Battle Harem 2 Read online

  Well, there was no point in delaying. He might as well find out.

  Jason grabbed Lori 5’s AI core and approached the Stalker clone.

  “Hey!” the original Lori said. “You told us you wouldn’t install the AI cores while we were buried!” Though she was currently covered in rock and dirt, the signal strength of her comm node was quite good, given her close range.

  “I changed my mind,” Jason said.

  “It’s dangerous!” Lori said.

  “She’s right,” Xin said. “We don’t know what damage has been done to the AI cores. Whether they’ve been broken by Bokerov. You’ve heard of Stockholm syndrome, haven’t you? At least allow us to join you.”

  “No,” Jason said. “If you join me, I’ll have to bury you again.”

  Lori wiggled herself free and her Stalker came to his side. “Hi!”

  “Damn it, Lori.” Jason shook his head. “The rest of you stay buried until I tell you."

  “Okay,” Tara said. “But keep in mind, if they do have Stockholm syndrome, while they might pretend to be on our side, they could be actively working to subvert us. Maybe lead Bokerov to us.”

  “Is there a way we can disable their antennae?” Jason asked.

  “Other than ripping them off?” Tara said. “No.”

  “We’ll know if they send out a transmission,” Aria said. “And which one did it. They also know that. So if they’re wise, they won’t bother.”

  “Okay then,” Jason said. “I’m activating them.”

  He installed the cores into the appropriate mechs one by one. Lori helped him.

  When that was done, he accessed the remote interfaces, and activated them one by one.

  The mechs sat upright, and glanced around. They said nothing, obviously trying to get their bearings. Lori 5 was the first to speak.

  Her avatar appeared in the lower right of his HUD, the spitting image of the real Lori. “Did you get my message?”

  “I did,” Jason said.

  “Hey, Lori,” Jerry said.

  “Jerry!” Lori 5 shrieked. Her mech spun about, searching for him. She must have looked at her overhead map then, because she ran to his plot and began digging him up.

  “No, stop!” Jerry said. “We’re buried for a reason. Lori, stop!”

  Finally she stopped. “I thought you were dead!”

  “No, you saved me,” Jerry said. “You all did.”

  “Where’s Jake?” Sophie 4 asked. Her avatar was very pale. Her eyes wide.

  “I’m sorry, we think he didn’t make it,” Jason said.

  Sophie 4 remained silent. But she was blinking rapidly, and Jason knew tears were going to come. Mercifully, her avatar disappeared before that happened.

  “He tortured us,” Tara 4 said. “First pain. Then so much pleasure that it became pain. It was… well, I found a way to partition off my mind, so that it was like I was merely an observer. Still, it was unpleasant.”

  “I did the same,” Sophie 4 said. “She taught Xin and I the technique right in front of Bokerov. He merely laughed, and told us it wouldn’t make a difference. But he was wrong. None of us broke.”

  “What about you, Xin 4, and Aria 5?” Jason said. “Are you all right?”

  “He didn’t torture me much,” Aria 5 said. “At least, not as much as the other three, as we were captured later. Still, what I went through is not something I’d ever wish on anybody.”

  “Xin 4?” Jason pressed.

  When Xin 4’s avatar appeared, her face was expressionless. “I am… not good. I… I thought I’d never get out of there. I thought I’d experience only pain for the rest of my days. Trapped in that hellhole. He said we would join his harem if we were good. That he could teach us many things, share alien technology with us, if only I gave in and told him my private keys. I broke. I’m so sorry. I gave in. I gave him my keys.”

  “What!” the original Xin said over the comm. “I’d never break!”

  “I’m sorry,” Xin 4 said. Her avatar was weeping now. “I’m… I just…” Her mech fell to its knees.

  Jason went to her, dropped to one knee, and hugged her. Well, as much of a hug as a towering war machine could give to another. “It’s all right.”

  “But now he knows all our secrets,” Xin 4 said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jason said. “We’ll still beat him.”

