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Swarm Chapter 1: Demonstration
Date: 27 February 2005, 12:27 AM
And the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.
-Revelation 6:3
Chapter 1: Demonstration
(0600 hours, September 12, 2551, Military Calendar / UNSC controlled space, ONI Engineering Research Facility EX-221-7, ONI Department of Special Weapons Projects, Lambda Serpentis system, planet Jericho II)
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you will take your seats, I'll get right to it." He waited until the audience of twelve people seated themselves in the rows of seats in front of him. "Lights," the lights snapped off and the room went dark. The back wall lit up as a view screen came to life. On it was a picture of a small, black orb; the orb was covered with electronic circuitry that strikingly resembled a human brain.
"What you're looking at is an enlarged image of a nano-particle. In real life, this ball like orb is one thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. It is 100 nanometers across or a hundred billionths of a meter. It is just one of billions that we have produced." He stopped talking as a woman in the audience raised her hand. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Yes, uh, just what do you call these things in general?"
"Well around here we have several names for them: nanobots, nano-particle, nanites, or just really small robots. Mainly, we just refer to them as swarms. They travel in large groups, which are visible to the naked eye. They look like hazy, black clouds. Each group consists of millions and sometimes billions of them."
"How do they operate, are they based on the same quantum technology that AIs are?" a general asked. "And how are a bunch of microscopic robots capable of combating Covenant on the ground?"
"Yes, they are based on quantum computing technology, which isn't new but it is flourishing. Ship grade Artificial Intelligences are made up of memory processing super conductors and layers of code, which hold intrusion software and other important subroutines for certain tasks. Each nano-particle consists of the same material and design, only on an atomic scale. Since the super conductors are so small they are not able to be as witty, intelligent, and smart as AIs. So one of these things is quite literally a small AI...and millions of them in a swarm can be as smart as a low end AI, but they cannot speak to humans and they operate autonomously. And to answer your second question, general" He snapped his fingers and on the screen an image of a group of Covenant appeared. They were standing in an open grass field holding chrome plasma weapons, all around them were fifteen foot high steel walls.
"This is a live image your looking at. We captured them during the current fighting on Jericho V." He snapped his fingers again and behind him, the walls parted to reveal the same field that the view screen displayed. "Don't worry we're separated from them by three inch thick, plasma dissipating glass."
In the field thirty meters from their position the group of Covenant stood. A view screen came down from the ceiling and showed a close up image of the Covenant. The aliens looked around aimlessly. Suddenly a black cloud seemed to materialize out of thin air and engulfed one of the five Elites. The blue Elite roared and swung its arms around in the air hitting nothing. Its shields flared and died and it bent over and coughed up purple black blood. The Elite howled and fell to its knees, continuing to flail its arms wildly in the air. The coughing turned to vomiting and it hacked up its entrails. The alien hit the ground and blood flowed from its mouth and eyes. It all happened in less than five seconds.
The people in the audience stirred and ripples of conversation sparked, as they grew intrigued by this new and strange weapon. The other four Elites were quickly cut down and by now, the other aliens had noticed. Three Jackals ran around in random circles, their arms flailing. They too coughed up blood and internal organs, and then collapsed. The ten Grunts bunched up into a tight circle, firing their plasma pistols and needlers into the air. A black cloud engulfed them and they ran around, their methane tanks leaked and they suffocated to death in the nitrogen oxygen atmosphere.
When it was over and all the Covenant had suddenly died the man again snapped his fingers and the walls closed and the main view screen turned to life.
"As you can see the swarm is a perfect weapon for combating Covenant. They are more effective than a platoon of Helljumpers."
An admiral in the audience looked at his watch and shook his head in amazement. "That only took fifteen seconds."
"Yes sir, they kill the enemy quickly, quietly."
"How did they do it?" another general asked.
"When fighting Elites they will disable their personal shield generators then enter their bodies via the mouth, pores on the body, and any other available orifices. When inside they attack every major artery and blood passage, causing them to burst. They rupture the lungs and then attack the brain. The swarm basically attacks every vital organ and with all that blood that the victim is hacking up, guts are bound to come with it."
"I see," the general replied, his tone indicated uneasiness.
"The swarm is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. They learn as they go, they can mimic technology perfectly. This is the ultimate weapon against the Covenant."
"Just on the ground," Fleet Admiral Drake Harper commented.
