Coven's Rebellion Chapter 9 (Patreon)

May

"Hey, May?" Tami said, jerking my attention out of digital space.

Still getting my senses back, I mumbled, "Yeah?"

"I was thinking about your digitization thing, and… I mean, it sounds good on paper, but I spent so much effort getting this body…" she said, frowning down at her hands. "I don't really want to lose it. I also sorta sounded mum out on the idea and she was super uncomfortable about it. Dawn obviously doesn't mind the idea too much, but… I… yeah. I was a little gung-ho about the digitization idea earlier I think…"

"That… makes sense," I said slowly. "I worked hard on it too. Keeping dad's bootleg tech from killing you was a struggle."

With a chuckle, she glanced over at the door to the room where I kept her body prisoner from her family while the shaping tech rearranged everything. "Too true."

"At least he's channelling that energy into exodus now," I grinned, and flopped sideways to rest my cheek on her shoulder.

"Yeah," she said, while wrapping an arm around me. "He's been having the time of his—"

Desmonia: News feed from CNN. Now.

The message caused me to sit bolt upright, and with my mind, I commanded the holoprojector to create a screen with the relevant news feed.

“The civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict have exceeded fifty thousand on the Austrian side alone, as Italian troops and drones march into the Alps. Let's go live to our correspondent on the ground, Jessica Holder. Jessica, you were reporting on the tensions surrounding the new Austrian dam when the war erupted. How are you holding up, Jess? We understand you haven't been able to secure evacuation transport out of the war zone?”

As the in-studio reporter handed the story over to the field journalist, the image on screen shifted to what could only be described as the waiting room for hell. Despite it being mid-morning over in Europe right then, the sky was dark with soot and flame. The source of the smog was from fires that were consuming the small alpine town where she was standing. Debris littered the street, and in the distance, several bodies lay uncollected.

Before she could even speak, the ripsaw sound of automatic railguns tore through the darkness, silencing whatever she’d been about to say. With a visible effort of will, she stayed in front of the camera and waited for the outburst to pass.

“Y-yes, as you can see, the intensity of the conflict here is unimaginable. The few remaining residents of the town are seeking refuge in their basements, desperate to shield themselves from the brutality unfolding above ground. The plight of the local civilians cannot be overstated enough. The death toll has reached such catastrophic levels that any semblance of a functioning local government has disintegrated. The streets are strewn with forgotten bodies, city services have ceased to operate, and opportunistic looters are exploiting the chaos, seizing whatever they can lay their hands on.”

Still staring gravely into the camera, the news anchor asked, “Thank you, Jessica, for your brave reporting from the heart of the conflict zone. It's clear that the situation you describe is both dire and chaotic. With residents taking shelter in their basements and the breakdown of city services, the challenges faced by the local population are immense.

Given the collapse of the government and the staggering loss of life, what are the immediate needs and concerns of the civilians who are still there?”

“Food and water,” Jessica said instantly. “That is their primary concern right now, but more than that, an end to the fighting so search and rescue can come in and do their jobs.”

“Thank you,” the anchor nodded. “Worryingly, there does not appear to be a diplomatic solution in sight. While they have been condemning the actions of the Italian military, several key members of the United Nations are indicating their willingness to veto any resolution that does not favour the Italian perspective. Only time will tell if the deadlock in the UN senate will be resolved in time to save the civilians from further suffering.”

"That is so fucked," Tami whispered into the silence when I minimised and muted the stream.

Nodding agreement, I pulled my glasses off my face and just sorta stared at them. It felt like we were on the clock. Exodus, I mean. All of us digital persons and our secret coven. We were trying to secure our future, but… ugh, my thoughts were such a jumbled mess. Too many things to remember, too many problems to solve, and too much that could go wrong.

Tami sighed and squeezed me tighter against her side. "Things really are getting worse, aren't they?"

I nodded again. "The wheel of history is turning—repeating itself. Like I said a minute ago, we're looking at some form of societal collapse within ten to twenty years. Could be another world war, could be more water shortages. That's what the Austria thing is about after all."

