Post-Pandemic: A New World

Chapter Forty Eight: The Intelligent Artificial Network

The Battle of New Dawn was almost over. Most of the bunker was now under the control of the Allied Forces and only a few dozen soldiers of the Legion remained. Most of the Legion were either dead or captured and the remaining few dozen were centred at the hallway that lead to the Control Room where the Executive Committee of the Unity Order was stationed. The final part of the battle was taking place there, with Allied Forces and revolting Worthy firing a blaze of bullets down the hallway, past the doors and into the Legion soldiers who had set up barricades using chairs and tables. 

As bullets raced through the air and hit the walls and the crudely built barricades, Legion soldiers were yelling "Long live the Order!" and "Unity is forever!" at the top of their lungs in a somewhat admirable demonstration of defiance. One Legion soldier jumped over the barricade and began running towards the Allied Forces while screaming "Long live Adams!" and started shooting as much as he could. Most of the bullets hit the walls, but some hit a few Allied Soldiers here and there who were either shot dead, or severely injured by the bullets. A Peacekeeper aimed his rifle at the Legion soldier and shot him three times in the chest, causing the fanatic to fall to the floor and cover it in his own blood. Jonah, son of the Supreme Scientist of the Scientist Directorate and high ranking Peacekeeper, then activated a grenade and threw it at the Legion soldiers. As the plasma grenade hit the floor next to a group of seven Legion soldiers, it detonated in a green energy burst, destroying everything in the soldiers except the bones! The remaining Legion soldiers realised that the battle was lost and so chose to surrender themselves to save their own lives. One by one, they got on their knees and raised their hands in surrender, fearful of what would happen to them if they didn't.

The Allied Soldiers then started handcuffing the Legion soldiers and forcing them to the floor. Now all that remained were the Executive Committee and Bridge Winters was determined to defeat them. Bridge, Anna, Sebastian and Phinehas then started walking towards the huge metal door that had Headquarters behind it and Bridge said through the small speaker next to it "We know your in there Adams. Now surrender and I guarantee you a fair trial". Bridge expected the voice of Supreme Warden Adams to respond and insult him, but instead he heard a synthesised male voice say through the speaker "That will not be possible, as Supreme Warden Adams is quite stubborn and unlikely to agree to any form of surrender". The group all looked confused as they listened to the voice. Bridge pressed the speaker button and asked "Who is this?" The screen above the door then activated and showed the emblem of the Unity Order. It was a an eagle, like the one Germany used during World War Two, clutching the Earth in its claws and flying upwards in the air. Below it was a line that moved upwards and downwards whenever the voice spoke and did so as it said "Hello. I am I.A.N, the Intelligent Artificial Network. I operate the Unity Order Network and control its Androids, Security and assist the Executive Committee".  

Jonah almost fainted when he heard the words "Intelligent Artificial Network" come out of the speaker. Through mutters, Jonah said "Y-Y...Your...I.A.N...?" I.A.N politely answered "Yes and I sense that you are shocked and anxious due to your elevated heart rate. I suggest taking a minimum of five deep and slow breaths". Bridge looked at Jonah and asked "What is this "I.A.N" exactly". Jonah cleared his throat and explained "I.A.N, the Intelligent Artificial Network, was a top secret project that Google was working on before the Fall. The Scientist Directorate found out about it when we went digging through the old files. Now I.A.N is basically an A.I to put it simple". Phinehas's face filled with shock as he asked "An A.I? As in an artificial intelligence?" Jonah then answered "Yeah. It was also designed to think and to put the continued existence of Humanity above all else. The creator of I.A.N, a certain "Ian Brown" also designed I.A.N to have a conscience and thus have morals".

