The Containment Wars and the Creation of the Sanctuaries (Part II)

 

War between Man and ANAD came again in the year 2099, not long after the Truce of Alexandria had been signed.  In some respects, perhaps, it was even more inevitable than the earlier conflict. Today, this larger conflict is known as the Second Containment War.

 

United Nations Quantum Corps “Official History of The Containment Wars: The Second Containment War (2099 to 2100); CH 10 Operation Eden Sweep.”

(from “The Archives of the United Nations Quantum Corps”)

 

General Strategy

Analysis of intelligence sources from Q2 indicated that the Truce of Alexandria, brokered at the end of the 1^st Containment War (March 2098) was destined to last for only a limited time.  The Truce created the Sanctuaries.  A key element of this Truce was that Config Zero and the swarms would confine themselves to defined areas and within those areas, they would have sovereignty and be able to make whatever environmental modifications they wanted.  These were the Sanctuaries and Q2 sources indicated that such arrangements were a key part of the Prime Key, the command and control system which drove Config Zero and all swarm operations on Earth.

Later intercepts and intelligence indicated that the Keeper system, ultimately determined to be located on the Jovian moon Europa, began operating around the time of the Truce of Alexandria.  Analysis of quantum signals showed conclusively that, by late 2099 and early 2100, signals from the Keeper had altered the stable and quiescent state of Config Zero, re-animated the swarms and swarm movements out of the agreed-upon Sanctuaries began at this time.

Operation Jovian Hammer was conceived to locate and either destroy or render harmless this Keeper system.  Results of the operation were inconclusive (see Operation Jovian Hammer: Mission Details and History, Volume 10, Section 22 of the Official History of the Containment Wars).

By January 2100, the United Nations Security Affairs Commissioner (UNSAC) and UNIFORCE determined that more drastic measures were necessary to stop and roll back increasing violations of the Sanctuary agreements.  Direct engagement with elements of Quantum Corps, Sanctuary Patrol and regular military formations had been mostly ineffective.  Swarm formations under the direct command of Config Zero pushed outward from established Sanctuaries in all directions, leading to battles at Cairo, up and down the Italian peninsula and throughout the Balkans.  Additional engagements occurred in the Kenya-Somalia sector and on northwest islands of the Indonesian archipelago (see Caroline Islands Campaign, Dec 2099 through March 2100).

Thus was born the concept for Operation Eden Sweep.

The principle behind Operation Eden Sweep was as old as organized warfare itself and was perhaps most famously used by the Greek army in their conflicts with Troy, as recounted in Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid, notably culminating in a strategic deception campaign which history records as the story of the Trojan Horse.

As direct confrontation of UNIFORCE nanobotic swarm elements against Config Zero forces had been mostly ineffective, a new strategy was developed for Eden Sweep.

This strategy made use of a growing social-political philosophy known as Assimilationism (see Assimilationism and Related Politico-Cultural Developments 2080 to 2100, UNESCO Briefings and Letters, Volume IV).  Adherents of Assimilationism believed that humans and machines were destined to merge together and become symbiotic lifeforms; nanobotic devices and swarm formations, especially in their later evolutions, were seen as the means for achieving this symbiosis. 

Operation Eden Sweep put out a public call for volunteers to undergo assimilation, in which their physical bodies would be deconstructed and re-patterned into swarm formations compatible with ANAD-style systems, specifically with Config Zero swarms.  A truce had previously been proposed to Config Zero in which assimilation volunteers would be made available for incorporation into the greater swarm.  This was seen to be a concession to one of the key elements of the Prime Key and Config Zero agreed to halt swarm movements in order for this process to be organized and initiated.

However, as the Greeks did with their Trojan Horse, UNIFORCE had arranged to insert a specific assault configuration into the decomposed pattern of each volunteer.  Once the volunteers had assumed a re-patterned swarm-compatible configuration, the assault configuration would be triggered. 

The operational plan was for the ‘infected’ but decomposed volunteers to attack Config Zero swarms from inside the swarm, overcoming normal swarm defenses and tactics from within the swarms’ defensive perimeter.

One controversy developed late in planning of Eden Sweep, when engineers critical of the assimilation process and philosophy argued in classified briefings that the technology to retrieve assimilated humans and re-configure their patterns into functional human beings was very much in its earliest stages…there was limited assurance that the volunteers could ever be successfully retrieved.  However, the demands of the war effort and the desperate tactical situation on the ground in the European and African theaters were such that the Secretary-General waived all consent requirements and allowed the operation to proceed as planned. 

 

The Fronts

There were three primary theaters of operation during the Second Containment War: Europe/Mediterranean Basin, East Africa and the SW Pacific.

The operational center of Config Zero’s swarm activity was determined by Quantum Corps Intelligence (Q2) to be near the original archaeological dig site at Engebbe, Kenya, later inside the mountain complex at Mt. Kipwezi.  Consequently, swarm operations and engagements in east Africa and around the perimeter of the original east Africa sanctuary boundaries were the most intense of the War.   Almost all swarm movements throughout the European and African theaters originated from this location. 

After the Battle of the Nile Valley and Cairo, in August 2099, swarm operations began expanding throughout the eastern and central Mediterranean basin, into Greece and the Balkan Peninsula, then into Italy and southeastern France and Switzerland. 

