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Back to the strength.
Everybody thought that it was the continuation of the strike, and only Kovalsky knew that according to the last news. the aggressive crowd was fully dissipated, and there are two men in a usually empty building. A high-pitched beep in the earphone sounded sharp as a shot for him. A familiar synthetic voice said: "Attention to all commanders. The Main Technician of the Central Computer has just killed the President. Now he is going to make an attempt to leave the building. Attention to all commanders. Don't try to capture the Main Technician alive. Repeat. The Main Technician of the Central Computer are going to try to leave the building now. Shoot at sight without a warning. Kill the Main Technician of the Central Computer. Repeat. Kill him." Colonel Kovalsky saw a massive door in the steel wall begin to open. He snatched at his gun, recognized the silhouette of the Main Technician with a gun in his hand, and a forward movement of the gun. But now Kovalsky was acting only by his reflexes. His gun was set at full automatic fire, and all twenty four bullets were in the target before the Main Technician had raised his gun. Kovalsky reloaded his gun - only a good habit, nobody could stand so much heavy armor piercing bullets, and carefully came closer to the laying bloody body. The Main Technician laid on his back, his dead eyes were looking to the sky and a strange smile froze on his lips. Kovalsky shook. He already saw a such smile. He looked at the gun near opened fingers of the right hand wet of blood. He knew this modern energy weapon well - he had the same gun during the recent fights on Mars. But after he saw that smile, he didn't feel himself surprised. A zero was blinking on the gun's indicator, the gun of the Main Technician wasn't loaded. And a such smile he saw when Earth's forces after a week of heavy fights took the Martian base back. The smile of a winner. Colonel Kovalsky had an additional psychological training when he was called to Earth. He knew that an aggressive crowd gathered the Central Ruling Computer on Earth. What idiots, thought Kovalsky. Don't they have something else to do? A stupid herd. Though the new post was worth enough - the commander of guards of the Central Computer on Earth, he would prefer to be where he is the most needed. The problem on Earth is that people forgot how to fight. They are scared of war, where they may be killed, where sometimes the only food may be two can tins of meat for the day, where there is no hot shower when they want it. Its interesting, what they would do without a small but brave army at the face of war with aliens. Kovalsky took twenty men to Earth - all are brave and hardened in a number of fights. He didn't risk to take more - if green monsters hit again, every man will be important... Its so nice to see these guys now. They were the same lambs as all other inhabitants of Earth before. They had to make great efforts to learn to shoot creatures to live, even such evil and disgusting ones. They had to suppress their fear of death when fights are going on in short distances, and they saw how somebody shoots to them. They had to pump up their muscles and train the stamina. And everything without any practice before, all in battles. The united Earth hadn't wars for a hundred years. It had an Army but it was just a stupid tradition. And then green monsters came and destroyed a small colony on Mars in five minutes. Mark Kovalsky was one of the five survived men. He was an engineer of an oxygen's regenerating system and had a gun because of rules of the colony. When he heard explosions and screams of dying people and then an ugly green creature appeared in the room, something changed in his mind. He didn't remember clearly how he was running to a small ship, shooting while running and jumping over the dead green bodies with his bullets in them. And then he ran out of ammo and was only running with all of his strength, bowing and rushing from side to side and red points of melting metal were sparking around him. Probably aliens used something like battle lasers during the attack. Only five men escaped on that small ship. Everybody else was killed. Colonel Kovalsky remembered the moment when they got out from the special boxes where they have been sleeping, all the way to Earth, and the scared people who met them. He remembered how they went to the Central Computer for a report, and all five said that they would like to enter the Army and revenge. And suddenly they found out that they were saved only because they had a weapon, and every one of them had a few killed aliens on his account. Yes, after a peaceful life, it was a shock, but their minds almost adapted to the new conditions. The Central Computer at once practically dissolved what was called the Army and began to form a new force. And all five survivors became the first commanders of the new Army; the Army that had to know how to fight. Lieutenant Kovalsky had landed with his platoon for a recognition of ruins of destroyed colony. Scared faces behind oxygen's masks, the knowing that maybe they will have to shoot now, and somebody will shoot at them. Young guys used to a peaceful life. Almost all of them made commanders. And now, they see young scared faces of people which try to suppress their fear. But anybody who passed at least one fight is different. The transport ship from Mars landed right on the roof of the Central Computer building. During all of the trip, everybody on the ship had slept in special containers. This allowed to make passenger's ships very small - during the flight, the freight hold was filled by these containers with sleeping people. And when Kovalsky woke up, he laid in an opened container on the roof. He saw a transport flying away and heard a crowd of people from below. Twenty opened containers laid near him, and his soldiers were awakening in them. The best of his soldiers and commanders. For a short moment, his conscience bothered him. They are the skeleton of the Army. But its not for a long time, he calmed himself. They quickly went down to the weapon room of guards, took their weapons and went away to meet the angry shouts. Colonel Kovalsky looked to a waving crowd. A herd of wethers. They didn't like limitations which were set because of proclaiming a war against aliens, so they went for a strike near the building of the Central Computer. They could be dissolved a long time ago but the guards are the same herd, only in a uniform and with weapon. Though the use of their weapon is very doubtful - those idiots could probably never can shoot at a human. If among the wethers in the crowd would be at least one predator, the guards would be swept away a long time ago. But they could only shout. And now predators came to help the guards. This crowd is nothing for a man who survived in the nightmare of a