Chapter 1

It was the middle of winter and bitterly cold. The war had been ongoing for 6 years and both sides of the conflict were nearing total exhaustion. The flow of supplies needed to maintain military operations had almost completely dried up and conditions were becoming desperate. The situation in the enemy forces was the same yet neither side was able to find a way to end the conflict.

It was the last of the war machines in that depleted sector, brand new and not yet activated. In fact, unknown to those who had possession of it, it was actually the last such machine remaining anywhere to either side. The military intelligence group was in such disarray that little was known anymore about the activities of the enemy forced, where they were or how many. Every other war machine had been destroyed in the fierce fighting of the past two years, fighting that had left both sides almost completely exhausted. Supplies were becoming increasingly scarce for both sides of the conflict and civilization was decaying rapidly.

Depot leader Marshall Olander was in charge of the service depot and since it was the last machine in the depot he gave it extra loving care. Even though he was only a warrant officer he knew it was one of the last of its kind left to either side. Every system was carefully maintained and all the weapons systems checked and rechecked. With the military situation what it was there was little else really for Olander and his helpers to do. Since supply deliveries had almost completely dried up everyone in the depot was reduced to eating field rations every day.

Fortunately the supply of field rations in storage at the depot was quite large and since the whole facility was underground there was a feeling of safety there, despite the war. This feeling of safety increased as the tempo of operations died down on both sides and the stream of orders from HQ slowly dried to a trickle. Soon it came to seem almost like the depot had been forgotten with only the occasional routine orders from HQ.

Finally one winter day an order came through to prepare the war machine for deployment. The day was cold and overcast and it looked like it would begin to snow soon. In terms of the material preparation of the war machine there were only checks and then the stocking of ammunition and supplies that needed to be done. Marshall felt a twinge of sadness as he supervised the preparation of his tenderly cared for war machine. But he was also found himself wondering who would be the crew for the machine since he was the only one in the depot who had the command implant required to interface with the war machine's AI. Despite being a maintenance man and not a combat crewman he had received the implant to allow him to interface with the AI for troubleshooting. So far as he knew there were no combat crewmembers anywhere in the depot and no one had arrived from the outside for months. So it was a bit of a mystery: who would be selected for the crew for the war machine.

Within a couple of hours the issue of the crew was cleared up, Marshall was to be the leader and two others would be selected to accompany him on the mission. The war machine required a crew of three and the three always were one male and two females. Since there was no combat crew available and Marshall had the implant required to control the war machine his selection for the mission made sense. And since the war machine was the last one available, once it was gone there would be nothing left for Marshall to do at the depot anyway.

The two women who were selected to join him on the mission would have to receive their own implants, but since they would not need to control the war machine their implants could be implanted right before it was time to leave. Then their implants could make the connection to their nervous system once the mission started. During the time the implants were connecting themselves to the women's brains they would remain unconscious. This was not a problem for the mission since the initial orders were to simply travel to a specified location and wait for further orders to be transmitted.

Marshall supervised the loading of supplies into the storage spaces in the war machine. Since he would be going himself he tried to load just about everything he could scrounge from the depot's scanty supplies. While he was doing that and making one last check to make sure that everything about the war machine was as ready as it could be the two women who would accompany him were chosen and given their implants for communication with the war machine's AI.

Finally everything was loaded aboard and it was time to leave. The two women who were to accompany Marshall on the trip were brought to the war machine, still unconscious from their surgery. It would be another 12 hours before they came out of it, but that was not a problem. The AI of the war machine would watch them and sound the alarm if any problem arose with the two. After the two were securely in their couches inside the machine Marshall stripped off his uniform and went inside, too.

One of the regulations for the crew of war machines was that no clothing should be worn inside. The two women who had been placed inside before Marshall were also naked. All their protection would come from the machine; they would live or die with it. It was believe this would make the crew always want to remain in the machine and do their most to keep it intact.

It had started to snow as Marshall finished the final preparations for leaving but the weather was no impediment to the war machine. Its powerful motors and wide tracks could carry it through almost any weather or terrain conditions and it could even travel completely submerged under water. The AI started moving the war machine out to the location where they were directed to wait for the orders specifying the next part of the mission to be transmitted to them. Once the war machine reached that location it was to hide itself as much as possible and wait for the transmission carrying the next part of the mission orders.

The snowfall was growing stronger now as the war machine churned toward the waiting point. It was actually something welcome because it made the tracks disappear more quickly and swallowed up the heat trace left by the war machine as it passed by. There had not been any enemy activity in that area for several months but still the AI kept all the passive sensors at maximum sensitivity.

The place where they were supposed to wait for the next part of their mission orders was about 60 miles away from the depot. There was a good chance they would not be returning there again. The war machine was making about 25 miles an hour so it would take about two and a half hours to make it to the waiting area. Once there the war machine would hide itself as best it could and then wait for the transmission that would provide the next portion of the mission.

In addition to its own powerful sensors the war machine also carried a number of robotic drones to use for reconnaissance and scouting. Included with these were two adult size humanoid robots. These units could also carry out complex tasks, such as emplacing a camouflage cover over the machine. This was the first task that would be needed once the waiting location was reached, as it would be some time before the orders for the next step in the mission would be received. During the time the machine was stationary and waiting for the next transmission the war machine needed to be concealed from view.

During the travel to the waiting area Marshall spent most of the time in the command dome that was the only place in the war machine that had a direct view of the outside. Despite the availability of a rich array of sensors available and the powerful data processing he could tap if he so desired, Marshall preferred an ordinary view of the outside, with just his own eyes. Of course, the AI maintained its own continuous monitoring of all the sensors for any possible threats and would alert him immediately if any such were detected. But with the increasing exhaustion of the enemy forces the risk to the machine was slight and decreasing all the time.