Chapter Four - Part 3

"Kid... I told you about the A.I. when I first began disclosing all this to you. You are arguing now, out of fear. Don't get me wrong there is plenty to be afraid of... look at those stats I sent to your com the other day, the stats for potential survival."

I brought them up, "Look at the ones I said were projected percentages for remaining with GM."

"Yeah..." I was getting more frustrated. "So?"

"None of those stats show what will happen when all this winds down and they no longer are in need of... bulk, mass killing."

"So... what happens?"

"Our little corner of usefulness ends with the body count reaching its projected goals. I mean, a few will be kept for hunt and kill operations, but in about two years ours numbers will be met and most of us, including GM personnel are as good as dead."

"How do you know this?"

"I have my intel sources and these are all mutually confirming, though each, mutually isolated from the others."

He looked a little more than anxious, occasionally glancing at his com and the camera in back of me. "The thing about those numbers on your com for GM, they don't indicate your chances once the killing here starts. I couldn't calculate for that unknown, and I did not want it to appear that I was pushing you to run from here just because I think the chances for those who stay here are the worst of all."

The cameras came on and his smile showed relief, and he started doing that mouth thing.

"And so, the way I see it, the scales tip radically in favor of the escapee if he or she can make it beyond those metrics."

He touched a button on his com and said, "But, you or I can't go out like the rest have, we would go out with the proper intel. Those numbers you have for the survival of an escapee, would be for the first to leave, with the one who leaves second having the odds cut in half. All my former brothers and sister were one hundred percent dead, before they left."

"Give me an example of one of your sources."

"Mapping... the games now are having you mostly deployed to rural or semi-wilderness arena of operations with the occassional excursion like your first hop into ultra-modern alien structures. When the rural areas are culled enough, and the small town populations depleted, the maps will more and more show dense populace, mostly alien city games with high bug counts." I nodded to show I was following, "These missions will be kill missions in our metro areas across our planet though the structures will show as alien and the people as bugs. These game maps will be rolling out in the middle of this year, I have already seen them."

Chapter Four - Part 2

Cameras off.

"A.I. for the robots that do the dirty work. That is what Grinders do... we think we are playing against other gamers across the planet and all we are is artificial intelligence for un-manned killing machines?"

Kilo smiled, I was getting really sick of his smile, "You think this is funny?"

"Where are you going with this Gank?" His smile was smaller, more of a smirk.

"I want to know as much as possible before I make up my mind."

"Yeah... A. I. - artificial intel for the robots, feel better or worse for the info?" He was smiling big again.

"What do you want kid? You can't argue the point with anyone but me, and where can that go?" His amusement was no longer apparent. "You re-spawn into an un-manned drone when you go air borne and re-spawn onto a ground device again when your choices in the field call for it. The game program shows you getting into a plane or a tank when you choose to go there... but actually you, as the A.I. is simply transferred from robot to robot whether it is two legged, or flying, or otherwise."

I must have had a look on my face that meant the info wasn't connecting, "Look Kid, let give you an example... in real life, you have un-manned flyers dwelling above the kill zone... in the game the Grinder sees a plane sitting on the ground and jumps inside it to deliver death from above. To him, in the game he seems to take off... but actually the program is just making the transition to allow his attack from above. As soon as he delivers the destruction from above it shows on his visor that he has been shot down and he re-spawns into his character probably the same robot that he was in before he went airborne. The drone either goes home to reload or continues in the area until the next use."

He waited, putting his dinner debris on his tray. Finally he said "Man... I wish things were different, I wish there were no need to... well, we can wish all day... or we can fill our hands with hope."

Chapter Four - Part 1

"So... with the user sensors you manipulate your character in real time with players from every part of our global community." I knew now, that most of what I told these sprouts were lies, but to quote Kilo "What can ya do?" I had to continue to play the part, either, just enough to get me on the outside as an escapee or permanently hooked up with living the lie in GM.

Lies upon lies and encouraging kids to become real live murderers.

"You boots gotta get used to the idea that these suits that you will be given, mean the difference between a successful career in gaming or you washing out... and washing toilettes!" That part was true.