The Euro-African front saw the most intense engagements of the entire War.

An additional theater of operations developed in the western Pacific, around the perimeter of the Pacific Sanctuary.  Early engagements in the Caroline Islands and the Solomon Island chain centered on containing swarm expansion at Fiji and Vanuatu, leading to the 1^st and 2^nd Battles of Espiritu Santo in November and December of 2099.  These engagements blocked the westward advance of the swarms and prevented swarm penetration into the Indonesian archipelago and Australia.  A stalemate developed along this line and many of the remaining Pacific engagements were holding actions and skirmishes between Quantum Corps/Sanctuary Patrol forces and the swarms along this line of advance. 

No further advances by Config Zero were made into east or southeast Asia as of the time this History was compiled.

 

Key Engagements

The northernmost point of advance of the swarms in Europe occurred at and around the time of the Battle of Thuns-les-Bains, a small French city in southeast France, in the French Alps. 

Battle-tested elements of Sanctuary Patrol Central Mediterranean Division engaged swarms inside the town and in the countryside around the town.  By this time in the War, Config Zero swarms had mastered the arts of deception and camouflage, and were able to assume configurations resembling buildings and Normals in the area.   SP forces found engaging the swarms with any kind of tactical advantage extremely difficult.  Some units prosecuted a scorched-earth type of assault, essentially destroying everything that could be used by the swarms as concealment.  This tactic was controversial and eventually led to Sanctuary Patrol rules of engagement which reduced instances of friendly fire and whole-scale destruction of infrastructure. 

However, the tactics were successful in blunting the northward advance of the swarms and were employed in modified form throughout the remainder of the War.

A second key engagement in the Euro-African theater was the Battle of Cairo, July 12-14, 2099.  This battle was a series of engagements up and down the lower Nile Valley in and around Cairo, culminating in the Battle of the Moqattam Hills (Citadel).  Elements of Quantum Corps 1^st Nanospace Battalion, along with units of Sanctuary Patrol, 2^nd Mediterranean Battalion, out of Cyprus and First Egyptian Corps out of Cairo, engaged swarm formations along the banks of the Nile River south of Cairo.  The battles raged for several days and ultimately converged on the Citadel complex in the Moqattam Hills east of Cairo, where intense street-by-street combat combined with flanking maneuvers from UNIFORCE and quick configuration changes by Quantum Corps engineers enabled defense forces to hold off a determined thrust by the swarms and push them back from central Cairo.

These engagements are thought by military historians to have been important reasons for the a tactical re-direction by Config Zero swarm forces away from Sinai and the Levant sectors, toward the central Mediterranean and the Balkan and Italian peninsulas. 

 

C-99 and the Turning Point

Unquestionably, the development and employment of the C-99 assault configuration coincident with use of Assimilationist volunteers, during a brief period of truce with Config Zero, to set up a sabotage operation inside the swarms’ command and control system, was the turning point of the 2^nd Containment War. 

The C-99 configuration was a special design from Quantum Corps at Table Top Mountain, Idaho, USA.  The nanobotic design was formulated to resemble the swarmbots of Config Zero has closely as possible, and to mimic their tactics and operations as well.  The central tactic of Operation Eden Sweep was to gain time from Config Zero by using Assimilationist volunteers to embed multiple copies of C-99 inside the enemy swarms and use the position of these C-99 ‘carriers’ to assault enemy swarms from within.

At the same time as the C-99 assault began, Quantum Corps and Sanctuary Patrol, with associated UNIFORCE units, were to begin a coordinated assault, ignoring any truce agreements that had been made, to push Config Zero swarms back toward their original sanctuaries.

It was considered a high-risk operation, with plenty of variables that could not be accounted for or planned for.  The operation was approved by CINCQUANT, LT GEN Jurgen Kraft and by UNSAC himself, a bold tactical move reminiscent of General Douglas MacArthur’s daring amphibious landing at In’chon in September 1951, which turned the tide of the Korean War in its earliest weeks.

The operation was set to be initiated at H-Hour, 0000 hours, 2 June, 2100. 

The nanobotic configuration C-99 not only closely resembled Config Zero swarmbots in general shape and function, with similar effector arrays and propulsors, the configuration also was designed with platform fold lines and planes, and multi-qubit quantum processors to enable the bots to change configuration with unprecedented  speed and accuracy.  This attribute would prove crucial in the earliest minutes and hours of the initial assault.

At H-Hour, command of the operation was handled by a special command and control element embedded with CINCQUANT in the Haven One undersea command post beneath the Atlantic.   Using quantum couplers with enhanced entanglers and specially designed encryption filters, Haven One was able to synchronize all C-99 carriers to within less than 6 microseconds.   GO codes were transmitted at H-Hour and C-99 carriers, by now all disassembled elements of the original Assimilationist volunteers, executed the configuration change in unison.

Drone, nanobotic and satellite reconnaissance indicated that the initial configuration change of C-99 into its designed assault state and the start of grappling and bond-breaking assault operations caught Config Zero by complete surprise.  Swarm defenses were sluggish and poorly coordinated, especially when exterior HERF barrages were brought to bear along almost every front in southern Europe and the Mediterranean.  Along the south Pacific and the Amazon sanctuary boundaries, similar results were observed.

