room, leaving behind the spluttering form of Estana as she made her way back to the main bridge. She took a moment to look outside the window, at the picturesque beachside town they had landed near, at the row of begging and pleading people who were being forced inside while other Uhae watched over them as the superior minds that they were. It was almost a shame they weren’t staying, this place was nice.

She entered the now familiar bridge, her three advisors still working diligently along with the thousands of other Uhae within the communal mind that had been brought along, each of them contributing and directing the control they had over the planet.

“How goes the dispensing of our gifts?

“All 32,094,508 minds are successfully integrated with our gifts. 52,811 are non-native, including 29,472 Terrans. Of the natives, another 63,118 are deemed to be of importance and are to be brought with us. The rest have been pacified until we are done.”

The third of her advisors looked up from their work and answered simply as if such numbers were commonplace and simple.

“We have identified several high-value targets, including military, diplomats and other members of government, both Terran and Parket. This will be a positive trove of information.

The first advisors spoke up after the third. Good news, since that was the entire point of this operation: to capture various members with important intel about the Terran Alliance military and other workings.

“There are two pockets of those who are stuck at their location for some reason, but we have sent ground forces to fix this.“

Finally, the second advisor added a final update to the situation. Inconsequential, but good to know nevertheless. Saelihn couldn’t help but feel joy and pride at the commune. Of course, they weren’t the bickering Raha or the ever-aggressive Hagorthians. They worked together, as one. That was their strength: one mind, one will, the only will that should exist in a universe of cursed freedom. That was why their Queen had appeared in person for this first move in the war, as a show of solidarity.

“That is glorious news, our preparations have aided us in our path. Continue as we have planned, then wipe all traces of these events from the memories of those left behind, the Terrans won’t know what happened here until it is too late to react. This is-”

Queen Saelihn’s words were interrupted by the sound of an explosion, the feeling of the shipping rocking to and fro, various sensors within the organic machinery blaring alarms as something explosive slammed into their parked vessel.

“What was that!”

—----------------

TANK was feeling very emotionally supported.

They watched as the round travelled across the sky and slammed into the parked ship, the armour-piercing ammunition doing what was written on the side of the cereal box. TANK wished they could stick around to see the full impact, but that was not on the cards, as they instead took off at high speed, breaching through the jungles as they noted the position they had fired from was hit with a return shot.

The AI aimed again, this time selecting a far larger piece of ammunition: Nuclear, aiming up into the planet’s orbit and instantly calculating the angle of fire needed to once again start causing problems for the Uhae. A direct hit that TANK didn't bother to watch, once again speeding away to not providing a target to return fire at.

TANK was a 5th-generation AI. Before the laws protecting AI creation for a certain purpose had been written. TANK had been created for one reason and one reason only: to defeat the enemy in mechanized combat, wherever that may be. This meant that TANK knew how to assault an enemy that outgunned them.

TANK burst out into the clearing, the Uhae who had been guarding the ship looking startled as the war machine broke through the treeline. They were even more startled as gunfire erupted from the turrets of the heavily modified M1 Abram Tank, turning their hideous blobby forms into hideous blobby corpses as bullets tore through their bodies. Their last thoughts were all a mixture of the same indignant concept.

“How the hell is someone still shooting at us, we have full control of the planet, this isn’t possible!”

In most cases it wouldn’t be possible, but nobody had told TANK that.

There were a great many things TANK didn’t know. They didn’t know what XK waves were, or how to stop them. They didn’t know what the Uhae were. They didn’t even know the location of Stephanie. That lack of knowledge was the most worrying for the AI, as the Terran hadn’t been near TANK when the world had turned to chaos.

TANK drove back into the jungle before the ship could dispense a response, heading towards their next target, as if they were simply a sightseeing tourist ticking off things to do from their list. They had no time to stop or pause, the return fire from the enemy informing TANK that sticking around after each volley was a bad idea.

TANK did know one thing, however. These new beings, these 12 ships and their disgusting figures that were held inside… were clearly the enemy. That simplified things, that made every other fact known and unknown superfluous information. TANK had an armoury of ammunition, and an enemy was attacking the planet. There was only one response to be given to an enemy.

Destruction.

Another round slammed into the ship in orbit. The same ship as before, this round a far heavier piece of ordinance: An antimatter round. TANK didn’t have many of those, so they had to make sure the ones they did shoot counted. This one did, as TANK could see from the vague information returned from their various sensors that their target was now descending into the atmosphere at a very fast rate…. In two different pieces.

TANK burst out onto the beach, surprising a group of Uhae who had finally left one of their ships to track the AI down. The Terran didn’t even bother firing their weaponry, there was no need to waste ammunition when feeling their bloated bodies crumpling under their treads would do just fine.

TANK continued ever onwards, racing towards their next target. Even with one of the twelve ships falling from the sky in flames, this was still a target-rich environment.