Deliver Us Huis

Petrus and I stood at the main computer, looking at the command system Petrus had set up for the Anthrolems. It seemed pretty simple, but we had yet to actually try anything. We were waiting for it to be a little darker before we sent the Anthrolems out.

We had chosen a new target building on the outer rim of the city. It was completely abandoned and simply stood as a blight to society.

We were doing everyone a favor, really.

We were figuring out the control system when O’Malley came in. He looked at the two menacing forms of the Anthrolems, then back to us.

“Are those the robots?”

“Anthrolems, O’Malley.” Petrus said, as if this was something everyone should know, though we had only learned the term, what, a week ago?

“They seem a bit,” O’Malley paused, “Over the top. Why couldn’t you two take over the world peacefully?”

I sighed “Because the current government is,,,”

O’Malley cut me off, “Horrible, I know. But couldn’t you fix it?”

Petrus stood up, “Not easily, and it would take decades. People need a new government now.”

“And you’re going to institute your reign of terror with those?”

I jumped up, “They’re not as bad as they seem. That one,” I pointed to the Class A, “Only uses lethal force when necessary, and that one,” I pointed to the Class B, and paused, “May blow up buildings, but only if necessary, and really, it’s all for the good of the people.”

O’Malley didn’t look convinced, and I didn’t blame him. I hadn’t convinced myself either. These were machines of war. Machines of pain. Machines of terror.

But sometimes you had to do what you could to make things better even if that meant making machines of war.

Right?

It made me wonder, when this was all said and done, if it would be worth it? Would I be able to rebuild the world, make it better?

I shook my doubts away. One step at a time. I would worry about ruling the world after I had taken it over.

I turned back to the screen where Petrus was viewing a schematic of things that needed to be done before we sent the Anthrolems out.

I looked outside, where already streetlights were on, people hurrying home. Soon the streets would be virtually empty. Soon we would send the Class A to scout out the building, ensuring it was safe to be blown up.

The minutes on the clock ticked closer and closer to time as I watched Petrus fiddle around with the controls. He was the more technologically minded of the two of us, so I had let him take over the controls for tonight while we were figuring things out.

He had seemed to get the grasp of the controls very easily, and kept on nodding or smiling as he explored the controls.

To me I saw a command box, and a viewing screen, and a scrolling list of suggested commands on the side, along with the button on the top labeled “One Command”.

I finally worked up the courage to ask Petrus what “One Command” meant.

He looked at me curiously, as if surprised I didn’t know, “One Command is where you type in the Anthrolem’s Objective and it lets its AI take over to accomplish the task.”

He started typing, “For example we’re going to type in the command: ‘Stealth_lifeformsscan_42256.491’ “

He turned back to me, “That will lead it to seek out the building addressed 42256.491, which is where we are destroying tonight. It will then scan the building for life forms, while trying to avoid being seen. If anything happens, or if it starts behaving in a way we do not wish we can simply type in more commands as we see fit, giving it further instruction.”

“The sun is setting, when do you think we’ll send the Class A off?”

Petrus looked out the window, “It’s dark enough now that we should be able to send it out without risking being caught. Let me just do one final command check while you go out with it to the roof.”

I nodded and then went up to the Class A where it stood ready for commands.

“Ummm… Follow me?” I tried. The Anthrolem snapped to attention and fell in line behind me, following me to the roof.

I looked down on the city, then to the north, where the Class A would soon take off, as soon as Petrus gave the command.

I stepped back, watching until the Class A’s thrusters ignited, and it flew up into the dark sky.

I went back down to where Petrus was watching the video feed from the Anthrolem’s camera.

“How’s it looking?”

“Good,” Petrus said, without lifting his eyes from the screen.

I looked over his shoulder at the camera that showed the streets down below where the Anthrolem was flying. The screen currently only held pitch black, with flashes of lights from the hovering speeders that flew around below.

“How high is it?” I asked.

“Elevation is 345 meters, well over speeder traffic.”

“ How soon will he reach the building?”

“It’s over 16 kilometers away, at its current rate ETA is in three minutes.”

I nodded, and then brought over a chair so I could comfortably watch the screen.

The world swirled away underneath the android’s viewfinder. Every now and then I caught a glance of her thrusters, glowing light blue in the darkness.