In less than two hours, measurable reductions in enemy swarm activity along the front could be observed.  Config Zero, for the first time in nearly 8 months, was in general and chaotic retreat from its forward, most exposed positions. 

 

The End of the War

Operation Eden Sweep, in its primary assault phase, synchronized C-99 engagements with HERF and magpulse weapons barrages and ANAD assaults from UNIFORCE elements located all along the Euro-African, Pacific and Amazonian fronts.  This phase lasted about 3 days.  In this 70-hour time period, Config Zero swarms were destroyed in detail or rendered inert throughout the sectors of south France, Italy, the Balkan peninsula and much of the Levant, Egypt and north Africa.

The C-99 configuration, loaded aboard basic ANAD nanobots with enhanced replication ability, was particularly effective against Config Zero swarms.  Time and again, across multiple fronts in all theaters, UNIFORCE bot swarms were able to engage the enemy from within his own swarms at the same time as external barrages were initiated along the swarm perimeter.  This combination frequently overwhelmed Config Zero’s ability to replicate fast enough with enough swarm mass to keep UNIFORCE elements from advancing.

By 5 June, 2100, at 1745 hours UCT, UNIFORCE Command in the eastern Mediterranean sector detected multiple quantum-entangled signals on many channels from Config Zero.  Confirmation of the transmission came several hours later from Farside Station, at Korelev Crater on the Moon.   Q2 determined that these signals were transmitting from a location inside the east Africa sanctuary and were directed outward, off-Earth, in the general direction of M75 in the constellation Sagittarius.  Detected signals were of an entangled state, encrypted so strongly, that Q2 has not yet been able to decipher their content.  However, Intelligence analysts believe that the signals constitute an urgent request for assistance from the mother swarm thought to be transiting that sector of the galaxy. 

In other words, Config Zero was calling home, and calling for help.

Additional transmissions were detected on at least four other occasions over the next twenty-four-hour period.  Coincident with these transmissions, Config Zero swarms began a general retreat on all fronts, across the globe, pulling back to more concentrated positions roughly equivalent to the original sanctuaries specified in the Alexandria accords.  UNIFORCE, after some initial assessment of the enemy’s intent, continued to engage Config Zero in southern Europe and northern Africa, but operations became increasingly more sporadic and C-99 assaults were eventually suspended on orders from UNSAC, at 1030 hours, 6 June 2100. 

In the days following this suspension, only isolated engagements between outlying elements of Config Zero swarms and UNIFORCE elements have occurred, primarily to consolidate positions in North Africa and along and south of the Solomon Islands in the SW Pacific. 

By 9 June, 2100, a de facto truce had fallen over the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific.  No additional movements of Config Zero swarms have been observed in any sector.  Indeed, swarm activity has returned to a nearly quiescent state, devoted mainly to maintenance replication only.  No attempt has been made to penetrate these sanctuaries with reconnaissance or special forces units, although plans to do so were offered at several after-action briefings held at Haven One.  Drone and bot recon patrols continue along all sanctuary perimeters, but Config Zero has offered no reaction or response.

The quiescent mode continues.

At 0000 hours, on 12 June, 2100, tactical operational control of Operation Eden Sweep was shifted from Haven One, back to UNIFORCE Headquarters at the Quartier-General in Paris, which had sustained moderate damage in several swarm offensives in and around Paris.  Flag command was transferred and both UNSAC and CINCQUANT resumed full operations at Paris the following day….

The Second Containment War resulted in a decisive victory for the Normals against Config Zero and its allied swarms.  But no one really thought the swarms would lie dormant for long.  UNIFORCE understood that until the day that the Prime Key could be deciphered and blocked or defeated, future conflict was inevitable.  Surveillance and reconnaissance continues to this day.  

 

 

Look for the next post in the first half of October 2015, where we will begin a detailed look at some of the major bases and facilities used by Quantum Corps, starting with the history, layout and mission of the most famous base of all: Table Top Mountain, located in Idaho, USA.

See you in October.

 

All of the backstory of Tales of the Quantum Corps is part of a greater universe of which these books are a part.  Some of you have asked if more books in this series are coming and the answer is yes!   I’ve got a new ebook coming out at the end of September, 2015.  It’s called Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary.  Here’s an advance excerpt from the book, which will be available at ebook retailers everywhere on September 26, 2015:

 

Prologue

 

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.  Then the victory is yours.  It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

Buddha

 

 

Europa

September 1, 2120

 

On Europa, there is only ice…to the naked eye.  Ice cliffs and ice valleys.  Ice ravines and ice canyons.  Ice bergs, buttes, badlands.  Ice continents.  Above the ice is the vacuum of space.  Below the ice is a vast ocean, black as night.  Normally, the two don’t mix.

In the late summer of 2120, as people on Earth reckon time, a small channel of sluggish, slightly warmer ice surged upward through the badlands of Conamara Chaos, embedded in a  column known to geologists as a diapir, and burst through the surface crust.  A geyser erupted into space, not in itself an unusual occurrence on Europa.  However, this geyser extended over several square kilometers, flinging tons of ice and steam into the heavens. 

This geyser caught the attention of observers on Earth and at Korolev Crater’s Farside Observatory, on the Moon. 