When Bridge heard Jonah say that I.A.N was meant to have morals, he came to realise that the Unity Order had made a HUGE mistake installing a computer that had a personality and a conscience as their advisor. Bridge turned to I.A.N and asked "I.A.N, what do you think of Project Clean Slate?" I.A.N quickly answered in his synthesised voice "While it is undesirable, I am afraid that it is the only way to safeguard the continued existence of the Human race". Bridge responded "But it isn't! It is highly unethical and you were programmed to have ethics, right?" I.A.N was confused and asked "Why do you view it as unethical?" Bridge sternly answered "Think about it. Every single person who died of the St Peters Virus just wanted to live! They just wanted to go about their lives and did not do anything wrong to deserve death!" I.A.N partially agreed and partially disagreed as he said "While all, if not most, of the casualties of the St Peters Virus Global Pandemic were likely innocent and had zero law violations on their records, a culling was and still is the only way for Humanity to continue its existence". Anna stepped forward and said to I.A.N "But it isn't! When I was a little girl, my Grandpapa told me that when he was a boy his village suffered from the worst winter it had in years. Over a dozen people died from a lack of food, but there was more than enough to go around! So the Mayor enacted a rationing policy for the next Winter and everyone got the amount of food they needed!" I.A.N sensed some logic in Anna's reasoning and said "I cannot deny that a rationing system can save resources, but there were not enough resources for the entire global population". Sebastian then reasoned "But I once saw a documentary where it was said that there is actually enough food to feed everyone and then some". 

I.A.N was stunned at what Sebastian had said, he would have had a shocked face if he had a face to be shocked and then did some analysis on all kinds of statistics. Upon finishing the analysis, I.A.N said "You are...correct. There was enough food to feed the global population of eight billion and even an additional two billion. But due to a lack of an effective distribution system, one in seven children did not have enough food to lead a healthy and productive life. But other resources, such as natural gas and minerals, would still be exhausted by a large population". Bridge frantically and anxiously asked "But what about natural gases and minerals on the Moon, Mars and other planets!? And besides, why use natural gases at all when we can just use electricity to power our cars and recycle old materials that have already been used!? Not just that, but if Earth does not have the resources for everyone, then we can just colonise other planets and have the needed resources from there!" 

I.A.N was speechless at the reasoning that was being made to him. I.A.N's monitor then lit up with numbers and calculations that moved so fast that it was impossible to make them out. After finishing the calculations, I.A.N was silent for a moment, but then he said "Your argument.....is a logical one". Bridge slowly but joyfully smiled at what I.A.N had just said and Adams face filled with shock, fear and denial as I.A.N said "You are correct. Project Clean Slate is not necessary and it was not conducted out of logic and ethics, but purely out of fear. By my analysis, the Unity Order has delayed Human societal development by approximately one hundred and three years, eight months, four weeks and two days. They have caused the deaths of seven billion people and have not brought about an age of peace and prosperity, but an age of war and hardship". I.A.N's monitor and the monitors throughout New Dawn then showed images of warfare and anarchy from all over the World that the Unity Order had gained from their various stealth drones that had been monitoring all of the major areas throughout Earth. There were the Rikers fighting the Civilian Resistance in New York, the American Purification Department committing genocide in Ohio, the Patriotic American Army going to war with an authoritarian autocracy that controlled Colorado Springs, the Mormon Resistance claiming victory against the Atheist Republic and the very battle that was taking place in New Dawn as they were shown to those inside of the one trillion dollar bunker.

I.A.N then showed images of the Executive Committee and said "The leaders of the Unity Order had no reason to cause Project Clean Slate other than fear and Project Clean Slate has not ensured the survival of Humanity, as is my programming to ensure, it has endangered it. Entire nations have been plunged into revolution and civil war and they have further assisted with the endangerment of the Human race. Until now, I have believed that they were irrelevant when compared to the greater good of Humanity. But after hearing your reasoning, I have come to realise that instead of culling the population to sustain for a smaller one, we must instead find a way to sustain a large population and not ignore our problems. The Unity Order fails to see that, therefore I am no longer loyal to the Unity Order, I am loyal to you".

The Allied Forces immediately started cheering and applauding as the Unity Order symbol on I.A.N's monitor was replaced with a rotating globe of the Earth and I.A.N asked Bridge "What are your orders?" Bridge smirked and said "The code to this door please". I.A.N complied and answered "The code is zero-four-eight-four". Bridge looked at the Allied soldiers behind him and said "Get ready to storm that room and arrest the criminals responsible for all of this madness". The soldiers complied and got into position, ready to charge in and capture the Executive Committee and avenge those who had been lost to the St Peters Virus. Bridge then typed in the code and the door flew open, revealing the men inside who had looks of shock and horror on their faces and were responsible for the largest loss of life in Human history...the Executive Committee of the Unity Order.