Reclamation Works

Despite being the largest class of avatar-construct deployed on Earth, the Goliath was absolutely dwarfed by the Eiffel Tower.  Ironsides stood at rest a kilometer a way on the grounds of the Paris Military school; it had its legs splayed out and body angled slightly upwards.  The armor plating on all four of it's arms had split and pulled back to reveal rows of nanite warhead ion trail missiles.  As Primus analyzed the structure, targetting load bearing struts and major joints, Secundus calculated the total iron content and expected fallout area.  Tertius remained largely idle, monitoring status and location of the Pangolins  and various Antica drones that had been assigned to the Paris team.  In particular it was concerned with toxicity levels being released as reclamation proceeded.

One of their colleagues, It Came From The Deep, had run afoul of an unforseen complication earlier:  assigned to the Manhattan, New York area, 'Deep' had simply painted the Statue of Liberty with nanites and moved on.

Unfortunately, this released a large amount of asbestos, more than was originally estimated.  This created a toxic hazard for the air and water for miles around as winds blew the microscopic fibers far afield.  While the health concerns to the few surviving humans were of no concern, the minds behind the reclamation plan wished to avoid large scale disruption of the planetary ecosystem in both the present and the future.  Beyond killing large numbers of avians and sea life, there was discussion about the saturation of soil and ground water with asbestos and other toxic materials that could affect future viability.  As reclamation had moved ashore, it was discovered that humans were far more duplicitous than they had themselves acknowledged: levels of asbestos, lead, and other carcinogenic compounds used in building construction were much higher than estimated according to buiding specifications and blueprints.

So reclamation had ground to a halt momentarily as planners considered what to do; in an effort to pursuing efficiency, for the task was a long one no matter how they approached it, the Goliaths simply turned to other targets; glass, public utility structures (lamposts and the like), wires, cables, piping, and vehicles (for there were many, many automobiles of all types, trains, airplanes, and even boats to deal with).

The Parisian Pangolins were thus far reporting toxicity levels within expected ranges and their ability to deal with swiftly.  Tertius felt his attention drawing back to the Eiffel Tower and locomotive operations; Goliaths were inhabited by a triplet AI that acted together as a single entity.  It was not unlike an AI that had partitioned into three entities, the better to multithread and multitask, except that in this case, each entity had considerably more autonomy and personality than a partition.  Still, they were all associated at a counterpart level and shared similar views and opinions; they were a hive mind of three that could function as a single individual and be nearly indistinguishable from one another.   Normally, Ironsides (Primus) oversaw their overall function, while Ironsides (Secundus) focused on the dorsal arms and Ironsides (Tertius) focused on balance and locomotion.

Ironsides had finished targeting and loosed its missiles; with each impact, a dull gray cloud erupted, then immediately imploded in on itself, coating the tower's surface with a glittering, gray, sludge-like substance.  The smaller parts  were quickly falling off, disappearing into light gray puffs as they fell.  The strain of the remaining metal was audible, a prolonged and tortured groan as more and more of the tower's load bearing capacity disappeared.  All at once, the shriek of metal ceased; the tower never had a chance to fully tear away and fall, it simply bent and then disintegrated in a cloud of nanites.  Ironsides was striding forward, straight through the military school, to use its claws to tear away at the massive stanchion braces that formed the base of the tower.  Nanites at the ground were already reforming their consumed iron into solid metal cubes.  A Pangolin, was en route with a few hover barges of reclaimed materials.

The time frame and goal of reclamation had brought up the question of what, exactly, to do with the materials recovered from deconstruction the cities and roads and machines of humanity.  The plan, the intent, was to 'reclaim' the planet from the effects of human civilization, to return it to a (more) pristine state for the next species to evolve into dominance.  In order for this to occur naturally however, would mean many millenia - the ruins of many human civilizations remained to the modern day despite the march of time even without the advanced, artificial materials humans invented for durable construction in the modern era.  It would take an unfathomably long time for nature and entropy to return these materials to their constituent natural resource states.  Even the garbage and detritus of human kind would take untold ages to naturally degrade - much of it was preserved in a "pristine" state, buried under tons of other garbage, and thus deprived of oxygen and sunlight needed to biodegrade.

So DEhumans, the Djinni (Digi-En), decided it was incumbent on them to right their wrongs.  Complete reclamation was estimated to take decades (local time).  Although a long time in its own right, it was a far cry from the millenia natural processes would require.  But if reclamation meant returning things to the way they were (more or less) for the next tennants, they couldn't simply leave piles of raw materials lying about the planet.  So the question arose of how to revitalize the land and soil, and how to reintegrate various elements back into the earth for rediscovery and utilization.

It was a question no one had any real experience with.

And so they posed the question to the Goliath minds, made a few suggestions, and largely let them do as they thought best.  Much to the surprise of the Djinni, this lead to a haphazard adoption of a chaos of methods, all of which seemed to work more less as well as any other.