"You can not leave them unattended when not in use. Do not, go all aggro, because something didn't go right, rip off you visor and throw it down! Take your frustrations out on the enemy! These visors are very sensitive and are your personal big screen... perfect resolution, contact with your playing field. You can not play with a bad suit or visor, they are vital to your life as a gamer! And as it is with all electronic gear, it is expensive to fix or replace. All abuse of equipment..." I pointed to a couple of the cameras, "will be noted and your living standards will reflect your behavior with your responsibilities."

"And in case you are misunderstanding how this all works... your friends here, each of you..." I gestured to all those seated on the mat, "are in competition. You are all in competition with other cells like this one across the globe, but you are also in competition with your buddies. Knowing this... can bring the best, and the worst, out of each of you. Be supportive, but also be on your guard."

"Questions?" No response.

"I got a few..." I looked at those ignorant, innocent faces and wanted to scream, instead I asked, "Where does your gear go when it is not on your person?"

In unison came the response, "In our lockers sir!"

"Why are they called lockers?"

"Because we lock them sir!"

"When?"

"Every time sir!"

"What?"

Louder... "Every time sir!"

"Do your freakin home work after chow and before you start playing games... time to go." They all rose from the PT mat and only a few had questions that hindered my progress to the Flusher chow hall, and another meet with Kilo.

Chapter Three - Part 8

I had a few fries as he continued, "Kid, as I told you before, I have to make it look like we are on board with all this. Your first killing deployment happened on the hop to Rigel 7, you showed your colors as a fine Grinder. And I showed what good Flusher and strategist that I am, by orchestrating my fake sister escaping for that engagement, her placement near the presumed enemy encampments, and the deployment of your crew in the game and actual robots in the field, Grinder selection and strategic placement of you specifically... to show what you could do."

He paused and made sure I knew he was reading me, "Eat Gank."

Taking another bite of fries he said, "Rigel 7 turned out to be an encampment of believers yielding a body count of nearly three thousand and you pwned nearly half of those. As far as you knew you were playing your game in your control suit and they were alien bugs, you had no idea they were humans in Colorado... Keep eating the cameras could come on any time."

"You say this gave us great creds with GM?"

"You... yeah, your stats were great, but me especially... this showed them my abilities are within the top five percentile, but especially that I have no loyalty to our parents faith... they have no inkling that I believe in God." He reached for his burger and said, "Like I said, now they know we are both on board with this, knowing that I know you are really my brother. And they are certain that I am scheduling some sort of status change for you, either as an escapee or for GM." He took another bite.

"Real people... showing as bugs?"

The cameras came on.

"CG dude. All of it computer generated imaging to your visor. Proximity detectors triangulating through the different robots, gave the servers all they needed to re-image real life forms as any character in our games, human enemy soldiers from another era, alien bugs, whatever. Very easy to do when you think of it, and very easy to deploy... one of your best numbers is your not needing to spawn as much, you are very cost effective. You just don't use up as many robots. All of this served to set us both up with the best creds with GM and the Flushers to make our escape possible."

"I gotta get back to train my boots."

"Take your burger and eat on the way."

Chapter Three - Part 7

"Transponders embedded in our bodies... some of us only have a few, others have several in case one goes down it triggers the next in sequence. This is done so that GM and the Flushers, can, at any time locate you... or me if they don't already know." He pulled his tray back in front of him and began picking at his frys, "When an escapee shows stationary for any length of time then we know that he is probably being cared for, and we mobilize."

"How many have I got?" It made a difference to me, I needed to know if escaping was an option... too many transponders and it would be out of the question.

"I am trying to find out... I know how many I have, they simply implanted ours. But yours were implanted when they put you and other Grinders under for dental work they may have embedded as few as three or as many as ten or more. As I said, I am trying to dig that up but it is classified, even from Flushers."

Did I even have an idea of how many was too many? "How is the target confirmed?"

