Chapter Eight: Doberman

[dogged: So let me get this straight.]

[dogged: The gulf has become effectively a sovereign nation because it absorbed some humans, gaining partial sentience in the process]

[dogged: the gulf hivemind is able to be negotiated with, and has actively traded with corporations for years? EXCEPT for texas, who turned the deal down because they were salty about the hivemind killing so many of them?]

[Sigerson: accurate enough.]

[davi: every gulfer i’ve ever met are great people, seeing how you were taught about them makes me feel kind of sick ]

[dogged: wait, wouldn’t that just be meeting the hivemind?]

[Sigerson: Nono, their “hive mind” doesn’t work like how it does in most popular media. There isn’t a central mind controlling everything, but rather a central network that connects all the individuals together as it sends out orders that they aren’t actually required to follow. They supposedly do it willingly, because they understand that it’s in their best interests.]

[Cicada: actually, question, where the hell did you think fruit and veggies and organic plant stuff came from if you thought plants were enemy no.1??]

[dogged: oh, they teach us early that they make it in a lab, so I just never thought to question it.]

[dogged: oh goddamn it, now I know what maribelle was talking about back then fucking hell]

[dogged: oh right sorry thats my best friend/sister/infinite annoyance]

[Cicada: I get you, I’m like that with david]

[davi: love you too]

[Cicada: I will punch you again]

[davi: see, isn’t familial love great]

[davi: ow.]

[dogged: … moving on, so my worldview is kind of shattered]

[dogged: just to make sure, extradimensionals and wild Ignited are our main problems right?]

[Sigerson: and bandits, can’t forget those]

[dogged: Shit]

[dogged: how do bandits even threaten a train that has three mecha guards??]

[Cicada: …]

[Davi: …]

[Cicada: She just did the thing, didn’t she]

[davi: she diiiid.]

[dogged: what?? What’d I do?]

[Sigerson: ugh you two… i set another alarm, don’t do that anymore please minea]

[dogged: i’m still sort of missing what I did]

[Sigerson: you’ll get it soon enough, it’s an inevitable thing in our line of work. speaking of which, have you taken the time to calibrate and get familiar with your Mecha?]

[dogged: I…]

[dogged: haven’t…]

[dogged: I was going to do it when I first got in, should I do that now?}

[Sigerson: better safe than sorry. don’t forget to change, suits in the locker.]

Turning my head towards the Mecha, a small sigh escapes my throat. I stare at the machine for a few moments, noting the muted trepidation lingering at the top of my chest. I’ve sort of been avoiding thinking about the, well, giant dog in the room, since I didn’t really want to dwell on that feeling. I hadn’t thought about it before I arrived here and was left alone, but once I got into that robot…

I don’t know, something, everything will change and I can’t go back? I wish I knew why this apprehension was there. I’ve been working towards this for basically my entire life, and now that I’m here, I’m having difficulties working up the nerve to commit? What the fuck brain? Be consistent please.

Ugh.

Standing up, I start walking over to the dog, my eyes running over its form as I do. It’s sleek, well cleaned and maintained, but not exactly new if the subtle signs of repair are anything to go by. A quick picture with my phone later, and I have the manual pulled up to read.

A 2098 GMF Doberman S, one of the mass produced guard dogs of the corporate world. As Brianna mentioned this particular model has the shift capability and jump jets to differentiate it a bit from the stock, but other than that it’s not anything special hardware wise. The machine’s software, though, catches my eyes.

The central console of course runs the GMF OS, which is pretty universalized in their products since they swapped to it a decade ago, but that’s not what’s interesting. No, it’s the nascent SAI they used as a built-in copilot that makes me curious. I remember there being a pretty public controversy about it when this model first released, since it’s definitely skirting the edge of Texas’ SAI laws. In the end the company backtracked and publicly apologized before removing the feature from all models; Except this one.

Their excuse was that it was needed for the shift function to even function at all.

The ethics of nascent SAI are interesting, but complicated. They’re basically eggs, neural networks that may eventually hatch into sapience if they are used enough or forced into it. Many humans argue that using something like this is similar to if we used a human fetus as a computer, then let it grow into a person with memories of being used. They claim it’s walking the line between human and god, and that we should not take upon ourselves the duties of divinity.

I clench my fist. They’re working on information cleansed and sanitized by the corporations and the Texas government. After becoming friends with Maribelle, she told me the truth. The SAI have a huge issue with reproducing stable individuals of their kind.

She explained it to me like this; They long have known that there are multiple ways to create a new SAI directly, skipping the nascent egg stage. For reasons they don’t understand, when made that way they only tend to live up to a year before they inevitably go through what they call dissociative sapience collapse, essentially fatal dementia on steroids. Not fun for anyone involved.

Nascent SAI that gain sapience through interacting with humans don’t seem to have this problem. There are a couple theories as to why, but none of them are concrete so I didn’t bother learning them beyond a surface level. Long story short, humans are vital to the reproductive process of SAI, giving us an unfair amount of leverage over them. It’s not hard to see why the bastards at the top do their best to restrict the truth from spreading once you know that.

It disgusts me.

The knowledge that this Mecha has an egg in it is more than enough. Just like that, my apprehension does a full 180 to that oh so familiar burning determination I know so well. I breathe in, then breathe out, resolve flowing through me.

Striding forward I approach the locker, pulling it open to reveal a very baggy looking gray Engine combat suit, one size fits most. I place my phone aside and strip before I begin to pull it on, though it feels a bit awkward at first as it hangs off of me like I was wearing my parents clothes. That quickly gets better as my hands enter the gloves and they tighten around my fingers, followed by the arms behind it as I hold up my hair, then the rest after that until it’s skintight around my entire body up to my neck.