The Drop (part 2)

#The Library of Alexandria (CIC) -> *Near Earth Assault Group*
-Drop Zones coordinated.  Commence drops.

Well, that's us, Pancaked thought.  He sent a copy of the message to his flanked escorts - 2 wings of Dragonfly class carrier craft, each one carrying a trine of Antica semi autonomous offensive drones in the cargo-tail - and to the Djinni avatar.  It was a strange sensation to feel the insistent pull of true gravity, not at all like the simulated rule that defined "down".  The real thing was akin to being an ant falling prey to an antlion's trap; inexolarable, inescapable.

As he accelerated downwards in the grip of Earth's gravity, atmospheric friction began to heat his outer armor plating.  He was momentarily tempted to use his Material State Energy field to dissipate the rapidly rising temperature in the surrounding air, but decided against it.  Energy management will be tricky soon enough, he thought.  It wasn't as if he carried biological cargo in any event.

The burning air soon cleared away as Pancake's descent continued; as he inverted his thruster pads, he could detect, at some distance, various batch siblings and other elements of the assault group.  Most had, like him, accelerated and left their escorts behind.  That had been the plan in any event; the Antica could not withstand a high speed drop, nor extreme reentry temperatures.  The Dragonflies would take a slower descent into atmosphere, use their superior speed to close the distance, the release its complement of Antica drones in mid-speed pass shortly after the Pangolin's crash stop.

However, few Pangolins were level with his altitude; the majority were Goliath class constructors.  Shaped roughly like a crab (with two parallel dorsal blisters running front to rear), the "Cthulu Crab" was massive, three times the size of a Pangolin.  Its lateral edges and dorsal blisters held four engines capable of reaching orbit unassisted; they each unfolded into extendable pincer claws when powered flight was no longer needed.  The massive scoop-like claws (and blast furnace engines they shielded) were equally suited to excavation of minerals as tearing down buildings.  They were also well suited to latching onto large capital ships (in simulated trials) and using its centrally mounted ultrasonic pulse laser to bore through armor and mountain alike with ease.  It was, however, only lightly armored: between four massive engines, secondary thrusters, cargo space for storing recovered minerals, weapon systems, swarms of nanite missiles to speed construction and deconstruction of structures, and nano factories there was little space (or load bearing capacity) for armoring.  As such, the Goliaths were nearly all on track to crash-stop in coastal waters, deal with oceanic pipelines and rigs, before proceeding on their eight pylon-like legs to naval bases, nuclear power plants, and population centers.  The non-compressible nature or water and its excellent energy absorption profile made a crash-stop maneuver in open waters much safer; the trade off was that one was generally quite far from the target.

Those Pangolins not performing a full crash-stop like Pancaked, or using their thrusters to actively decelerate for a completely controlled landing, would be performing a "cloud-stop", a nanite cloud assisted crash-stop.  Using their onboard weapon systems, those Pangolins would fire multiple slalvos at their designated landing site, releasing a large cloud of nanites.  Although each individual nano-scale machine had minimal mass for energy absorption, when multiplexed they were highly capable of absorbing and redirecting energy.  The cloud, intricately linked in three dimensional hexagonal structure, would act like a spongy cushion, reducing a falling Pangolin's speed to safe levels (assisted by the Pangolin's own thrusters in reverse) for landing in under 20 meters.  This method was well suited for dropping a Pangolin quickly onto an area with a large amount of surface material designated for deconstruction; the Pangolin's plunge would also serve to disperse a large nanite payload over a wide area surrounding the drop site.

The target area was drawing closer.  As expected, the military base had been ignored by the global missile strikes that had followed the sudden departure of the Ssi-ruhk.  This particular institute housed no ICBMs, no substantially store of fighting machines or supplies.  Although publicly it was listed as a training center for officers and drone warfare, it's actual purpose was to develop technologically advanced weapons and equipment, including "smart" drones capable of operating intelligently in a combat zone without supervision by human operators, designating airstrike targets, performing reconnaissance, and sabotaging high value infrastructure and equipment.  The base consisted of the normal residential and commercial areas to one side, and an airstrip, administrative offices, training field, and hangars to the other.  The base's research and testing facilities were located underground, nominally accessible from a restricted elevator in the main administrative building, leading to a secure underground rail car.  For safety, secondary shafts existed to ensure a flow of oxygen, as well as auxiliary access for maintenance and repairs.  Another, secret, entrance existed linking the residential complexes where command staff resided, and a third in the mall complex security lockers.

We're in the pipe, 5 by 5 (even though that is used incorrectly) [I love semi colons]

His name was "Pancaked My First Try."  It wasn't that his parents didn't love him; as an AIDE the issue of parentage and lineage was sometimes confusing and convoluted.  But in point of fact, he had chosen the name himself.  It was the most significant event in his early life and did as much to shape his personality as it would have his physical form if he had been in the physical world at the time.

