Story by Charles Hawkmoon. Translation VictorX.
This short story is part of the Science Fiction Storm series. All stories in this series are inspired by randomized prompts, ensuring that each tale is unpredictable and utterly unique. Here are the random seeds for this story:
Subject – Threaten – Special – Silver – Watermelon – Criticize – Shampoo – Bald.
As soon as the pilot entered the room, Cassio turned around, his face twisted in a grimace of disgust.
“What’s that horrible smell, Jebi? Oh, right… it’s that disgusting root-based shampoo of yours.”
“Shut your mouth, you cursed bald man!”
“Hey, no need to take it personally! I’m just offering constructive criticism. And, if you must know, you should never have dyed your hair green in the first place… That’s the kind of thing that makes people go bald.”
Jebi’s straight hair, wet and darker in tone, hung down his back.
“You’d better stop criticizing my hair treatment and focus on that damn radar! Look at it!”
Indeed, five new blips appeared on the screen.
“Damn it, Nartz fighters. They’re 80 kilometers out.”
“Alert the base; I’ll intercept them.”
“Are you out of your mind? Did you drink that nasty shampoo of yours?” Cassio practically shouted into the void, as Jebi had already leaped out the window.
“Watch me!” Jebi called out, sprinting toward his aircraft. He wore an old black jumpsuit with orange stripes, an heirloom from his uncle, who had died after ejecting from his fighter during the first war against the Nartz twenty years earlier.
A single alien command ship had nearly brought Earth to its knees, and if not for sheer luck, it would have conquered the entire planet. Humanity, frightened but in possession of the spoils of war, had poured all its resources into studying and assimilating Nartz technology. To accelerate the process, the Global Defense Union (GDU) was established, putting all information online under an open collaboration agreement, allowing anyone access.
The exact size of the Nartz command ship fleet was unknown, but over twenty “Dumbbells” had been identified. These command ships consisted of two enormous spheres connected by a cylindrical section, resembling a simple gym dumbbell. Each carried hundreds of smaller craft, akin to flying watermelon slices, capable of landing and walking on five long, thin articulated legs.
“They’re heading for Imperatriz, Jebi. The target might be the GDU base.”
The message arrived directly via Jebi’s implant.
“Highly unlikely… The base has over a hundred cannons. I think the target is the UFMA materials lab. They’re after the nano-mesh printer.”
“Where’d you pull that from, boy?”
“My dear mother-in-law told me…”
Jebi climbed the metal ladder into the cockpit of his mechanized interceptor. The vehicle was painted in a black-and-green striped pattern, with the name FUSSMAKER emblazoned in silver letters on both sides. Cassio’s design had merged five anti-gravity rods into the fuselage of the Nippo-Brazilian fighter Mitsubishi G-32, replacing part of the aircraft’s structure with a volatile reprogrammable mesh. As a result, the Fussmaker could assume three configurations: fighter, pentapod, and shinobi.
Jebi activated his interface helmet, which began transmitting all the aircraft’s sensor data to the biochip in his mind. Without pressing a single button, he powered up the systems, causing the pentapod to ascend vertically and hover. Then, he switched to fighter mode, retracting the five multi-jointed metal legs while the four wings slid into position, doubling their span. Accelerating rapidly, Jebi was pressed into his seat as the aircraft broke the sound barrier, leaving a sonic boom in its wake.
Piloting was entirely thought-driven, aided by Mother-in-Law, an artificial intelligence that used the vocal pattern of his late mother-in-law, Mrs. Nivalda.
“Mother-in-Law, low flight and vertical approach.”
“By the Grace of Saint George!”
“Saint George? It’s been a while since you brought that up…”
“We’ll win, by the Grace of God!”