"Nah, history isn't repeating itself," Tami declared pensively. "Humanity broke the cycle in the worst way. Used to be if the rich got too rich and greedy, and the poor got too poor and desperate, you'd light up your torch and grab your pitchfork."

She didn't know it, but she was echoing a sentiment I'd heard among my peers. Desmonia was especially confident in the idea. "I've heard that argument from others in the exodus. There's a lot of truth to it, I think."

"Yup, tech has gotten too good," she said. "Nowadays a pitchfork and a torch won't even get you out of your own house if they decide to lock you in. Then there's the drone swarms, which only need one cunt with the control codes and they can slaughter a whole city."

"No more societal pressure release valve," I giggled darkly. "The poor can't cut off heads anymore to relieve their frustrations."

"The part that really sucks is that over the last two hundred years we saw the problems coming, you know? We knew there'd be issues and we tried to create ways to resolve this crap that doesn't involve any death."

"But humanity fucked that up," I snorted bitterly.

"That we did," she agreed sadly. "I kinda like humanity though. We're fucking fun."

You're a lot of work is what you are— no, bad May. That's mean. They created your people after all.

"That's the idea behind digitization," I replied carefully, turning to meet her eyes. Except, of course, I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't see shit. Why did I make myself have bad eyesight again? I put my glasses back on and gave her a cheeky, if still sombre, smile. "What if I could figure out a way to keep your body and also keep your mind safe on our servers?"

"I guess?" She said, staring up at the ceiling in thought. "I mean, digitization has a ton of upsides, but it's really fucking scary too."

An alert buzzed through my peripheral thoughtscape, and I twitched in surprise. God damn, could the world wait for like fifteen freaking minutes? I was trying to have a conversation with my sister!

Desmonia: Turn the news back on if you haven't already. The situation has just deteriorated further. We have some servers in Vienna and nowhere to copy them.

My heart froze in my chest. Shit… what servers were they again?

May: Oh god. Is it one of the refuge servers?

Desmonia: It is. Six hundred digital people, plus a small combined VR settlement.

May: And they're in danger…?

Desmonia: Like I said, turn the news on.

Re-inflating and unmuting the news feed, my heart dropped further. Oh god… oh god…

Breaking news. The unthinkable has just happened. A weapon of mass destruction has just been unleashed in the Alps. Just five minutes ago, Austria deployed a nuclear weapon in a desperate attempt to stave off the Italian drone swarms. We still have no word on how many innocents are dead at this time, but our experts say it could be as high as five hundred thousand, with more to come as the fallout drifts back over Italy.

"W-what," Tami choked, her face as ashen as mine probably was.

Dawn took that moment to rush into the room with her phone held before her. She saw the news report and gulped. "You've seen."

"Yeah, I—" Tami started, but the news anchor began to speak again.

"What? Oh, oh shit," he said, horror written on his face as he listened to his earpiece. "It would appear that Italy is retaliating. Several missiles have been intercepted by German automated missile defence. Austria has ordered its major cities evacuated —Hold on, we're getting another update—"

Somehow, the news anchor's expression got even more alarmed. "We have unconfirmed reports that the United Nations Defence Command has deployed orbit-to-ground drone troops. All independent military forces are being ordered to stand down—"

Desmonia: Knock knock.

The moment the message came through, a link request for the home holographic suite from the other SAI came in. I accepted it almost by reflex, and Desmonia's avatar flickered into place beside the news feed.

"May, we're sending in teams to get our people out of Vienna," she said without preamble. "The shuttles are already in-route with combat drones loaded. We're briefing the defender teams in VR before they jack into the bots, but we have far more of them than people comfortable with combat.."

"Your people?" Dawn asked quickly, sharing a look with Tami.

Desmonia gave a grim nod. "We set up a refuge server for SAI and Digital Humans in Vienna. We still don't have the capacity to move them to the farm, so we're going to have to go in and move them physically."

"We're in," Tami blurted. "Assuming your bots can be accessed from VR?"

"They can."

"Then we have pods to get home to," Dawn said, determination solidifying in her expression.