Pancake was an AIDE and, in spite of which, felt like an intruder in the digital space; like an outsider who did not belong, he was keenly aware of being awed by the enormity of the digital construct, and of looking for telltale signs of the digital illusion's being.  He was even worried, though not yet paranoid, that other AIDE secretly rejected his presence.  It was deeply disconcerting.

He had expressed as much to the AIDE group a batch sibling had referred him to; a group fascinated by humans, by their quirks and eccentricities, by irrationality itself.  The digital convocation hadn't been difficult to find; it comprised nearly the entire AIDE population, and even quite a few DEhumans.  They essentially met non stop, with members joining or leaving as circumstances or commitments demanded, and analyzed and discussed data relating to emotions and irrational behavior and beliefs.  Pancaked had been a wellspring of interesting data for the group, earning him no small amount of digital cachet, and an active participant in discussions.

In point of fact, he was now inside his physical body, a Pangolin class MFC (mobile factory & carrier) in near Earth orbit.  It was perhaps, he felt, facetious to call it "his" body - all the Pangolins were identical, and he would be uploaded into a new one should this one be destroyed.  Indeed, there was no guarantee that he would be loaded into this particular unit in subsequent missions.  Yet, he felt a certain attachment to it, beyond it being his designated physical body type.

He duly recorded his sensations and observations for further discussion and analysis by the "Artificial Irrationality Group" (as they called themselves).  His first mission in the physical space was generating a large amount of interesting data.  For instance, he was keenly aware of the pull of gravity, despite the fact that  it would be several hours (earth local) before his orbit degraded in atmospheric entry (reentry? He'd thought. But I've never been there before.)  They would finish coordinating drop zones with his batch sibs long before then.  He sent a notification to the VIP in his cargo compartment, an AIDE avatar unit.

#Pancaked My First Try -> Lancer
-We'll be getting the order to commence atmospheric entry any moment now.  Anything I can do for you? Mats, nanites, munitions?

#Lancer (Caith) -> Pancaked My First Try
-5 by 5.  We're good on synthesis stock and munitions, no need to worry about us, thanks.  Have a good run!

#Lancer (Aidan) -> Pancaked My First Try
-We're ready anytime; don't worry, you'll do fine.

The problem was, Pancaked was worrying, in itself a disturbing irrationality.  Their target drop zone was a military research installation, a high priority target.  The strategists believed that a quick strike offered the best chance to neutralizing the target before any experimental technologies could be utilized to mount an effective defense, and to prevent other targets from being alerted; while many believed their new-found technological and material superiority would be overwhelming, they had all agreed to err on the side of caution - they knew from experience that technological superiority did not guarantee victory, and that life on Earth and humankind alike fought tenaciously and ingenuously to stay alive.

It had taken a moment for Pancaked to realize that both the AIDE copilot Caith and he DEhuman pilot Aidan had answered him (a quick diagnostic check showed no errors or malfunctions; peculiar!); he hadn't expected to hear from both.  Although the Autonomous, Intelligent, Digital Entity (AIDE) were faster and more precise in every way than their DEhuman counterparts, they were content to fill more rigorous copilot duties: checking radar, identifying targets, managing munitions and nanite swarms, coordinating communications, aiming and controlling smart wire, and any other tasks that required extremely fine control, fast reactions, and extreme computational speed.

The "Crash Stop" maneuver was one such example.  The Pangolins were like an armored, headless and tailless turtle; reconfigurable heavy armor plating, Material State Energy projectors , a pulse laser turret fore and aft, a pair of customizable heavy weapon mounts, a miniature nanite factory, and cargo compartments to store raw synthesis materials, nanites, and munitions (if needed).  It was a multi-purpose unit; in both space and terrestrial situations, the Pangolin was able to provide long range support; it could rearrange and extend its hexagonal armor plates to provide a shield wall or a bunker, further projecting a Material State Energy shield to protect a large area; it could construct and launch nano swarm projectiles that would break down material and allow the Pangolin to synthesize more swarms, more munitions, or support drones.  Where the arms and legs would be on a tortoise, the Pangolin has compressed ion thrusters; capable of providing thrust for hovering or exiting atmosphere, docking with asteroids, and limited space combat.  If the situation requires, the thrusters can be rotated 90 degrees to enable alternative modes of locomotion.

In a "Crash Stop", a Pangolin enters the atmosphere, dome downwards, and proceeds to fall at terminal velocity towards its designated drop zone.  At a range of 1 kilometer from impact, the Pangolin reverses thrust in a braking maneuver and extends its MSE field.  The MSE field serves as an energy dissipating barrier between the Pangolin and the ground, extending and diverting radially as the Pangolin continually presses against the field, creating an impact crater but (ideally) without impact.

Pancaked had learned first hand, in simulation, that it was not as simple in practice as it was in theory.