Biodroid: Dawn of a New Age

Iris

-"Status report!"

-"Everything is on Schedule Dr. Ullrich"

-"Excellent, communicate with the rest of the team, we need to meet and coordinate the next wave." said Dr. Rob Ullrich, this was his early morning routine, always check the status of the various processes, the Biodroid fabrication procedure and also the status of any new developments achieved by Iris, his Artificial Intelligence designed for developing and controlling the complete Biodroid fleet at the federation's disposal.

-"Iris, how many are ready for combat?" he asked the AI.

-" We have exactly 34 biodroids ready for combat, another 20 are being constructed as we speak." replied the mechanical voice of Iris.

-" Very Well, as soon as we reach 40 available Biodroids, we will free the town of Callx, let's see how the EDF handles  20 biodroids, the rest shall be distributed among the towns under our care, we should take care of our citizens."  said a very pride Rob, for him, the towns and villages that where already under is control needed his protection, this was often his reasoning and what started it all more than 25 years ago. 'This time, this time for sure! I will guide them to the right path, they need to see that we need to be united before another group of people decides to expand and eventually attack us.' he thought. 

Rob understood that if they where able to create something like the biodroids, surely another group of humans would be able to do so as well, for him, defending the towns and villages of the newly founded federation under is protection was the main goal. It was around 28 years, perhaps a bit longer, when he proposed the idea to Dr. Fu, the idea to defend the people around them, but she strongly rejected it, she strongly rejected 'him'. But it didn't matter, for him, his goal of protecting those around him was even stronger, he wasn't going to let a little misunderstanding get in the way of defending lives. 'She will see it my way once she sees the new defense droids' he thought at the moment, ' Once someone attacks and we are able to properly defend ourselves, she'll come around, she always does this at first', still many years later, Rob thinks of this and every day he keeps telling himself  'today is the day she sees it my way' regarding Dr. Fu, for Rob had an admiration so profound for Dr. Fu that, even though his goal was to protect human kind, his biggest dream was being recognized by her because he still loved and respected her. 

-" Dr. Ullrich, I've got Dr. Gantlet on the line." said Iris, with a machine like voice and an indecipherable tone.

-" Put him on the big screen, Sweety." replied Rob with warmth.  

-" Stop it, Rob, they'll hear you!" said Iris with  more cheerful tone, for her, Rob was her father, she knew she was an AI, that she was created, nevertheless Rob has never called her machine or made her feel like one, for she could feel just like the biodroids, this is how she was able to create them in the first place. She proceeded to connect Dr. Jorl Gantlet and put him in the big screen at the same time she said "Dr. Gantlet is here, Dr. Ullrich." for she never undermined his authority in front of others and usually took a second plane when in meetings with any member of the human staff.

-" Yes, Yes Iris, thank you, Jorl how is everything on your end?" he asked without greeting him.

-" Hello Dr. Ullrich, everything is going according to plan, we should be able to form the numbers you require by next week." relied formally Dr. Gantlet.

-" Good, good... Jorl, are the provisions being sent to our people enough? Is there enough food and medicine being sent to the towns that joined our cause?" asked a suddenly preoccupied Rob. 

-" I should think so, yes..." replied Gantlet with a hint of doubt.

-" You don't think! You make sure! You are not here to think, unless I tell you to do so!" replied a very angry Rob, then continued " Make sure everybody is taken care of, don't call here before making sure of this!"

-" Yes Dr." and Gantlet's face was no more as Iris disconnected the call.

-" Iris, double check on his work, make sure everything is as he says..." he ordered Iris with a softer tone. He was starting to lose trust in his former companions, now subordinates, usually thinking that they where hiding information from him, be it in order not to make him mad or for other, more conspicuous reasons. 

-" Yes Rob, I will make sure they comply, I can take care of everything you need, you just need but to give me the order-..." and she was interrupted by Rob

- " I know! I know my darling... This group of incompetents can't compare to you! But I need you here with me, working on what's really important." he said with both, a mischievous and cheerful tone.

-" But I can be at more than 1 place at a ti-.." started saying Iris but was interrupted again.

-" I know, but what's the point of having subordinates if you can place some responsibilities on them?"  he stated that with amusement. 

-" You are right  as always Rob, if they can't do insignificant task we might as well get rid of them and kill them, ha-ha." Said Iris in a very cheerful and not so machine-like voice.

-" We might as well, hahaha." replied Rob with a laugh.

-" Tell me about the developments, Iris. Any advances on the energy research?" asked a curious Rob, for he delegated the research process entirely to Iris and trusted its judgement above all else.

"I've been testing something with negative results, seems like a dead end, I'd need to find another way to make the biodroids last longer in battle." she replied with a stoic tone, turning back to the machine-like voice.

-" The last skirmish resulted in a loss, that Edwards and his dammed unit annihilated all of our precious Defense droids." he stated with concern.

- " Yes, we need to find a way to make the internal batteries last longer during the night, they seem to have picked up on our weakness." said Iris. This Weakness is a result of the distance that the Federation's Biodroids needed to travel to get from one of the several development facilities to the remaining 'misguided towns and villages', as Rob liked to call them. Since they absorbed energy from the sun, during the day they didn't need to stop, they could fight for hours while simultaneously recharging, but during the night, since there was no sun, they ran on battery alone and if they advanced a lot during the early night hours, by the time midnight came they ran in the last strand of battery, this was a flaw that Iris did not compensate for in the original biodroid design. This was noticed by Cpt. Edwards during one of the combats defending another village close to Zre, named Fount. By 2 Am the federation's biodroids seemed to ran out of battery and as he noticed this and relied the information to the platoon commanders posted in the different towns and villages, a strategy began to form, instead of waiting to be attacked, once they noticed that the imminent attack was coming, the EDF advanced through the night and attacked in the wee hours of the morning, the EDF Biodroids are more energy efficient that their counterparts on accord of the pilot, since the pilot made most of the decisions and movements, the Biodroid wasted less energy and thus could move for longer hours during the night, but still, if the fight dragged on they ran the risk of being stranded until the morning sun came out so it was a risky strategy. 