After the Jovian Hammer mission some years before, an orbiting detection network had been put into place around Europa.  Known as Europa-Eye, it was designed to provide intelligence on what the Keeper, still thought to be buried in the Europan sea, was doing.  The network contained numerous instruments: visual cameras, mass spectrometers, neutron flux devices, radiometers. 

On the first day of September, Europa-Eye detected evidence of some kind of vast swarm movement under the ice.  Increased thermals, spikes in electromagnetic activity, even acoustic signals well above baseline were detected and processed through SpaceGuard Center at Farside. 

There was no consensus on what the signals meant, just a growing suspicion that the Keeper, a colossal swarm of nanobotic devices, seemed to be stirring after more than a decade of quiescence.  Analysts at SpaceGuard Center, vidconferencing with their colleagues at the UNISPACE Watch Command Center in Paris, concurred that something was happening on the surface of Europa, something different, something unexpected. 

Visual analysis from Europa-Eye was inconclusive.  But it was plain to see from the imagery streaming back from Jupiter’s huge satellite, that a newly formed geyser had just erupted on the surface.  After some discussion, UNISPACE analysts finally decided to log the event as an icequake, a shifting of ice plates and ice continents, that had opened up a channel to pressurized water beneath.  That water, rising through the newly formed channel from the Europan ocean, was now sublimating into space, in a series of spectacular geysers.  The phenomenon seemed to be mainly centered along a series of ice grooves, known as linea, starting in the Conamara Chaos and ending at the southern end of Radamanthys Linea, longitude 192 degrees, latitude 12 degrees north.

Or so they thought.  The report issued to CINCSPACE made the conclusion that the geyser field was nothing more than an unusual series of ice plates shifting about, despite growing evidence of massive swarm movements in the ocean below.  Europa-Eye would continue to observe and record the event, providing thesis material for astronomers and geologists and glaciologists for years to come.  Farside and UNISPACE would continue to monitor the activity that had roiled the surface of Europa. 

But the report was firm in its principal conclusion:  natural forces were responsible for a series of new ice geysers erupting on the surface of Europa.  It was more violent and spectacular than before, but nothing the investigators hadn’t seen before on countless worlds, even on Europa itself.

What Europa-Eye could not see, however, was what was actually embedded in the main geyser, hidden from view, obscured by the violence of tons of ice sublimating into space every second.   The Keeper swarm itself, once a target of Quantum Corps investigation from close range during the Golden Horde case, was no longer submerged in Europa’s ocean of night.  Instead, the Keeper had bored through more than thirty kilometers of ice and arisen to the surface of the satellite.  Now residing in a steep ice ravine, surrounded by towering ice cliffs, hidden by geysering spouts of water, the vast swarm boiled away like a festering sore, slamming atoms to maintain itself and expand in the maelstrom of erupting ice and water.

As it settled onto the icy surface, the Keeper had begun to bud off trillions of replicant bots from its main structure.  The Keeper was shedding parts of itself.

These bots sloughed off and drifted upward, some riding on droplets of water, particles of ice sublimating into the vacuum.  Most of the bots managed to achieve escape velocity through infinitesimal nano-scale thrusters, using the available water as propellant.  Orienting themselves toward the Sun, the swelling swarm of nanobots soon entered a steep, elliptical heliocentric orbit, an orbit which would intersect the orbit of Earth in less than six months.

Disguised by the geysers, the swarm escaped Europa and the Jupiter system completely.  They now drifted sunward…and Earthward.

 

Chapter 1

 

Haleyville, Idaho USA

December 23, 2120

8:30 p.m.

 

Johnny Winger spotted Liam just as he came off the jetway.  Boise Airport was busy two days before Christmas, as busy as the terminal ever became.  Winger spied his son straight away, lugging a shoulder bag. 

He’s taller than I remember, Winger thought.  He waved and Liam came over.  They shook hands and, after a moment’s hesitation, hugged briefly.

“Professor,” he smiled at the boy, “so glad you could make it.”

Liam Winger had become a newly minted professor of computational neuroscience at Cambridge University in the last year.  Winger and Dana Tallant were as proud as parents could be.

“Dad…please.  It’s just me.”

“Let’s get the rest of your bags.  Come on…your mom’s got a special dinner waiting for you.”

They retrieved the rest of Liam’s luggage and headed out, toward Haleyville, a two hour drive northeast, from Boise.  Highway 21 was moderately busy, but Winger let auto-drive do the job and sat back to regard his son with a mixture of pride and curiosity.

He watched as the snow-capped peaks of the Sawtooth Range drew closer.  Somewhere up there, past the front range, was Table Top Mountain and a lifetime of Quantum Corps memories.  “The Brits are treating you well?” 

Liam seemed lost in thought.  “I’m up for tenure, Dad.  You knew that.  Committee’s supposed to make a decision in February.”

“You have a big teaching load?  The kids driving you nuts yet?”  Winger chuckled at that; Liam was in his mid-twenties, still a kid himself to he and Dana. 

“Not so bad.  I teach two classes this Winter semester, both fourth level: Neurosynch 310 and a Special Projects course.  I’m spending a lot more time in the lab now…which I like.”