"Not entirely, Admiral," the man yet again snapped his fingers and the view screen displayed an image of a missile. "This is your common ship-grade Archer missile, the tip is filled with high explosive but in the middle we put canisters full of nanobots. The canisters holding the nanos are radiation, EMP, and blast proof. So when the missile impacts it will tear a whole in the Covenant ships' shield and the canisters will automatically open and swarms will be able to enter the ship through microscopic holes in the ship caused by mircometeors or any small openings, which there are bound to be many."
"Why not just blow the ship to hell, how will this aid the space front?" Harper asked.
"Sir, this method is perfect for the capture of a Covenant ship intact or for the swarm to be able to go on board and copy Covenant technology."
"Right, what about the cost and time strains of filling up every human ship's Archer missile supply with these canisters."
"Admiral, it will be cheap and will take no time at all," he answered, the edges of his voice hinted annoyance.
"Very well," Harper said his expression blank.
"Any more questions?"
"Yes, if the nano-particles are as smart as you say they are then what are the chances of them attacking us?" an ONI oversight committee member asked.
"Unlikely, Each swarm is able to tell the difference between humans and Covenant by the way we breathe. They are able to tell if it is a human by the amount of CO2 that we exhale. They tell if it's Grunt by detecting methane traces. When Elites breathe their personal shields muffle the amount of air they inhale, nanos detects this. As for the rest of the different races of the Covenant, each breathes a specific way and the nanobots detect all this. They do what their programmed to do. The same as a young child who is told to do something by their parents. The nanobots do not have as large a memory bank as an AI nor are they as smart. They are smart enough to carry out orders but are not smart enough to think on their own."
"But, you said that they were self-sustaining," the member replied.
"Indeed I did, they are able to survive on their own without a battery supply or an energy source. They are independent and autonomous but are not self-governing."
"Since they travel in groups of millions and each is an AI on an atomic scale can't all that brain power work as one and become smarter?"
"As I said before they can't think. They just travel in swarms because their so damn small and there's so many of them. It's impossible for them to connect themselves together and act and think as one," his voice was an obvious indicator of his rising anger. "Any more questions?" he asked in a rugged tone.
The room was silent.
"Okay, thank you for your time and if you'll just follow the arrows to the exits." He said.
The people filed out of the exits and some stopped to shake his hand.
"This is great; it's gonna rival the Spartan program. By the way what's your name?" one asked.
The man looked at the committee member and smiled. "Dr. Webber."
To Be Continued...
Swarm Chapter 2: Outbreak
Date: 12 March 2005, 1:44 AM
Chapter 2: Outbreak
(1900 hours, September 12, 2551, Military Calendar / UNSC controlled space, ONI Engineering Research Facility EX-221-7, ONI Department of Special Weapons Projects, Lambda Serpentis system, planet Jericho II)
The control room of the SWP Engineering Research Facility EX-221-7 was dark except for the wall-sized monitors that faintly illuminated a small section of the large room. The view screens displayed security readouts and containment procedures. The man sitting in front of the screens tapped furiously away at the keyboard before him.
Lieutenant 1st Class Jim Hall yawned as he finished the nightly shutdown procedures...all except one. Hall leaned back and yawned deeply. It had been almost two days since he slept. Since high-ranking military and navy commanders and members from the ONI oversight committee came to see the swarm in action. He had spent all of yesterday going over line after line of code debugging the nanobot's basic operational systems. Now that they were all gone, he had nothing to do except run the nightshift in the control room, making sure that everything ran smoothly. Dr. Webber had worked every one of the facilities' fifty workers to their limits. Now they were a ghost crew stranded on a desolate planet on the edges of UNSC controlled space. Again, Hall yawned and he remembered old times long since passed.
He remembered growing up on vids of Admiral Cole's fleet retaking the Harvest system and wanting to be a starship pilot and fly with the ol' war hound, battling Covenant, and saving the human race. When he graduated from Naval OCS, he was plucked up and thrown into circulation almost instantly. He flew a few missions and acted as a Ship's Ops officer. Hall witnessed many battles and many planets glassed. It was the farthest thing from his childhood dream...in fact it was living proof of hell. He had volunteered for ONI spec ops and passed the training with flying colors. He was thrown into the development of top-secret projects and was glad to be away from the bloodshed. Now he looked forward to his sleep cycle, which came much sooner than he expected. Lieutenant Hall's eyelids became heavy and he nodded off into the beginnings of a deep REM sleep.
In the recesses of Facility EX-221-7, in the holding cells of projects that were "in development" something happened. A clear vapor escaped from one of the holding cells (long glass cylinders that connected to the floor) which was followed by a hissing sound. The vapor turned black and began to cascade out of the top of the cell.