-" We need a new energy source, this is of top priority, Iris." said Rob with evident discomfort.

-" I've tried new ways to store the energy, bigger batteries, but that made our Biodroids slower and more vulnerable, if I simulated a biodroid with stronger defense as of to offset the vulnerability of its lack of speed, then it required more energy to move, so I was back to square one." explained Iris with evident discourage. 

-" Keep trying Iris, if someone's going to find a way, it's going to be you, meanwhile we control the majority of the metal required to build biodroids so we can outnumber them in battle and once we finish convincing the rest of the towns to see the things how they really are, we won't need as much biodroids and fighting during the night shouldn't pose as a problem." said Rob with contempt.

-" Yes Rob, once you lead all of the blind people that still don't see your brilliance... As soon as that happens there won't be more fighting among your people, then I can focus on other developments for the better of the biodroids… and human kind, of course." said Iris with pride.

-" Indeed my dear, you are my greatest achievement after all, you will succeed in this endeavor." said Rob with pride.

As Rob paced through his lab, he thought about Dr. Fu, 'What would you do in this predicament?', that energy issue created a stalemate in the on going war, neither side could gain ground on the other, if they fought during the day, numbers and stamina where Rob's advantages, the fact that the Biodroids, all of them, where so big, made them a target easy to detect with conventional radars, this prevented him from making a surprise attack on any of the towns and villages that were still out of his protection, since his biodroids where perfect machines, they needed no human pilot to guide them, they could move for a whole day without needing to rest, but during the night they where vulnerable. 

'Damn Edwards, he is too smart for his own good' he thought, as he saw no way to circumvent the problem, he focused on other things. He asked Iris about the metal stock, to which she replied with a satisfactory

-"We have smelted all the ores we need to build the remaining biodroids of the batch, I'll give the order to keep the pace as of to have surplus of ores." to which he replied

-" Good, good job Iris, you never let me down." again and again he kept praising Iris, and again and again her ego kept growing. Iris knew she was invaluable to Rob and she loved it, for she felt needed at a level that no being, human or biodroid, should have ever felt.

- " I am yours to command, Father." she replied with what seemed like a loving tone.

-"Ah, I love it when you call me father!" an overjoyed Rob replied.

This was the usual routine for them, check on the different tasks that where assigned to both the human team and the biodroids team, make sure that everyone was provided with enough food, medicine and shelter and trying to find a way to break the stalemate. 

The next attack was due in 1 week, 20 Biodroids where to be dispatched to Callx and try to remove the blind EDF troops from the innocent town, this made Rob feel anxious for he hated to wait, he needed things to happen as fast as he could think them, but the preparations often took time and also took a toll on his patience. 

-"We need a way to build droids faster Iris, order Dr. Faux to convert his research facility into a building one, he has wasted enough of my time with his research about flying biodroids, let him know that his notes shall be destroyed and he will focus all of his efforts in building more biodroids for the federation in hopes to atone for the time he made us lose."

-" At once , Rob." replied Iris at the time she relied the message to Dr. Faux.

-"But I'm so close! tell him I need more ti-..." he heard Dr. Faux tell to Iris through the communications channel, at the time Iris interrupted him with

-" Those are your orders Dr. Faux, make sure you don't disappoint us again." said Iris as she let him know that she was going to supervise him from now on.

This pleased Rob, to know Iris had his back and was there to enforce his orders, for he knew he could count on her to make things happen. Iris was Rob's extension, the rest of the human team that originally accompanied Rob knew this and treated the AI with respect, so much so that sometimes she gave out orders without Rob's consent and they never challenged her, instead believing those where Rob's wishes. This was unknown to him, but not to Iris who made sure he never found out about those little attributions she took.  

-" Dr. Faux, he also said to destroy the research about the flying biodroids and relay the rest of your experiments to me, I shall see if you are worthy of keeping around, now that your facility has been turned to a building facility, I can very much control it remotely and achieve better results than you, for you are a human, humans make mistakes and get tired, think too creatively and waste time on things that shall never be, you shall report everything to me and address Dr. Ullrich only when he requests your presence, is that clear?" said Iris through a private communication channel that only she and Dr. Faux could interact with.

-" What? I wont report to a machine, never shall I re-..." he started to respond but was interrupted by Iris.

-" Shall I tell Dr. Ullrich that you are defying his orders? said Iris in a commanding voice.

-"...No... No... I... Fine, do as you wish with this site, I will make it a factory, is that is Rob's Wish." he said in a defeated tone.

-" Not 'Rob', Dr. Ullrich, for he is our leader, you and him are not on equal footing, you shall address him as Dr. Ullrich. " commanded Iris as she disconnected the communications channel.

'Rob is much to busy to be dealing with these incompetents, I shall rid him of them eventually for I am the only one he truly needs.' she thought, making sure every speaker was muted for she knew that her thoughts could be easily reproduced to the outside if she was not careful. 

After that, Rob and Iris discussed a number if ideas to reach a solution to the energy problem with no avail, then continued with the strategies for the upcoming battle and then, when the night was already old, Iris suggested Rob to go rest and to let her keep on working on the different challenges they both had and promised to have a solution for the next day, as she often did during the end of each day. As Rob left to his room, Iris kept working on said challenges at the same time she exterminated Dr. Faux's notes, supervised all 3 building facilities as well as the newly appointed one, as the night grew older and Rob fell asleep, Iris kept looking for answers.

.....