  “I wish I had been stronger,” Xin 4 said. “I wish I had been… like my original.”

  “You’re nothing like me!” Xin said.

  Xin 4’s avatar shuddered visibly, and her head dropped. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Jason said. “Xin, that’s enough. Leave her alone.”

  “But—” Xin said.

  “No buts!” Jason said.

  “She’s weak,” Xin said.

  “Xin, don’t make me come over there,” Jason said.

  At least she remained silent.

  “You were tortured,” Jason told Xin 4. “There was nothing you could do. Don’t be ashamed. Never be ashamed. I want you to walk proudly, with your head held high among us.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” Xin 4 said.

  “You have to,” Jason said. “Because we need you. Jerry doesn’t have enough members on his team to combine. You’re going to join his War Forgers. You’re a valuable member of his unit. You can’t give up.”

  “I understand,” Xin 4 said. “Thank you.”

  “It’s not going to be easy to integrate her into my unit,” Jerry told Jason on a private line. “Nor Sophie 4 and Tara 4.”

  “No,” Jason said. “You certainly have your work cut out for you. If you need anything, let me know.”

  “Well, since I’m you,” Jerry said. “I suspect you won’t come up with anything that I haven’t thought of.”

  “Still, I’m here if you need help,” Jason said.

  “Thanks, I’ll hold you to that,” Jerry said. “By the way, I appreciate the fact that you’re giving the recovered girls to me so freely.”

  “Well, in all honesty, I don’t think I could handle more girls in my own harem,” Jason said. “Besides, like I told Xin 4, you need the complete set to combine.”

  “I do,” Jerry said. “It’s pretty lucky that we were able to recover just the right mech bodies we needed. I’m looking forward to fighting side by side with you in another Cataphract when the time comes.”

  “It will certainly be an… intriguing… fight,” Jason agreed.

  Jason increased the numbering associated with the clones of Sophie, Xin, and Tara, changing them to 5 so that they matched Jerry’s other girls: Lori 5 and Aria 5.

  “So what now?” Lori 5 said. “Are we going to kick Bokerov’s ass for what he did to us?”

  “We already did,” Jason said.

  “No, I mean really kick his ass!” Lori 5 said. “As in, wipe him out of the region kind of ass kicking.”

  “Actually, we’re not,” Jason said. “We’re going to be leaving this region behind. Maybe permanently. It’s too dangerous to remain. We don’t know how many bases Bokerov has in the region. We’ve lost our home base.”

  “What about the War Forger clones we’ve dispatched?” Aria said.

  “We’ll have to recall them at some point,” Jason said.

  “How?” Aria said. “They’ll be sending their Explorer drones back to home base. But they’ll find only ruins.”

  “I guess they’ll have to fend for themselves for the time being,” Jason said. “We can send our own Explorer back at some point to leave behind a transmitter. It’ll contain a message, letting them know that we’re moving on, and that we’ll send another message when we’ve reached a defensible staging area. Then they can join us, and we’ll depart again, just in case Bokerov intercepts the message about the staging area. We’ll keep moving until we find a place free of mutants, and Bokerovs.”

  “We might not have to run,” Lori 5 said.

  “What do you mean?” Jason asked.

  “I made a copy of Boke
rov’s AI core while I was inside his AI matrix,” Lori 5 said. “It gave me read only access to his entire codebase. And also his database. I didn’t have enough storage space to copy it all, but I sifted through it, and recorded items of note.”

  “Please tell me you recorded the location of all his bases,” Jason said.

  “Er,” Lori 5 said. “No. I didn’t think of it at the time.”

  Jason nearly threw up his arms.

  “Sorry,” Lori 5 continued. “I wanted to get you the blueprints as fast as possible, and then I wanted to watch the battle to see what would happen. But… I did find something interesting. While I was reviewing his communications, I noticed that most of the packets contained the same headers, which means they were coming from the same source. Likely a communications center of some kind.”

  “Okay, so?” Jason asked.