The vapor seemed to spread throughout the facility in a deliberate manner, as if something was controlling it. It also flashed different colors as it continued to float and spread. In parts of the vaporous cloud, it flashed a fiery red and those parts vanished literally into thin air. The cloud turned from black to blue to yellow, then to green. In other parts, it swirled and scattered as it hit streams of air that blew out of vents.
The cloud filled the holding area and spread throughout several parts of the facility. As it did so, the cloud moved as if it knew where it was going. It spread to the landing platforms where a Pelican dropship was sitting in the darkness. The cloud surrounded the dropship and began to study it, moving from part to part and entering the bowels of the dropship via vents and microscopic openings. The Pelican's engines and cockpit seemed to be of particular interest to the cloud. When the mist was finished with what it was doing, it scattered to anything else that had working parts, memory, and data. The cloud was eager to learn.
Hall suddenly awoke to a flashing red light. He glanced at his watch to see how long he had been out. Ten minutes, damn. Rubbing his eyes Hall tapped a series of buttons and a data report popped up onto the wall monitor. Apparently, there had been a malfunction in
part of the security camera system. Hall shook his head and typed in a series of commands. A new image popped up on the screen showing live images from the cameras. Hall examined each picture, every camera showed the same relative peace at night throughout the facility except... "Got ya!" Hall muttered and maximized the image of cam 3-20A, the enlarged image showed the hissing gray of static. The camera must have short-circuited. He minimized the image and relaxed a little, Hall would see that it got fixed in the morning. Suddenly two more cameras went out and both showed static.
"What the...?" Hall whispered and typed in another command. The cameras were from the holding cells, landing platform A-2, and the mess hall. So much for fixing it in the morning, Hal thought. He keyed an intercom. "Ferrell, get up!"
"What the hell do you want, do you have any idea what time it is?" a voice crackled back over the intercom.
"Its only 1900. Look I need you to go to the holding cells and repair the security cam."
"What for?"
"It short-circuited, so go out there, fix it, and then you can sleep till your hearts content."
"Alright, I'll do it but after this you owe me...big time," Technical officer Ronald Ferrell replied in a reluctant voice.
"Shut up and get it done, but don't go making too much noise, I don't want Webber all over this," Hall said.
"Yeah, whatever, you want me to switch my portable com to your station?"
"Yes do it, but make sure it's a one way line, I don't want any eavesdroppers, Ron."
"Why are you so jumpy? Just calm down, it's only a camera."
"Make it fast!" Hall replied and killed the link. He waited for the green light that indicated that Ferrell had connected his com to his station.
Ferrell took out a flash light and made his way through several hallways to the other side of the facility to the holding cell area, he cursed Lieutenant 1st Class Jim Hall all the way there. He walked up to the large pressure doors that blocked his entry into the holding room. "Hall, open to the doors to the holding cells."
"Roger," came the reply, the red lights on the door blinked to green, and the doors slid apart revealing the large, dark holding room.
For some reason unknown to Ferrell he cautiously took a few steps forward, something did not seem right. He shrugged off the feeling and walked in. He walked past several of the cylindrical cells and stopped in front of one that caught his eye, it wasn't sealed and steam hissed out. He shrugged. What if somebody was up testing something or if the tubes' contents had been moved to a different cell and they were airing this one out? Ferrell walked on and stopped in front of the back wall and looked up at cam 3-20A. It looked fine except for its indicator light flashed red. He inserted a key into the wall and the camera slid down to his height via a small sliding track. He disconnected it and opened up the camera's side. He found the problem, a dead circuit. Ferrell quickly replaced it, put the camera back on the wall, and pressed a button causing the camera to slide to its original height. Adjusting his lip mike, he spoke into his com, "Check it now."
"Yeah, the pictures on, what was wrong with it?"
"You were right; a busted circuit."
"There are two other cameras with the same problem."
Hearing this Ferrell flushed with anger. "If your saying that you want me to fix them the you can forget it, pal."
"No, no, I just wanted you to fix this one so that Webber wouldn't bust a cap. The other two are in areas that don't need as much security."
[indent["If he finds out about this then your going down, not me."
"Shut the—" as Hall was saying this the com link died.
"Hall, Hall you hear me?" Ferrell said. He took off the head set and walked to the door. As he was about to exit he sensed movement behind him. On impulse, he whirled around and looked, his flashlight danced across the dark room, nothing. He walked on but suddenly stopped.