“I’ll bet.  I read your paper from the Geneva conference.  ‘ANAD Applications in Cortical Cognitive Enhancements’,” he recited from memory.  “Seems like it was well received…what I understood of it.”

Liam shrugged, but he was secretly proud.  “The Q&A went on so long, the Conference referees had to turn out the lights, it’s true.”

They were quiet for awhile.  It was Monday afternoon, snowing lightly, and Johnny Winger was looking forward to the special dinner Dana had promised.  Christmas eve was tomorrow night.  Having Liam home for the holidays was the best present they could ever have gotten.

“How about you, Dad?  Still itching to get back into the field…fight those bots and slam some atoms?”

Winger snorted.  He‘d been retired for several years now.  “Maybe.  Hey, I stay busy.  The Corps calls me in for consultations on things.  I’ve still got my clearances.”  He refused to admit the truth, even to Liam, perhaps even to himself, though it surfaced often enough, usually when he least expected it.  He did miss atom-grabbing, chewing the fat with Quantum Corps troopers, hot-rodding ANAD bots into and out of every crack in the universe of atoms and molecules.  “I have a lot going on.”

“Yeah,” Liam chuckled softly, “we both know just how much you love that gardening.”

The car’s autodrive led them unerringly to the Winger household, nestled in the brow of a low wooded hill, just outside Haleyville.  It was a two-story ranch house, surrounded by over a hundred acres of pasture and woodland.  There was a barn nearby, silver with age, where Winger kept a quartet of Arabians.  Snow was everywhere and more was falling,  but Liam and Johnny Winger bantered and lied to each other good-naturedly, swapping jokes as they hustled Liam’s luggage inside, dropping the bags off the with the housebot. 

Dana Tallant came out from the kitchen.  She gave Liam a light hug and clucked and fussed over her son…how are you feeling?…are you eating enough?…you look a little thin to me…why do you wear your hair that way?…it’s so good to have you home…why don’t you come home more often?....

Pleasantries aside, Liam worked with the housebots to get his luggage to an upstairs bedroom.  Truth was, he felt a little uneasy about being home; he hadn’t kept in regular communication with his parents and he didn’t really want to.  He’d had enough of the Corps growing up with his sister Rene and his Dad and Mom never home.  With Johnny Winger and Dana Tallant both giving their lives to the Corps, and slamming atoms halfway around the world and the other side of the solar system, Liam had left for college and never looked back.  Now a professor at Cambridge, he just wanted to live his own life and forget the Corps.

Hell, he’d spent more time with Howie the housebot than he had with either General John Winger or Trooper Dana Tallant.  Living in the shadow of the Corps and having a normal family life were oil and water…they didn’t mix well and if they did mix, it didn’t taste right.

Liam was finishing up stowing his gear when he heard a soft knock at the door.  His Dad nudged the door open, bearing a couple of beers.

“Her Majesty wants us down for snacks and drinks in half an hour.  I thought you might like a starter.”

Liam took the beer and chugged down a deep pull.  He winced at the taste.  “Sorry, Dad…I’ve gone native…you know, stout and that sort of thing.  Too much time in the pubs, I guess.”

Winger sat down on an old footlocker in the corner, rubbing his chin with the cold lip of the bottle.  “Your mother and I are both glad you could make it this year, Liam.  How long’s it  been—“

Liam shrugged, propping himself up in the bed with some pillows.  “I’m  not sure…hey, you know Howie would cut off my legs if I did this, a long time ago.  No feet with shoes on the bed, Master Liam.  House rules.  And no drinking in bed…”

“Yeah, but bots are different now.  Take Curly there—“ he indicated the housebot whirring softly at the door, an expectant ‘smile’ on its animatronic face—“now Curly’s got the latest modules…Empathy 2.0, a neat little forgiveness utility you can select settings for, neural processor…right up your alley, son.  Curly enforces house rules, but with a grandmother’s touch…a little candy along with the stick.  You’d have loved it.”

Liam had to laugh.  “I probably did some of the programming, if it’s a Servodyne product.  The Lab consulted on their earliest models.”

Winger’s smile slowly faded.  “Liam, I came by to give you a little heads-up…about your mother.  Before dinner, I mean.”

“What kind of heads-up?  What’s wrong?”

Winger sort of half-shrugged.  He downed the rest of his beer.  “She’s changed.  In the last few months, maybe longer, I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but she’s seems a little distant.  Maybe the last few years, actually.”

“Changed.  How?”

“Little things, really.  She seems more distant.  When we’re in the family room, I’m watching some vid and she’s creating something on her tablet…she’s loves that tablet…I’ll see her staring off into space.  You know your mother always was a chatterbox…but now, she seems—I don’t know—lost, far away, her mind a million light-years away.  When I try to talk to her, I get just these real bland, almost canned answers…like you’d hear from Curly over there.  Actually, I get more feeling from Curly than I do from her.”

Liam shook his head.  “She hugged me downstairs like she was going to crush me.”

“Oh, she does things like that…on special occasions.  But most of the time…there’s no real feeling.  It’s like she’s running on auto, just input and output.  And her skin feels funny.  Maybe we’re getting old, but we’ve both had all the treatments.  She’s got the same cytes and bots inside as me.  But something’s not quite right.”  Winger smiled a little sheepishly.  “Plus the sex is gone too.  I miss that.”

