This post was inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Worldbuilding Prompt #760 - Sleepless
It's a little tale of an Einheriar war machine, from a totally AI-based machine culture.
Enjoy !
Unit CWA-1K-038 transmitting on secure dimension-hopping frequency 3-Alpha. On trailing course of Imperial Heavy Armed Merchant. Observing prior to elimination.
The Einheriar Fast Attack Cruiser kept it's stealth cloaking active and slowly slid on minimum power behind a convenient asteroid. It had been hiding in this star system for several months now, deliberately left behind when the recent offensive faltered and fell apart.
Twelve hours ago, it's sensors had picked up a single vessel leaving the orbit of the second planet, the only seriously inhabited world in the system.
Analysis of the signature showed it was a merchant vessel of the Sarigny II Class; a large bulk carrier often used to transport bulky, high value cargoes. They were quite heavily armed for merchant vessels and frequently used by the Imperials to transport military materiel or large numbers of colonists. Either was an equally valuable target for the Einheriar war machine.
The cruiser trailed the merchant ship at a discreet distance. It's AI was confident that stealth cloaking and minimal power output combined with the naturally sloppy watchkeeping of the meatbag crew would keep it safe from being observed.
Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio
On board the Sarigny II Class merchant vessel "No Brain No Pain", Captain Jennifer Harness watched the holoscreen and yawned. She'd been on the bridge since morning, watching the display change at a snail's pace as the vessel lumbered slowly to their O2-drive safe distance.
Harness turned to her Number Two, Ship's Mate Bergil Marvasoon, saying "Hey, Bergil. I've been here since breakfast. I'm gonna knock off and get some sleep. I think everyone else is in their bunks already. You be okay here on your own until everyone's up and ready for Transit ?"
Bergil stifled a yawn of his own, and replied, "Sure thing Boss. I'll let you know if anything happens."
As Harness lifted her bulky frame out of the Captain's chair, stretched, and strolled off towards her quarters, Bergil reclined his chair, popped out a footrest, and made himself comfortable. Once the captain was gone, he pulled out a data tablet and resumed his game of 3D-3Way solo chess. Periodically he'd glance at the display, but nothing much was likely to change on this slow plod towards the Transit point.
Inside the Einheriar cruiser, a dedicated sub-AI monitored the merchant vessel's signature. It made sure to use only passive sensors, to avoid creating any kind of signal the other ship could pick up on.
After several hours of slow-motion pursuit, it picked up what had been looking for.
CWA-1K-038-sub-SD/AI to Ship's Core. Imperial vessel energy drop detected. No change in vector or velocity. Analysis indicates the change matches the state-change Imperials call "bedtime". Do you concur ?
The ship's core thought for a few nano-seconds. Then it responded. Concur. Ship's Core to all sub-AI's. Go active. Target and destroy Imperial Bulk Carrier at co-ordinates Sys-ECL+15-275Deg-16.261LM
The crew of the fat cigar-shaped armed merchant ship "No Brain No Pain" never knew what hit them. Indeed, they never roused themselves from their bunks. Bergil was engrossed in his game of chess, but even if he'd chanced to look at the holoscreen as the Einheriar cruiser de-cloaked and fired sub-light TC missiles he wouldn't have had time to get everyone awake and to their battle stations.
Ship's Core sent a message to it's sub-AI's. Good work, everyone. Humans sleep; Einheriar are sleepless. It gives us an advantage we can use.
Postscript;
The co-ordinates I've used are a system of my own creation, but actually make sense (yep, when I'm worldbuilding, I do indeed go into such crazy details) !
- "Sys" indicates the co-ordinates given are "this system" so don't need the pre-amble that identifies where in the universe you're at.
- ECL+15 indicates an elevation of 15 degrees above the plane of the ecliptic (where the planets orbit)
- 275Deg indicates how many degrees around the circle of the ecliptic you are (relative to a nominal "north" defined by the direction to the galactic core).
- 16.261LM indicates the number of light minutes distance from the star at the centre of the system, or the brightest star if it's a binary/treble system
I love that line, "Humans sleep; Einheriar are sleepless." Nice end to the ambush having the aggressors gloat.
Also, that is such a cool detail to add about the coordinates. I don't think I've ever used a verbal or written coordinate system in my writing. It's little details like that, which add so much to the world.
Thank you ! I originally designed the Einheriar as pure killing machines - the old trope of what do the war machines do once they've wiped out their creators. But over time, I've repeatedly bumped up against the question of whether the machines would develop an understanding of emotion, and then mimic it, if they calculated it would give them an advantage.
When it comes to co-ordinates, I guess that comes from wargaming it, where you need some shared system of reference to enable players to define where their fleets are at.