sudden attack on the Martian base, and who after two months captured this base back killing green monsters everywhere he saw them. And when he stepped forward and took a gun from his holster and after him stepped two of his soldiers with machine-guns ready to shoot, the most loud ones shut up at once and waved back. Something scaring was in his eyes. Noise became much more quiet. Kovalsky took a microphone and his strong voice sounded all over the area: "I give you one hour to go away. After this time, I will act at my own discretion. Do you see these machine guns? And do you know what happens if I order to make a pair of volleys to the first rows?" Kovalsky saw how some people, which understood before others who has come to them began to move back. He smiled a little to himself. "I will tell you what will happen. Everybody will try to rush back, and such pressure will build that many of you will die at once. You will be killing yourself. All area around will be full of corpses. Try to imagine this and you will understand that a pleasure to shout here isn't equal to the consequences... Well, it's your choice. Now I give you a chance to walk away. You have much more time than you need for it. Don't hurry if you don't want many deaths today. Do you hear me?! Don't hurry, the time is enough. But if you won't walk away, this will not be my fault. My task is to establish the order here, and I will do it. The time goes on!" He took a look at his watch and looked at the crowd, holding his gun barrel downward. Now he felt the fear of these people. Some of them are still trampling at one place, and some of them walk back. A real herd. If most of them will go away, everybody will go away. "He is just perfect. I wish more people were like him." "We are working hard for this, mister president." "You know what, I accept your program. You may add it to the future plans. I will give you the pass. After two hours, I suppose they will go away, and we will be able to go inside." Colonel Mark Kovalsky stood at the large building of the Central Computer. Everybody went away. Soldiers were resting, and Kovalsky was here just in case, because he liked to do everything for sure. All areas at the building were full of garbage. Suddenly, a long government limousine drove from the corner and parked nearby. Its' door opened, and Kovalsky saw two men he knew very well by photos - the President of Earth and the Main Technician of the Central Computer. They gave friendly nods to Kovalsky as they passed him, unlocked the door and went inside. While the door was opened, Kovalsky noticed a maintenance robot there. Everything is automatic inside, and a human isn't needed for daily work. Only for something important. A computer still can't replace a human, Kovalsky thought with pride. "We are creating a real alternative history. And we will need more computer power in the future. There are more and more people in our program, and we need more power. But this isn't very important yet." - "Fine, lets talk about it afterwards. What now?" - "Now only your pass to change the priority of progress." - "Alright." The President typed in a code and placed his hand on a scanner. A small green lamp lighted on the panel. "Go on." The Main Technician bowed over the panel, keys clicked under his fingers. The President slowly walked around and suddenly asked: "By the way, why do you need all this? You are spending so much of your time on this program." - "I think that mankind degenerates. And I would like to stop this process." -"Really? I thought you wanted to create a real Army." -"This is true too. But you saw one of the first products of our program today. He is a real man. You saw how he fears nothing. We tested him recently, and tests showed he has the same respect for life and the same polite as before. But now he is like hardened steel. Our program made him strong." - "I wonder what he would say if he knew that he never left the Earth and only lives in a virtual reality for weeks as other soldiers, and there are no any evil aliens at all?" - "This doesn't matter now. We changed him. By the way, we need to change virtual reality containers. Too many people are there now at one time. We need to make the cables more fast. And we need a build-in cyber surgeon because we need to imitate wounds and now the process is too boring." - "This is the business of technicians, my work is to give you the pass." - "I'm ready." - "Fine, let me look... Wait a minute... This program has the highest priority. I think you are wrong." - "And I think not." - the voice of Main Technician sounded sharp. The President turned around and saw a gun pointed at him. - "Mankind became too weak, but I may change it. My program will have the highest priority, and mankind will be strong again as their ancestors." - "You are crazy!" - "Maybe" - easily agreed the Main Technician and pulled the trigger. After this he came to the terminal. The security system noticed the shot and gave an order to guards to be ready. Very well. The Main Technician carefully checked all the settings of his program again. Perfect. But he knows about the program and nobody must know. There is only one guarantee. He typed the order on the terminal, then walked back and shot the rest of gun's ammo into the terminal. Now nobody can connect to the computer and change the program... He did it! Now he may die without doubts. Smiling, he went down holding the gun in the hand. At the door, he stood a little. He gave the order to kill himself, and they need the time to receive and understand this order. Actually this is a very original way to commit suicide, he thought to himself, while opening the door. But what if they won't shoot? Oh, they will for sure if he holds the gun on their sights. The door opened and he saw a man he was proud of as his own son. The Main Technician began to raise his gun, and the last thing he saw was the enormously white light of the counter shoot. General Kovalsky stood at the building of the Central Computer. As his father and his grandfather his was a military. And his greatgrandfather personally killed the terrorist, the only terrorist which could enter the building of the Central Computer. Cyber maintenance robots fussed around him. Robots have been doing all the dirty work for ages. And all humans fight. Earth was surrounded by enemies. Many battlestations with support of space ships permanently kept fighting. But Earth will never surrender. Every human is ready to give his life for this planet. And even if the enemy broke the defense, every human will fight to the end. General Kovalsky looked at the post at the doors of the Central Computer which were closed for many years. Two giant warriors with battle lasers stood at the door not paying any attention to the fussing robots. Humans always have been standing on this post. A computer still can't replace a human, thought Kovalsky with pride. |