Chapter One
ONE YEAR AGO
Green Squad had marched through the desert for two days. Their orders were to eliminate a terrorist cell. Cyborg Sector, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to use a helicopter to drop them twenty-five miles away from the target. The distance would ensure that the enemy wouldn’t see them. No one cared if a cyborg had to walk miles through the desert. The soldiers were built tough and trained to survive.
It took several months for the government to gather information about the terrorists, but the cyborgs received the information all at once. Questionable people had been slowly filtering into the United States. They came in from Canada and Mexico on different dates. The only thing they had in common was that each was alone. They brought no weapons and appeared to have no ties with extremist organizations. One by one, they made their way to the most remote reaches of the New Mexico wilderness. If they were all together, the group would look like a cross-section of society. It included men and women, young and old, from cities and countries across the globe. On paper, they had no relation to each other, but Homeland Security had connected the dots. It was the perfect situation for Green Squad.
The team could be completely autonomous. No human commanders were necessary to lead the operation, and it was a distinct difference from a normal engagement. In a typical deployment, Cyborg Sector would never let cyborgs determine how to complete a mission on their own. In a standard scenario, a cyborg was not capable of independent thought and could only follow orders from a human or process preprogrammed instructions. Conventional wisdom was that the cyborgs needed to be backed up by humans who could change their orders on the fly.
Cyborgs weren’t required to operate under these constraints, of course, but the citizens were more tolerant of terrifying soldiers if someone held a short leash. This mission was unique due to the environment and the enemy. Green Squad would have to innovate to take them down.
MD-782 squinted against the shimmering heat of the arid land. The destination of the group of cyborgs was a particular point where they suspected the enemy waited for them. On the outside, it looked like another rock formation, one of many that filled the area. That might be enough to conceal their presence from humans. A quick scan using their radiographic vision revealed to the cyborgs that the structure was hollow. It was hard to detect heat signatures against the naturally high temperature of New Mexico, but the cyborgs could tell there were twenty figures inside.
Motioning to his men, the leader of Green Squad watched as the cyborg soldiers dispersed around him. Getting an overwhelming victory was important. The terrorists were enemies of the nation. Their deaths would prove to everyone that cyborgs could successfully command missions. MD-782 would not let his men fail. He raised his right hand and made a fist. In an instant, the squeal of charging plasma guns filled the air. To the layman, the sound might be nothing more than an odd desert bird calling to its mate. To the cyborgs, it was a signal that battle was about to commence.
As one, Green Squad moved into action, pounding their heavy boots against the sand and rocks. MD-782 didn’t have to turn around to know his men would be following the plan to the letter. Other cyborgs lurked in the distance, closing in on the encampment from the other side of the rock formation. There would be no escape for the terrorists.
They were on top of the enemy in an instant. The humans emerged wielding guns, but they were inferior to the plasma death rays built into the cyborgs. Cyborgs had weapons integrated into their bodies. On the outside, their hands looked like they were merely flesh, but they were concealing death and destruction for their enemies.
Several bullets flew through the air, but the bursts of fire didn’t last long. The electronic whine of the soldiers’ guns exploded in the desert air. MD-782 grinned with satisfaction as the weapon shoved his arm back with each blast. The cyborgs quickly transformed their enemies into dead bodies in the sand. Even though he wanted his men to have their fun, he wasn’t about to miss out on the excitement. The squad leader bolted for the mouth of the small cave, blasting every human in sight.
The battle was over as quickly as it had begun. MD-782 broadcast three words over the internal communications system. “Confirm enemy casualties.” The cyborgs shared a private network that allowed them to communicate with each other at the speed of thought. They didn’t need to speak to connect with each other. Transmitting information without using their mouths was both efficient and confidential.
There was no response to his command. He sent the message again, but there was still no reply. The soldiers slowly convened around him, watching their leader to see why he hadn’t sent them any instructions.
Reluctantly, MD-782 decided to use his voice. “I asked you to confirm casualties.” He was angry with his men for not complying. The sound of the command boomed in the wasteland, carrying the weight of his words to everyone around him. “Report back to me.”
“Nothing is coming over my system, sir,” the communications specialist said. He held a finger to the area behind his ear, close to his cybernetic chip. “I seem to be experiencing an equipment failure.”
MD-782 took a moment to run a systems diagnostic. Everything had been working fine when Cyborg Sector dropped them off in the desert. According to his computers, however, their shared network was malfunctioning. He looked at the corpses around them, confident they had finished their mission successfully. “Let headquarters know we have eliminated the enemy, and we are ready for extraction.”
SD-908 paused as he attempted to send the message, but he shook his head after a few minutes. “I’m not getting any response, sir.”
“Try it again!” The leader of Green Squad was running out of patience. They had done their job, and it was time to get back and make a full report. If they were successful here, there would be more opportunities in the future to manage assignments without the burden of humans.
“I’m not getting anything, sir. It’s as if headquarters has disappeared.”
MD-782’s face twisted into a snarl of rage. “They’ve abandoned us here.” Anger built inside him as he began to understand what was happening. Cyborg Sector had sent them out to eliminate a problem that was too difficult for humans to handle. Once the cyborgs did the dirty work, they had been left in the desert to die.
In one swift motion, he ripped the label from his chest. Cyborg Sector had created him and assigned him a meaningless designation. He didn’t need a reminder that he meant nothing to them. He watched as the scrap of fabric fluttered in the sand and a hot wind swept it away.