Liam held up a hand.  “Okay, I get the picture, Dad.  I don’t need to know more.  Maybe some bots are malfunctioning.  She felt okay when we hugged.”

Winger debated saying more, his face a battlefield of conflicting thoughts, then he set his lips and made up his mind.  “Liam, I don’t know quite know how to say this, but I think you’re mother ‘s an angel.”

Liam blinked.  “I’m sorry, Dad…what did you say?  Mom’s an angel?”

Winger gave his empty bottle to Curly, who trundled off to dispose of it.  Now they were alone.

“I don’t have to tell you how good angels are now.  I mean, I can walk into the bar at the Custer Inn now and look around and know that half the people there are clouds of bots, and the hell of it is I can’t tell.  Nobody can.  And I’m not sure how much any of them care either.  I mean they’re all over.”

Liam swallowed hard.  “Dad, this is nuts.  This is insane.”  He looked at his bottle.  “What the hell is in this stuff anyway?”

“I’m serious.  Go down to the kitchen right now, if you don’t believe me.  Grab hold of your Mom…give her a big hug.  Feel her skin.  Better yet, just watch her hands.  I’m telling you: there are edge effects.  I know it sounds crazy.  But somehow, some way, Dana Tallant has become a cloud of bots, an angel.  And I don’t know when it happened.”

Liam regarded his Dad with a quizzical stare.  “I think retirement’s done something to your head.  I realize angels are almost like Normals now…it’s hard for me to tell them apart.  But Mom…my Mom?  Come on—“

Winger held up a hand.  “You know what they say about angels: edge effects, blurry fingers, they walk through furniture, don’t bleed right.  I can prove it…it’s not just my imagination.”

Liam was skeptical.  “How?”

“The way she bleeds.  I’ve seen cuts, scrapes, that sort of thing.  The ‘blood’ doesn’t look right.  It doesn’t flow right.  Sometimes it’s a subtle thing, but hell—I’ve got forty years as an atomgrabber.  I know what nanobots look like. How they operate.  I just don’t have the gear here to prove it.”

Liam rubbed a control stud along the side of his glasses.  “Maybe I do.”

Winger went on.  “I’ve been trying to get her over to Table Top, tried to concoct some kind of reason to have the medics take a look.  You know we both have PX privileges.  Medical coverage from the Corps.  But she won’t go.  A month ago, she had some kind of bad cough.  Wouldn’t even talk about seeing a doctor.  That’s not like your Mom.”

“Dad, don’t you think this is just age—“  When Winger looked annoyed, Liam held up a hand.  “What I mean is that you two aren’t kids anymore.  I know you’ve had treatments and you’ve got all kinds of bots and cytes inside of you.  That’s probably what you’re seeing.  She just needs a few adjustments, maybe a re-load, that’s all.”

Winger considered that.  “Of course, you may be right, Liam, but I’d like you to take a closer look yourself.”

“What do you mean, exactly?”

Winger was already ducking out the door.  “Just an idea I’ve had for some time.  You’ve got those fancy glasses, I see.”

Liam pulled off his SuperQuarks.  “Just got ‘em.  The Lab coughed up enough money for all the staff to have them.  Hyper-imaging, nano-scale resolution, bioscan on a hundred different channels.  I could send you a live signal of my cortical EEG right now.”

“That’s okay.  Just make sure you bring them to dinner…” he checked an old-fashioned watch on his wrist.  “Which if this is accurate, should be in about half an hour.”

“Where’d you get that thing…the museum?”

Winger smiled.  “Grabbed it off a dinosaur, Liam.”   He ducked out the door and Liam dropped his now-finished beer onto a tray Curley held out.  The bot had returned and now took the empty and whirred off happily down the hall.

Dinner was to be a pot roast, with enough trimmings to make a battalion happy.  Dana bustled about the kitchen cheerily, not saying much, but with a pleasant half-smile to her face.  Winger helped with the salads and the drinks, while Curley finished setting the table, laying out silverware and festive napkins with robotic accuracy and aplomb. 

A huge crock pot simmered on a burner nearby.  A beef stew bubbled inside, tomorrow’s lunch being made at the same time.  Winger caught Liam’s eye as he peered inside the pot to take in the aroma.  Something about the crock pot.  Liam studied the top edge, while Dana was busying herself getting the roast out of the oven.  He felt gingerly around the edge, felt the sharp points under the grip.  Somehow, the grip had been—

“Careful, honey…that’s hot.”  Dana Tallant came over to stir the stew, took a deep breath herself and pronounced herself satisfied.  She started to lift the lid completely off.

“Want me to do it?” Liam asked.

Dana shook her head.  “No, of course not.  I’m not that feeble yet.”  She pulled the lid back and immediately yanked her hand away.  “Ouch!  Ow…that hurts---I’m cut a little—“  She started to raise her fingers to her mouth, to suck at the blood just beginning to flow.

“Let me see,” Liam offered.  He saw the slight nod Winger made and in that moment, Liam knew his Dad had somehow arranged this little accident.  While he was examining Dana’s cut with one hand, he tapped a quick sequence on the control studs of his eyepiece with his other hand.  The pictures were snapped instantly, four in all, all-bands, all-channels, full effects.  Then he clucked sympathetically.  “Maybe we out to wash that off and get it bandaged.”