His nose itched and he sneezed. Ferrell shook his head and was about to exit when his leg went numb. "What the fuck?" He murmured as a strange, cold feeling ran up his spine. Suddenly his leg wasn't numb anymore, but the numbness had moved to his right arm. He rolled up his sleeve to the elbow and looked at his arm. It hurt suddenly and his skin turned ghostly pale, the kind of pale that dead bodies turned, not a normal color. Suddenly his hand began to clench itself without him thinking to do it. A pain filled his chest and he began to cough. At first, the coughing was light, but it gained momentum and turned to hacking. He fell to all fours and spewed up a warm liquid that dripped to the ground and onto his hands. Opening his eyes, Ferrell saw that it was blood and he vomited. Ferrell felt it coming up and then coming out; it splattered to the ground out of his mouth and covered his hands. To his horror, he discovered that he had coughed up his own entrails.
A pain filled his neck and the base of his head, so intense he blacked out instantly. Ferrell went limp and slumped to the ground, face first into his own visceral matter and blood. By now, he was bleeding from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. It came out in rivers and formed a puddle around him, which quickly grew to a pool. Ferrell became conscious and felt his entire body pounding with each heartbeat, which was accompanied by more blood. He opened his eyes and looked up to see a black cloud hovering over him. He tried to scream but fear tightened his vocals and all that he was able to produce was a guttural choking noise from deep within his throat. The cloud closed in on him and another presence overtook his vision...blackness.
To Be Continued...
Swarm Chapter 3: Wrath
Date: 14 March 2005, 11:56 PM
Chapter 3: Wrath
(0500 hours, September 13, 2551 Military Calendar / UNSC controlled space, ONI Engineering Research Facility EX-221-7, ONI Department of Special Weapons Projects, Lambda Serpentis system, planet Jericho II)
Webber stood over the body of Ferrell, who had been covered with a plastic sheet, which was normally reserved for cadavers in the morgue. Thirty other workers stood around him. Some were checking radiation levels, some were examining broken holding cell tubes, and others looked at the body. Webber looked down at the blood around the body; it was still fresh and still trickling out of Ferrell.
Hall stood on the other side of the bloody mess parallel to Webber. He looked up at him. Webber noticed a glint of fear and confusion in his eyes. "Tell me again what happened."
Hall stood straighter and gulped so loud that everyone in the room heard. "Sir, I noticed that a camera had shorted out then two others after it. I told Mac...Maintenance officer Ferrell to see what the problem was. He came to the holding area and checked to see what was wrong with the camera and sure enough, it had short-circuited. However, when I told him about the other two cameras he said that he didn't want to be blamed for it. I was about to tell him to shut up but then the com link went out. I got the image of the camera to come up but it was very blurry and I didn't have time to clear it up and thoroughly examine it."
"Were you in the control room or here with him?" Webber asked calmly.
"With hi..." Hall trailed off, Webber was asking him if he murdered Ferrell. "No sir, I was in the control room the entire time."
"Sir, he's right, I watched the control room camera, he was in there the time of the death," a techie said.
"Very well, now my superior Colonel Ackerson is on his way back to earth from one of the other planets in system, he'll be making a pit stop here."
"Colonel Ackerson, sir?" Hall choked.
"Yes Lieutenant and he'll want to speak with you when he arrives. In addition, two detectives from the city on the other side of this planet are coming over here to investigate this death. If they file a report to the UNSC HIGHCOM, Ackerson will be powerless to stop congress from making a full investigation into our Special Weapons Projects. They'll start asking questions and throwing many of us into the brig," Webber replied.
"Seriously, sir?" a tech asked, nervous at the thought of losing his job or worse.
"No, their from ONI, so we're good."
Many breathed a sigh of relief and went back to what they were doing. Webber understood the fear of the UNSC brass. ONI Special Weapons Projects funding was on a short leash. If they learned of what really was going on then the money would stop coming and as he had said, they would all be in the brig.
Webber stood on the landing platform. He glanced over at one of the Pelicans that had been docked, in the same night of Ferrell's death, it had been sabotaged and its memory bank had been wiped clean. He looked at the incoming Pelican and stepped back as it landed. He was splashed with air from its jets as it skidded to a stop on the platform, the rear hatch lowered, and five people stepped out.
Webber looked at the man in the lead. Colonel James Ackerson walked with a commanding stride that spoke of authority, his face always had a dark, vex look to it. He walked up to Webber, his "entourage" of four people at his heels.
"Dr. Webber...I trust you will inform me of exactly what happened here," Ackerson said
"Of course, Colonel," unfortunately for Ackerson his demanding and authoritative tone that made even general's shake, had no effect on Webber.
Ackerson sensed this. "Well?"
Webber informed him of Ferrell's death, the Pelican, and of Hall. When he was finished, Ackerson's expression had not changed.
