“Might as well take them in order,” he said. “Ms. Martel, monitor movement accuracy. Dr. Halberg, target precision. I’ll make any necessary in-the-moment adjustments.”
“Roger that.” Dr. Halberg gave him a nod. “Squad Alpha, ready on your command.”
With Captain Hahn and his soldiers out of the line of fire, Adélard entered the program code and clicked the initiate button. A unit of twenty-five robots advanced, raised their laser rifles, and fired on the targets. Every blast hit. Including the child silhouettes. The robots took unison backward steps, shouldered their guns, and locked their metal feet in place.
Adélard groaned. “Report.”
Anya flipped through her papers, yanking the pencil from behind her ear. Paval stepped over to examine one of the units. He opened a chest panel, adjusted some internal wiring and reseated a circuit array, closed it, and pushed keys on his electronic pad. “Try again.”
“Captain, stand those smoking dummies back up,” Adélard barked. “Put out any fires.”
With two silent fingers from Hahn, the security detail pivoted simultaneously, moving out in double time.
This cannot fail, Adélard thought as he checked his code again.First Cipher LeCun is counting on me.
When the grounds were clear of humans, he punched in the instructions, retesting Alpha Squad. The robots rattled forward, aimed, and fired.
“Whew,” Anya let out, relaxing her stiff shoulders. “That’s much better.”
“A minor recalibration,” Paval said with a shrug. “Since they’re on a connected system, they should all function properly without manual adjustments.”
The AI remained linked at advisory level, but field control ran through an encrypted, high-frequency mesh network routed through his armored command vehicle. Solar arrays fed battery reserves rated for seventy-two hours of blackout, and the directional relay mast held a clean microwave lock on the grid.
“We’ll see.” Adélard reentered the code, calling up Beta Squad. Success. By the time they reached Epsilon, the military target dummies were no more than smoldering piles of manikin parts; civilian and child models showed only superficial scorching.
They continued drills all day—urban corridor clearing in a nearby empty town, obstacle breach, precision targeting, and river crossing. He and Paval continued to make adjustments, and the regiment kept improving.
“Target reacquisition success is at 95% with 97% hit confirmation,” Anya reported. “Of course, they were standing still. We need to try them on moving targets.”
“I was satisfied with how they handled the terrain and water obstacles,” said Paval as he lowered himself into a folding chair with a drink in his hand. “Only a few lost stability, and all regained balance autonomously.”
Captain Hahn and his squad patrolled the perimeter of the scientific camp while Adélard typed out a report for LeCun.First day of field tests. A few glitches. Ironing them out. Prospects favorable.
“I’m going to power them down overnight,” he said, tapping keys on his field console. “No use wasting energy. I want to put them through more rigorous tests tomorrow—long-distance laser calibration, moving-vehicle tracking, andlive-target shooting. We’ll release rabbits. Moving organic targets. The supply trucks hold crates of them.”
“Poor little bunnies.” Anya pouted and hugged herself, shooting Adélard an accusing glance. “They did nothing wrong.”
Adélard sighed, staring at her the way he would a petulant child. The robots’ mild hums quieted, the tiny lights on their necks fading, though their metallic tang still hung in the air.
“They must be tested on moving targets. Would you prefer to run around, trying to avoid having holes burned throughyou?”
She dropped into the folding chair beside Paval and bit into a sandwich without comment. Adélard closed the protective case over his station, latching it tight, and joined the other scientists to eat his dinner, satisfied with the day’s yield.
The next morning, testing resumed. “Moving the regiment into the target practice field,” Adélard said. Puffs of fog drifted in the valley between the Blue Ridge Mountains, moisture beading on his cheeks. The ridgeline loomed almost purple against the pale blue sky of early morning. Birds warbled out a song to greet the dawn. But Adélard’s attention remained trained on his mission.
One unit in Alpha Squad paused 0.3 seconds before stepping.
“Latency spike,” Halberg muttered.
Anya scrutinized the display tablet in her hands, her brows narrowing, lips pursing. “The logs show no packet loss or signal delay. Mesh integrity is clean.”
“It’s working now,” Halberg said. “All robots in perfect formation.”
Adélard added, “Weird little things happen sometimes. Just keep an eye on it, Ms. Martel. Captain Hahn, have your men release the targets.”
Anya’s head popped down to monitor the readings, her shoulders drawing in. Hahn’s team opened crates and dashed behind the line of fire into perfectrows. Rabbits hopped chaotically in the unfamiliar field. Adélard pushed in the command.
The robots fired, perfect grouping, none hitting another unit by mistake. Adélard hadn’t expected the quiet creatures to scream when the pulses struck, more unsettling than he cared to admit.