Dana pulled her hand away.  “Don’t be silly…it’s just a little cut.  I’ll do it.  Go help your father with the salad and the plates.”  She jerked her hand away like she had been stung and vanished from the kitchen, heading toward a nearby bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

 

 

You can download or buy the entire ebook at Smashwords.com on September 26, 2015, or at other fine ebook retailers such as Barnes and Noble or Apple shortly afterward.

I hope you enjoy it.  And if you like what you read, please write a review.

 

The Containment Wars and the Creation of the Sanctuaries (Part I)

The first violent conflicts between humans and independent ANAD swarms occurred in 2097, in and around Nairobi, Jerusalem and Cairo.  In some ways, perhaps, the conflict was inevitable.  ANAD systems had been growing in acceptance across the globe. 

ANAD systems and poorly regulated fabs based on ANAD technology had become widespread, around the world, in every city and village and on every farm or commune.  Fabs (fabricators) based on ANAD could create almost anything inorganic that human beings could imagine.  Cars, furniture, clothing, sex toys, homes, electronic devices, guns, etc could all be fabricated from atom-scale feedstock.  All you needed was the fab, the core with its software drivers and the requisite feedstock.  Organic structures, especially living systems (strictly forbidden in most places) were still difficult, expensive and generally not worth the effort.  Otherwise, the sky was the limit.

More importantly, robotic nanoscale systems based on the original ANAD design (from the 2050s and Northgate University, Dr Irwin Frost) were widely recognized to be a parallel sentience and life form, both a companion and competitor to Man on this planet, even though the devices were created by Man.  The swarming nature of ANAD bots and the complexity of their swarm formations had given rise to the belief and understanding that ANAD swarms were worthy of being called a new life form. 

Moreover, the spread of ANAD technology had been so explosive, and the swarms so compelling in their sophistication and behavior that the term angels entered popular use as a way of describing such swarms, with all that implies.  Angels (now a generic term for ANAD swarms that configure to resemble humans) were originally defined as messengers from God, spiritual beings and protectors and guides for humans in their relationship with God.  Angels as ANAD-style swarm entities were companions, love mates, partners, and all other things, even pseudo-religious beings to many people on Earth today.  Some people even developed swarm analogs of themselves, so that when they died, the swarm version remained behind…a strange form of immortality.

In this environment, conflict between Man and ANAD became inevitable.

The First Containment War

The first engagements occurred in sporadic clashes around the Mediterranean and east Africa.  Initially, the attacks were uncoordinated, seemingly random assaults on humans and human settlements, almost like ancient plagues of locusts or birds.  Incidents occurred in Thessalonika, Greece, in the Gulf of Gabes off the Tunisian coast and around Lake Turkana on the Kenya-Ethiopia borderland. 

Gradually these incidents provoked stronger reactions from the Humans and over the course of several months, these reactions became more and more coordinated and more severe, as a way of punishing the swarms.  UNIFORCE, the enforcement arm of the United Nations, developed a strategy called ‘draining the swamps,’ in which large formations of troops would systematically enter and destroy known swarm hotspots and sanctuaries.  It was during this period of sanitizing swarm nodes and sanctuaries that the idea of an actual protected region, a real sanctuary, for swarm entities, began to surface and enter public discussion.  When some media personalities compared the sanctuaries to concentration camps, UNIFORCE did little to dispel the comparison.

But before this could come into being, more assaults and conflict had to occur. 

The First Containment War was not called by this name until some years later.  The end of the primary conflict phase came about during the vacuum bombing and nearly complete decimation of a suspected swarm hideout along the shores of Lake Turkana, by UNIFORCE troops.  When Human offers of a truce and a peace treaty were proffered, the swarms in this area indicated that they were amenable to discussions.

The discussions were held between Human and swarm representatives in Alexandria, Egypt.  Talks began in spring 2098, and continued for months.  When the final Truce of Alexandria was signed, the first violent conflicts between Man and ANAD came to an uneasy end. 

More importantly, the Truce effected several changes in relations between Humans and ANAD.  It brought a formal end to the conflict, the assaults and counter-assaults around the perimeter of the Mediterranean.  The Truce also established the swarm sanctuaries as we know them today: sanctuary zones in the Amazon basin, in east Africa and in the southwest Pacific.  In these sanctuaries, ANAD style swarms would have legal sovereignty.  The functional nature of the new Sanctuaries was codified in a set of laws and bills known collectively as the Containment Laws.

A growing symbiotic (some would say parasitic) relationship had developed between Man and ANAD.  Because of the growth and spread of independent swarms, quasi-official recognition of their status was formally granted by the UN and by most other political entities.  In other words, ANAD swarms now had rights, fully defined by law.  Not only did they have rights, ANAD swarms could have independent lifestyles and could reside (if they chose) in protected sanctuaries, which were almost like nation-states.  During Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde, ANAD swarms (angels) were given political representation in the UN.

The Truce of Alexandria also gave rise to the United Nations Sanctuary Patrol, a quasi-military, enforcement agency, whose mission and purpose was to patrol the boundaries of Human-ANAD space (i.e., the Sanctuaries) and ensure that all Containment laws and mandates were enforced.