"So, some tech went to check out a camera malfunction and was killed," Ackerson said, his voice hinted no emotion.
"Basically," Webber replied.
"Where's the body."
"Right this way, Colonel," Webber said and walked towards the door to the rest of the facility.
He led them through several hallways and passages to the holding room. They entered and walked over to the body. Webber noticed that now only eleven workers remained, the nineteen others had left in fear of facing Ackerson and his minions. Hall was among the ones remaining. Webber admired his bravery.
Ackerson looked down at body that was covered in the plastic. He kneeled down and pulled it back to reveal Ferrell's blood covered head and his entrails under the body. "Son of a bitch really bit the dust...cause of death?"
"Portable X-rays and other tests showed that his insides had literally burst. Several arteries burst, his lungs collapsed and he was coughing up so much blood that his intestines came up," Webber said.
"Sounds like the swarm." Ackerson said.
"We've all came to that conclusion, unfortunately."
"Uh-huh," Ackerson threw back the sheet and stood up. Straightening his uniform, he looked at Webber. "I want to talk to this Lieutenant Hall?"
Hal stepped forward, he was writing something down on a portable palm pad and he handed it to another tech. "Yes sir?"
Ackerson nodded and watched the blonde-haired, freckle faced Lieutenant step forward. "Tell me your side of the story."
Hall in the best steady voice as he could told of the events of the previous night. He finished slowly. "When I got here I found him like this."
"So, when the com went dead you waited to go and investigate, only after you saw the blurred camera image of him flailing about on the ground?"
"Yes sir, when the com went dead I thought it just might be a bug in the system so I didn't bother."
"Why did you wait to tell him about the other two cameras?"
"This camera seemed to be the only one that was important enough to be fixed; the other two were in areas that aren't as important as the holding cells."
Ackerson closed in on him. "You think the landing platforms and the mess hall's security is not as important as here?"
"Yes sir," Hall responded.
"This whole damn facility is equally important!" Ackerson yelled. "I want you on the next ship out."
"Yes sir, I plan to take full responsibility for it in front of the UNSC congress," ONI black ops and there secrecy/funding didn't matter as much to Hall as the life of his friend.
"There won't be any investigation, Lieutenant."
"Sir, I plan to file a report."
"Very well Lieutenant, my men will accompany you to Jericho city where you will take the next ship out system," Ackerson replied.
"Yes sir," Hall muttered.
Ackerson, the four others, and Webber walked out. Webber walked along side Ackerson and looked at him. "Well?"
"I'm not going to have some half-assed techie screw with my operations. Sanders, Benson!" Ackerson said.
"Yes sir?" two of the four members of Ackerson posse said in unison.
Ackerson turned his head and nodded. Sanders and Benson walked back towards the holding cells.
"Make the cover believable," Ackerson said to Webber. With that, he walked back to the Pelican.
Webber turned around and went to the holding cells. He entered and saw Sanders standing next to the body, Hall had continued what he was doing before Ackerson had come, as well had the eleven others. "Lieutenant, Sergeants Sanders and Benson here will accompany you to the city."
"Yes sir," Hall replied.
"Get your personal affects together and get ready to depart."
"Sir yes sir," Hall said and went to his quarters, closely followed by the two.
Webber looked around the room. "Get this mess cleaned up and the body out of here." He said to one of the techs and left.
Hall pulled on the straps of his seat harness and tightened it as the Warthog bounced down the dirt road. Sanders sat in the back, the chain gun had been replaced with a rear seat, and Benson drove. He shifted gears and stomped on the accelerator. Both of Ackerson's cronies had been silent since their departure. They hadn't drove on the main road, instead they took this secluded dirt road with tall grass on both sides, Sanders said that he didn't want any civilians to see them leaving the facility (it was supposed to be derelict, but the population knew otherwise) but Hall had his doubts.
Suddenly the engine began to groan and roar. Benson struggled with the gears and stopped in the middle of the road. He got out and walked over to the front, as he popped the hood a cloud of smoke bellowed from under it. "Damn, I think we blew something, can you give me a hand?"
Both Sanders and Hall got out. Hall walked up to the front and looked at the engine. "I know a little about motors, what seems to be the problem?
Benson looked at him and smiled. "You."
Hall looked at him and from the corner of his eye, he saw Sanders draw a pistol. Hall heard two consecutive shots and two smacks on his chest. He fell to the ground; his breath was knocked out of him. He looked down at his chest and saw two bloody holes. Hall choked and looked up to see Sanders level the M6D to his head, attached to its barrel was a flash/sound suppressor. He squeezed the trigger.
To Be Continued...
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