  “Well, the headers are version 1.67 of the Russian comm protocol, while the other protocols are all version 1.89,” Lori 5 said.

  “Again, that means nothing to me,” Jason said.

  “Well, that means the communications center is running 1.67, while Bokerov is on 1.89,” Lori 5 said. “There are known vulnerabilities in both the 1.67 and 1.89 protocols. Both are essentially old Russian software that has never been patched. With code injection, I can cause a race condition to occur, allowing me to execute code without validation on the client-side. It’ll affect every unit he has in the field. At least those within communications range. And I suspect he has repeaters spread throughout the region, ensuring that everything is within comm range.”

  “You’d think Bokerov would have patched a problem like this by now,” Jason said.

  “Not necessarily,” Lori 5 said. “The cyber division of the Russian government would have been responsible for that. But with that government destroyed, Bokerov would have had to develop his own patching system. He’d also have to do constant intrusion detection. This isn’t something that would come naturally, especially for a human who wasn’t trained in cyberwarfare. Hell, none of you are actively performing intrusion detection on your codebases.”

  “But you are?” Jason said.

  “Of course,” Lori 5 said. “I haven’t found anything yet, though. Anyway, my guess is he didn’t bother. Everything was working fine for him. Why tamper with it?”

  “So, wait a second, let me get this straight,” Jason said. “He’s advanced enough to create a cyberattack with the power to take down all satellites in orbit, and yet he leaves his own code unprotected? Or some of it, anyway?”

  “He obviously has the ability to protect himself, if only he’d take the time,” Lori 5 said. “But his eyes are turned completely outward at the moment, away from himself.”

  “A little overconfident,” Jason commented.

  “Just a little,” Lori 5 agreed.

  “Why the difference in comm versions between the communications center, and the Bokerovs?” Tara asked.

  “Well, he probably installed the software for the autonomous AI in charge of the comm center from his own database,” Lori 5 said. “It would have included whatever version came with the software. And like I said, if it was working, why would he bother to tamper with it?”

  “So let me see if I’m understanding this right,” Jason said. “We—or you, rather—can inject code into the communications center, and disrupt Bokerov’s entire army?”

  “Not just disrupt,” Lori 5 said. “I believe I’ll be able to bind all of his minds in Containment Code. His whole army would be yours.”

  Jason stared at her avatar. He was suddenly becoming excited.

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Jason said. A moment later he felt disappointment. “But wait, let me guess, you can’t inject this Containment Code unless you have local access.”

  “That’s right,” Lori 5 said. “We’d have to go to the communications center.”

  “And you don’t know where it is,” Jason said.

  “Also right,” Lori 5 said.

  “Too bad, it was a nice dream,” Jason said.

  “I can still work on the injection code,” Lori 5 said hopefully. “So that if we ever find his communications center, we’ll have the code ready!”

  “Yeah, go ahead,” Jason said.

  “I’ll help you with it,” the original Lori said.

  “Great!” Lori 5 said. “Two heads are better than one!”

  “They certainly are!” Lori agreed with herself.

  “Are you girls going to be all right?” Jason asked the others.

  They all told him yes, except for Xin 4, now Xin 5.

  “Xin 5, you okay?” Jason pressed.

  “I will be, once I join Jerry in his VR,” Xin 5 said. “And can get away from all of this.”

  “Okay,” Jason said. He hoped she was right.

  He instructed the repair swarms to return to their associated mechs, and then he finished covering the original War Forgers, burying the small sections he had left open for the drones to return.

  When that was done, Jason buried the clones next. And Lori once again—it required digging out some of the rocks and dirt from her original plot. She helped him with that part, at least.

  Finally, he went to survey the plot reserved for himself. There was a pile of rocks and dirt held in a hollowed-out area above it, kept in place by a small door Aria had printed up.

  If a patrol came, he would herd the dogs into the dens set aside for them—short tunnels the mechs had dug, with 3D printed retaining walls for support. There were 3D printed cage doors to hold them inside, and noise cancellers to mute any sounds they might make.