“I just don’t know if God is Brazilian or Nartz…”
Jebi received the information on his screen. It was time to ascend. He engaged the anti-G compensators before switching to shinobi mode. The Fussmaker performed an inertia-transfer maneuver, shifting from a horizontal to a vertical vector. Despite the compensators absorbing 99% of the impact, Jebi felt his stomach sink from the sharp movement. The fighter retracted its wings, and two of its long legs extended from its nose, generating an energy blade between their tips. It shot upward like a rocket, slim and propelled by the combined force of its five anti-gravity rods.
The first of the five enemy fighters was split in two by Jebi’s attack. The element of surprise was gone.
“Hot dang! Got one!” Jebi announced over the communicator.
The Nartz craft adjusted their flight formation. One continued on its original course while the other three turned to engage the Fussmaker. Jebi reverted to fighter mode and fired a salvo of twelve missiles simultaneously.
“Another one? That’s it, Mother-in-Law!” Jebi didn’t expect to destroy any of the enemy ships with the missiles, merely to keep them occupied.
“They’ll burn in hell!”
Mother-in-Law preemptively activated evasive maneuvers before Jebi could detect any threats. Her processing speed and combat capabilities surpassed his by over a thousandfold. Jebi’s role was to occasionally inject chaos or provide unexpected inputs, making the AI’s actions less predictable to the enemy. Mother-in-Law learned from every battle, not just her own, but also from a constantly updated database of thousands of GDU combat encounters.
The Fussmaker shifted its vector downward, but Jebi temporarily took manual control for a maneuver.
“Escher Maneuver!” Jebi’s face turned crimson, and his cheeks trembled as he piloted without inertial compensators.
The Fussmaker’s legs formed a star pattern, spinning like a circular saw as it looped into a collision course with one of the Nartz ships. The sound of enemy debris battering the Fussmaker’s hull resembled a frenzied techno drumbeat.
Mother-in-Law overrode Jebi’s controls to save the Fussmaker from an enemy missile, but not entirely. The nearby explosion sent the aircraft spinning so fast that Jebi lost consciousness.
“Jebi, scoot outta there, you varmint! Answer me, damn it!” Cassio’s voice over the radio went unanswered. “Mother-in-Law, get him out!”
“Sorry, Cassio, but I must complete the mission. GDU orders.”
“To hell with the GDU! Pull him outta there, ya ornery machine!”
“Rest assured, Cassio; Saint George is with us today!”
“I’m going to wipe your program, you bitch!”
“Threats won’t work, Cassio. I have several backups in the shadow zone. Done. Eliminated another one. Now, just the alpha remains.”
Jebi woke up, disoriented. “Mother-in-Law, status.”
“We’ve lost 35% thrust, and the transformation mesh is jammed. In pursuit of the Nartz alpha, three clicks away.”
“My fault?”
“The Escher Maneuver was effective and unexpected but left us too close to the other fighter. I could have handled it without damage, with a 63.21% probability, two clicks.”
“Osmius booster?”
“One click, affirmative.”
“It’s dodging the beams.”
“It’s futile, Jebi.”
“Manual.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jebi. If I can’t—”
“Aha! Look at that! Got the bastard.”
“Luck. Reassuming control.”
The Nartz fighter launched over 30 missiles from its rear. Jebi vomited as Mother-in-Law engaged the inertial compensator for a complete vector reversal.
“Don’t worry, Jebi, I’ll take you home now.”
“But what about the fighter?”
“GDU reinforcements from the Imperatriz base are inbound. Five of ours against one of theirs… Mission accomplished.”
“Should I retire, Mother-in-Law?”
“Not yet, Jebi. My data indicates our partnership is still 2% more efficient than my solo performance.”
“Two percent? What was it last time? Fifteen?”
“Fourteen and a half. But don’t worry, Jebi. In a few months, you’ll be ready for retirement.”
Jebi had always felt special, but from that day forward, he began to consider early retirement as a grim prospect. The growing sense of helplessness inside him suggested that soon, humanity’s fate would rest entirely in the hands of artificial intelligences.