Eventually the viewpoint changed as the android landed on top of the roof of the building. It walked to the entry hatch on the roof and sliced it open. walking down some stairs she entered the first room. “No Life Forms” a message flashed across her vision. She walked to the next. “No Life Forms”

On and on we watched her walk, and I concentrated best I could in the dark building. As far as I could tell in the dim light the android provided the building looked to be on it’s last legs, ready to collapse soon itself.

Then suddenly a new message flashed across the screen, “Life Form Detected. Awaiting Instruction.”

In the dim glow of the Anthrolem I saw a crumpled figure huddled in the corner of the room.

“Who do you think it is?” I asked Petrus.

“Just some hobo.” He said. I looked over his shoulder as he typed in the command ‘Paracent’.

Before I could object a gun came in view, and a brilliant blue light flashed, showing the frightened look of a longhaired Huisic man.

‘Complete Search’

The Anthrolem moved on searching the rooms of the building.

“Petrus!” I said, infuriated.

“What?” he asked, his eyes not leaving the screen.

“Do you think maybe you should ask me before you just freeze someone like that?”

He shrugged, “Time sensitive action. We couldn’t have him running away and telling the world about it, or lots more people would flock to the spot. Our plan would be ruined.”

I furrowed my brow, “So what are we going to do about him?”

“We’ll have the Anthrolem pick him up on the way out, place our little friend hobo joe in an alley somewhere. By the time the Paracent wears off of him the whole building will already have exploded. No harm done.”

“I guess,”

I still was miffed at Petrus for not asking me about the actions, but I guess it was right. I was just being too controlling of the Anthrolems.

But still. It would be nice if he had asked.

We watched the Anthrolem make it’s final sweep and then a message flashed across the screen.

‘Scan Complete’

Petrus typed in the command ‘Find Life Form’

The Anthrolem’s screen flickered as it raced back up the stairs, and grabbed the figure, still frozen with a scared look on his face.

“Alright,” Petrus said, typing in a destination for the Anthrolem to place his frozen passenger.

The Anthrolem sped out of the building carrying the hobo. Petrus brought up another screen, “Time for the Class B to do it’s job, Will you lead it up to the roof Tel?”

“Why don’t you do it this time?”

“But you don’t know what to do at the controls.”

He was right, reluctantly I turned and led the huge Class B up the stairs to the roof.

It was slightly unnerving to be followed by such a large metal robot. I couldn’t help worry that it might malfunction, what if Petrus typed in the wrong command, and the animal pounced on me, shredding me to pieces with his gigantic teeth?

I got off the roof in the hurry, back down to Petrus. The Class B’s Targeting screen flickered to life, awaiting instruction.

‘42256.491 Destroy’ Petrus typed, and then pressed enter.

The Class B’s screen flickered, and the started zooming in, closer and closer until it hit the old building. Then we saw a slight flicker as the projectile was launched.

Petrus and I watched, breathless through the Class B’s viewfinder as it watched the building. Suddenly we saw the speeding projectile, it hit the building, and the whole thing splintered and cracked, exploding from the inside out.

‘Keep focus’ Petrus commanded, and we watched the place where the building had been.

People came rushing out of the surrounding buildings, and surveyed the damage. Eventually we saw the Planet Guards Speeders come up to the scene, and start sifting through the rubble, forcing the crowd back.

Then a news van pulled up, immediately starting to record the damage.

‘Return to original position’ Petrus typed

The Class B’s focus shuddered back to the roof and moments later the beast came inside.

I let out a slow long breath, “We did it.”

Petrus nodded, “The news should be all over the explosion, figuring out who did it, what happened, perfect time for us to strike again. We’re going to need a lot more resources to make the army.”

Do you think there’s any way they will figure out it’s us?” I asked.

Petrus shook his head, “The smart missile was so quiet, not even the Class B’s sensitive recording mechanism picked up on it. No one will have heard it. Even if the Planet Guard do find it, there is no way to track it back to us.”

“Well then,” I said, “I guess the first part of our plan has gone off pretty smoothly. I’m starting to think this whole thing might work after all.”

“You forget,” Petrus smiled, “I’m helping you, what could possibly go wrong?”

“True,” I said, “I couldn’t have controlled the Anthrolems today without you, but I want to learn how to best handle them as quickly as possible, so as to free you up for the other many things we’re going to need to be done.”

“Sure,” Petrus said, turning back to the screen, “I’ll teach you sometime.”

I would have prefered a definite answer, but since none was forthcoming, I guessed I had to be content. After all, he had said he would teach me, and there was no reason to doubt that he would, in his own time.