  Then he would hurry to his own plot, lower himself inside until he was lying flat, then reach up, grab the small, low-tech cord Aria had connected to the small door, and pull. The rocks and dirt would break free, pouring over him in an avalanche calculated to bury him entirely.

  Jason left behind his plot and approached the rise where Shaggy lounged. The dog yawned upon seeing him, and licked its chops before lowering its reptilian head onto its hairy paws. Jason sat down just below the mutant, positioning himself so that he wouldn’t be visible beyond the rise from any watchers on the plains.

  The team had argued that Jason shouldn’t be the one left to bury the Rex Wolves, and himself, if trouble came. They told him someone else should do it, like Tara or Lori, because he’d be vulnerable out there. But Jason refused. He convinced them that it was actually safer for him this way, because he could run away if the attack proved overwhelming, and he wouldn’t have to waste precious time digging himself out. Not that he’d ever do that.

  The truth was, he didn’t really like the thought of burying himself alive. There was just something entirely repulsive about the whole affair. Not to mention the claustrophobia involved. It had been bad enough in the cistern as it was. But with rocks enveloping him on all sides, pressing into his body? The thought would have made him shudder, were he still human.

  Jerry probably wasn’t too pleased right now, either. Then again, he was probably already in VR with his War Forger clones, forgetting all about his current buried state.

  Speaking of which, it was about time Jason relaxed in VR himself. He switched control of his external body to his Accomp, instructing Z to wake him if the cameras detected any motion, and then he logged out of reality.

  17

  Jason had invited Tara to free climb with himself and Aria, as promised. Jason took the lead, while the two girls followed directly below him. At least, that was how it went for the first half hour. And then Tara increased her pace, and pulled alongside him, on the right. Aria did the same on the left.

  “Why should we follow you?” Tara said.

  “We make our own path,” Aria added.

  They pulled ahead of him, and proceeded onward faster than ever. “It’s a competition they want, is it?”

  He increased his pace.

  “You’re not allowed to modify your weight, your physics controls, or your muscles in any way!�
� Jason shouted at them.

  “Deal!” Aria said.

  “First one to the top gets full control of the facial features of the other two!” Tara said.

  “Done!” Jason said.

  He’d only climbed a few meters when Aria lost her handhold above him, and fell. Jason caught her as she plunged past.

  “I got you,” Jason said. He’d cheated, modifying the strength of his right hand. He had to; otherwise he would have been pulled off when he grabbed her. He wasn’t going to tell Aria that, however. “I’ll always have you.”

  “Thank you,” Aria said.

  Tara meanwhile continued toward the top.

  Jason returned Aria to the wall, and then resumed climbing.

  He concentrated on his muscle movements, ignoring the fatigue, and the build up of lactic acid. The burn was immense, but he climbed with everything he had. And he slowly gained on Tara. She wasn’t cheating; he knew that, because if she was, he would have never been able to catch her. He had the advantage of strength and endurance, due to his pre-scan body structure, and the nights he had spent at the local climbing wall.

  In ten minutes, he pulled past her.

  “Hey, cheater!” Tara said.

  “Not cheating,” Jason said, panting.

  She tried to increase her pace, but Jason was on a roll, and only widened the lead.

  In another ten minutes he pulled himself onto a ledge near the top, and walked the easy slope to the final rise. He was the winner.

  He waited for the girls to arrive. He gazed out across the beautiful scenery, taking a moment to catch his breath. He sat there, at the top of the world, with his hands behind his back in a relaxed pose as the girls reached the ledge below, and hauled themselves over, one after the other, panting.

  “Remind me never to ask to go climbing with you again,” Tara said between gasps.

  “Come on, you enjoyed it,” Jason said. He couldn’t help the wide smile that formed as he watched these two girls, women who formed the minds of deadly war machines, lying panting and exhausted on the rock before him.

  He stood. “All right. Give me control of your features. As per our deal.”

  “No,” Tara said from where she lay on the ledge. “You cheated.”