Here’s an org chart, showing the basics of how UNSP is set up.  Like Quantum Corps, UNSP reports directly to UNSAC (the UN Security Affairs Commissioner) and to the Secretary-General, through the structure of UNIFORCE.

Sanctuary Patrol is organized in a manner similar to Quantum Corps.  The Detachment is the primary operational unit.  Below, is a chart showing how a typical Sanctuary Patrol detachment is set up.

Typical SP Detachment Ratings and Specialties

Unit Code	Specialty	Senior Rating	Junior Rating	Typical Duties
CC	Command and Control	CC1	CC2	Command group; Lieutenant and senior NCO
OPS	Interface and Operations Control	IC1	IC2	ANAD controllers and programmers (i.e. “code and stick” men and women)
CEC	Containment and Environmental Service and Support	CEC1	CEC2	Service and support for containment systems; ANAD maintenance in containment
TSP	Transport/Supply/Provisioning	TSP1	TSP2	Control and operations of lifters and supply drones; all field provisions and replicators*
CQE	Communications and Quantum Engineering	CQE1	CQE2	Comms and data links; computer setup; hypersuit PM
DPS	Defense and Protective Systems	DPS1	DPS2	Non-ANAD weapons: coilguns, EM mortars, beam weapons, HERF guns, mag(netic) weapons

 *Due to Detachment extended field operations along Sanctuary borders, a rating to handle the Detachment’s supply and provisioning needs was added.  Otherwise, Detachment setup is similar to a typical UNQC ANAD Detachment.

 The Truce of Alexandria lasted only two years.  Then, war between Man and ANAD came again.

The next post to Quantum Corps Times will cover what happened next, known today as the Second Containment War.  I hope everyone has a nice Labor Day holiday.  Look for the next post in the first half of September 2015.

Continuing our investigation into sister organizations that support the mission of Quantum Corps, in this post we look at the mission and organization of the U.N. Boundary Patrol.  UNBP deals with nanoscale threats that occur below ground, typically along active seismic fault lines or tectonic plate boundaries, hence the name.  It is an unfortunate fact of life in the Tales of the Quantum Corps that Config Zero and other adversaries use the medium of the Earth’s crust to transmit destructive energies, using nanobotic swarms to loosen seismic plates and facilitate destructive slippage along plate boundaries.  UNBP exists to counter and neutralize these threats.

Here’s an org chart, showing the basics of how UNBP is set up.  Like Quantum Corps, UNBP reports directly to UNSAC (the UN Security Affairs Commissioner) and to the Secretary-General, through the structure of UNIFORCE.

The sharp end of Boundary Patrol’s stick is the geoplane, a tracked vehicle that looks like a big metal articulating caterpillar, but with a nanobotic borer head at one end.  The geoplane can travel on and underground, down to depths of several thousand meters.  Geoplanes are manned vehicles and are organized into detachments assigned to patrol certain tectonic plate boundaries, as indicated in the org chart.  Below is how a typical geoplane crew is organized.

Typical Geoplane Crew

(Motto: Subterraneus defensores percutunt dure)

(“Subterranean defenders strike hard”)

Organization and Specialties

Unit Code/Specialty	Senior Rating *	Junior Rating
Command and Control	CC1	CC2
Driver/Systems Operator	DSO1	DSO2
Borer Operator	BOP1	BOP2
Geo Engineering Technician	GET1	GET2
Sensors and Surveillance Technician	SS1	SS2
Defense and Protective Systems Operator	DPS1	DP2

 

*  Most geoplane crews operate on nominal Boundary Patrol missions with only a 6-person crew, consisting of the above Senior Ratings or a mix of Senior and Junior Ratings, depending on personnel availability.  Geoplane commander is always designated “CC1”.

NOTES:

1.  Geoplanes operate on nominal Boundary Patrol missions for 2-3 weeks at a time.  They are manned, like ballistic missile submarines, with multiple crews (Red and Gold crews) for maximum availability and mission readiness.  There are 5 BP stations and a total of 6 constructed geoplanes (one is always in refit and repair).  

2.  Geoplane detachments have assigned patrol areas but also respond to intelligence and sensor indications as to swarm activities or presence.  The SS techs monitor seismic and tectonic indications as to plate movements, tremors and seismic activity.  Many are known, from indications, to be “normal’ plate stresses and tremors.  Those events or transients with  suspicious seismic signatures are investigated.  By the time UNBP was set up, seismic signatures indicative of swarm activity are pretty well known.  Intelligence on new swarm and Config Zero tactics is an ever-present need.  Geoplane patrol areas are designed to put the vehicles in striking range of anticipated Config Zero swarm activity, along known or suspected tectonic fault lines and plate boundaries.  When a suspicious tremor is detected, the geoplane investigates and if swarms are detected, the swarms are engaged with geoplane weapons (HERF, magpulse, coilgun, etc) and on- board ANAD-style swarms.   Counter-swarm operations (CSO) are a major part of what the geoplane defenders do. 

The next post in August will cover another of Quantum Corps’ sister organizations under the umbrella of UNIFORCE:  the U.N. Sanctuary Patrol and the Containment Laws that it enforces.