"Now your thinking! The escapee not only goes stationary but usually he will loose two or three transponders in a row... it is then we know that the escapee is finding and destroying them. This is a dead give away that he has found sanctuary." Kilo took a bite of his burger and said, "None of my other brothers and sisters that I have sent out knew of any transponders, their lack of this intel got them Ganked. That by the way is how you got your nickname, your a one man gang kill, in that deployment they, the bad guys, were bugs from another planet, that is how they showed on you virtual visor."

I felt sick, I didn't feel like eating but Kilo said, "You better eat your chow... you know how we watch you."

Chapter Three - Part 6

I looked again at the cameras, "Man... I have seen you every day that I can remember, and to go a twenty-four hour stretch and not see you lurking somewhere was pretty odd."

"You will need to make up your mind at some point, and soon." His smile was gone, "You needed to think in terms that it might be me taking off. Soon one of us will go first, leaving the other behind."

"I don't know about this God thing." I looked in his face to try and read something there.

He replied, "Well as far as that goes I can tell you what I know, but that might not help too much and it is still a question of do you want to keep doing what you're doing now that you know? Now that you know the reality of this... this murder."

He pushed his tray aside, "Kid, the belief thing can happen after you escape or even before... that is really up to God and you, but we have such a small window of opportunity to get us out of here and that time frame is more definite."

"Okay well tell me... what is the value to the Flushers... to GM in sending out these escapees? What can be accomplished by someone who is allowed to escape?"

Chapter Three - Part 5

"Especially at that age you Flushers creeped us out."

"You? Are you... creeped out?" Kilo looked amused.

"Not anymore, you kinda learn your way around the mine field." he was smiling big now, I said, "But some of the Grinders never got used to you guys..."

"Have you noticed that most of those, have either, gone to maintenance or are just gone?"

"Yeah and I can imagine where..." I offered that sarcasm as we entered "our" lunch room, the lights on both cameras were on.

As we sat I asked, "What seems to be the difference? I mean some of those who are no longer with us had good metrics."

"Nerves Gank, nerves." He popped a fry into his mouth while still smiling and talking, but now he was doing that mouth thing again.

He continued, "Sure it is true that a lot of those that are gone had good numbers, but the fact that they could not hold their mug around a Flusher meant they were reaching the end of their usefulness." I looked him in the eyes as he went on, "As a Flusher you get to see a whole mess of things that the rest..." he gestured to me, "that you Grinders don't."

"You get to see that their discomfort around us," he motioned his hands toward his chest, "rather than easing up, like with you, instead gets worse. And this usually happens just before their stats start tanking. Nerves kid, nerves. Speaking on nerves... how's yours?"

He punched a button on his com, it beeped and the camera lights went off. Then he asked with a big smile, "Did you miss me? Did you think I might have left you on your own... here?

Chapter Three - Part 4

I took the boots through several skirmishes that day and skipped lunch... just ate rations rather than risk another meeting with Kilo. I didn't want to talk to him for awhile, I already had too much to process.

My stats were much better through these training exercises than they usually were. I guess there is something good to be said for mindless activity while being mentally side-tracked.

I didn't see Kilo at dinner either, and then I hoped he was just giving me some space, and then began to worry a little when I didn't hear from him until after breakfast while beginning instructions with the younger boots... "You noobs do your homework?"

A bunch of growns went up, but it look like a couple might have studied and I made a mental note of them as I continued, "Okay, your obvious inability to take orders and instructions, mean I get to quiz you on what you know." This was followed by more groans but not as loud.

"You... name the types of sensors in the standard grind suit." I picked one of the few who looked confident.

The little red headed girl stood up and a little on the shaky side started, "There are four types of use sensors, and four types of med sensors."

"Good, sit down." She smiled and sat down, and then the door popped open at the far side of the gym, Kilo leaned his upper body in and looked at me and made an eating gesture and I mouthed "Now?" and he shook his head and mouthed "lunch".

By this time most of the kids had turned to see the Flusher at the door and just as quickly turned themselves around.

I looked at my com and I knew I had about four hours, Kilo liked eating late.

"The use sensors, class..." I made sure everyone was back on task, "in the G-suit are motion, g-force, touch... and what else?"

The same girl said, "impact."

"Correct, but lets raise our hands so we can give everyone a chance."