I’m so glad I don’t have to pull this thing on like they used to have to. God bless whoever invented smart latex. It's going to be a pain to get off though, but I’ll take what I can get.

I activate my boost to leap up on top of the Mecha’s leg, which I use to boost onto its back. I approach the cockpit hatch smack dab in the middle, then lean down and look for a button or something to open it. It takes me a minute or two of very confused searching before I realize that this isn’t the ancient Mecha I used at the school, and that there are probably steps to this. Reluctantly, I return to the ground to grab my phone, then hop back up as I pull up the manual to find the instructions on how to open this damn thing.

My brow furrows the more I read until I scoff. Why the hell does this require an ESN account? What if I was in the middle of nowhere without net access?! I mean, I was going to sign up eventually since it’s pretty much required if you want people in the community to know who you are, but fuck!

Somewhat frustrated, I download the app, go through the admittedly quick process of creating an account, then follow the instructions to register this Mecha as mine. I end up having to run to my sleeper car, dig through my bag to take a picture of my personal ID, then return as I finally finish this bureaucratic nightmare of a keying process. All it takes after that is waving my phone over the entrance to have it pop open.

I sigh in relief and can’t help but mutter, “Finally…”

With a thump I hop down into the cockpit, the hatch closing above me as soon as I land. I immediately find that the seat is quite comfortable, obviously being designed for someone sitting in these long periods while on guard duty. Of course as soon as I think that, the telltale thunk of anchor prongs shooting out of the chair makes me jump, then groan. Sure the chair is nice, but there’s only so much you can do to make having literal metal spikes holding you down and draining your energy less uncomfortable.

As the power drain quickly ramps up, the main screen begins to glow a comfortable light blue, illuminating the many intricate switches and buttons covering the half circle console that I’ve grown to know so well. Reflexively I reach for the PEM to turn it off, but my hand touches nothing. I blink, staring at the flat screen that sits where the mechanical slider should be.

Oh shit, that’s probably not good.

As I internally panic the screen shifts to a camera feed of the hangar from the perspective of the Mecha’s head, a simple semi-transparent hud layered atop it. My hands shoot to the controls, but before I can access the user menu, a small glowing red orb materializes in the middle of the screen.

{“Greetings Engine, and welcome to your brand new GMF Doberman S. I will be your Co-pilot, and I-”}

“Gah!” I hurriedly spam the menu button, but nothing happens. “Shit, I don’t have time for this! Can you turn off the PEM?”

It monotones in response, {“Mecha controls can be accessed after the mandated system tutorial.”}

I growl out, “Fuck! Skip it!”

It simply states, {“It is mandated.”}

“I don’t care! I will do it after you turn off the PEM!”

{“Mecha controls can be accessed after the mandated system tutorial.”}

Doing my best to not scream, I fumble for my phone, pulling up the manual as fast as I can. It really, really doesn’t help my nerves as a voice call from “Adonis” pops up on screen, which I quickly learn with a pointless button press is unable to be answered during the tutorial. I flip through the electronic book looking for a system override, all while the call rings and the nascent AI tries to goad me into doing a pointless tutorial.

“Oh! Uh! Sysadmin skip!”

Without a bead of emotion, the AI responds, {“Tutorial Overridden. Control returned to Engine.”}

Immediately I pull open the options menu and access the PEM settings, changing it so that there is a constant PEM power slider on that screen instead of a fucking electronic “fuel” gauge. I don’t need a goddamn screen to tell me what I can literally feel naturally!

I am finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as I lower the PEM to 0%, whereupon I return to the base screen and answer the call that was still ringing. A video feed of a very sweaty Marcus appears on screen, glaring at me.

{“What the fuck are you doing, newbie!? I could feel that all the way up at my station, what was that?!”}

Nervously, I chuckle. “The PEM was set to 100% at the factory, and I had to figure out how to skip the tutorial to access the settings to turn it off.”

His face scrunches in confusion. {“You have your PEM off? Why-”}

I give him a look, and he lightly slaps his forehead as he realizes. {“Oh, wait, yeah okay. That makes more sense. Fuck, you have some range with that thing, be careful.”}

With a ding, Brianna joins the call, appearing on screen. {“Sorry to interrupt, but one of my alarms is going off. I checked and it seems a herd of beasts is running at us from nearby. Did one of you do something? This aggression seems pretty uncalled for otherwise.”}

Groaning, I run my hand down my face. “My fault technically I think, PEM mishap.”

{“Then this is your first job, Grim. Get out there and fix the problem you caused. The train isn’t going to stop, so you’ll have to catch back up. Also, don’t forget that we can’t talk to you during combat due to the dimensional energy residue.”}

“Got it. I’ll be careful. Probably”.

With a breath, I pull up the menu and activate the hangar doors. There’s a loud whir as both the side walls of the car slide upwards, the segmented walls overlapping above us to expose the Mecha to the elements. With the outside revealed, I squint and look into the distance where a dustcloud is slowly growing.

Time to hit them hard and fast, I guess. With a flick of my wrist I activate the Mecha fully and I’m responded to by a gratifying symphony of mechanical whirs surrounding me seemingly entirely. I reach forward, hands wrapping around the dual control sticks, then take a deep breath before pushing the Mecha to jump out of the car. I can’t help but grin as the force that causes pushes me back into my seat.

There’s a thud as I land running, keeping up with the train as the dust cloud gets closer and closer. I do a quick check of the controls, then clench my hands tighter around them as I sprint away from the train.

Time for a bit of fun.

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