Pantheon Snippet 2

 So, Goodlife put Pantheon on the schedule so we should see it back in 7-10 days. :)

I am working on animations for promo of Shelby 6 and 7 at the moment. I'm also ramping up to work on the graphic novel soon.

Anyway, still in chapter 1:

Colonel Thomas McCoy arrived at his unit and had to go through an additional security check. He found out why when the sergeant told him that the military was moving to Defcon 2.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded. He was an early third-generation super soldier. The army had begun to explore medical advances to prolong a soldier's time in service and in the field. Many operators were forced out of the field due to soft tissue damage or the ever-dreaded psychological trauma.

They had discussed and explored modifications to skeletal structures but had eventually tossed those. They would interfere with bone marrow, soft tissue connections, and other things.

He had benefited by weaving synthetic material into his tendons and soft tissue. He had also received stem cell injections and steroids to bulk up. Along the way, they'd come up with ways to reduce muscle fatigue and improve digestion to get the best out of nutrients he ate for his enhanced metabolism.

There were costs involved, but at the time as a junior officer, he'd been thrilled by the idea. But once most combat operations had ended, he'd been sidelined to interfacing with the eggheads more and more often or working on one project or another.

“I don't know, sir; they don't tell us much. I suggest you run that question up the flagpole. But you may have a bit of a wait; other people are asking the same thing.”

The colonel grunted.

“I hope you brought your toothbrush. We're on lockdown for an unknown period of time,” the sergeant warned. The colonel grimaced but nodded. His go-bag was in the trunk of his Charger.

~~>*<~~

Answers were in short supply for some time. They finally had returned to their routine, monitoring the news for what some called “the devil's anus.”

Tobin cut out early from work and went home. He usually did that when he needed to really think. Penny wrapped up some of her schedule but then cut loose the moment she could.

Penny came home and stared at the massive house. It was a mansion—seven car garage, six or seven bedrooms, offices, labs, a ballroom for entertaining, several family rooms—really too much.  It even had a direct link to Cassie and a collection of her original servers. Now they were her backup servers.

Cassie was a smart house and business A.I. that had evolved over time. She was the original prototype now used in many homes and businesses. There were stripped-down versions used in user phones and even video games. Game makers loved some of Cassie's code since it gave their bots new life.

Cassie was short for Cassandra Bloc. Penny had asked Tobin to form the A.I. to as close a match as her late cousin as possible. He had outdone himself to the point of fabricating the A.I.'s initial voice based on samples from the original Cassie. A tearful Penny had thanked him but then quietly had him change it to a British female. It had hurt too much to hear her voice, more than she'd expected.

Her cousin had died in a DUI and had been one of the reasons Tobin had gotten into safer vehicles as well as organ replacement. Had Cassandra's doctors had access to what they could do now, she would have lived.

It was cold comfort to some, but to others they saw it as inspiration to help the next Cassandra survive.

She sat there in the driveway, staring up at the sky for a long time. She wondered as the sun began to set what the future had to bring. It scared her now, scared her a lot.

She finally got out of the car and decided to seek out Tobin. He should be on the way to finding out the answers she needed. She wasn't certain if she'd like to hear them though.

~~>*<~~

Tobin redirected equipment he controlled across the globe. These included telescopes and satellites.  "Let's see what we're dealing with …" he murmured as his fingers flashed as if they had a life of their own. They tapped like machine guns, running over a hundred and twenty lines a minute.

They managed to get a good look through the satellites at the rift in space. It was bright and energetic as ship after ship came in. Fortunately, it was in the outer star system. The ships were coming in on a course that would put them in orbit though.

It felt good to be vindicated about aliens. Good and bad all rolled into one. He had to wonder if the aliens were friendly or not. Hopefully, they didn't come all this way to stir up trouble.

He didn't sit well with the people who believed that if a species got to a certain point, they had to be benevolent and peaceful. That was bullshit. Anyone who knew their history knew that mankind had to face adversity to thrive. Challenge made them think, made them find ways to beat it. Whether it was the land, weather, animals, or other people, they thrived on challenge. Sometimes some people went out of their way to find new challenges, usually getting killed or nearly killed in the process.

It was a part of their desire to explore. It fed their curiosity. Sure, there had to be some cooperation involved. But that didn't mean they were going to be family. Families fought too. He snorted softly to himself. Sometimes a bit more than they needed to.

He checked and noted many of his staff were in on the feed or drawing whatever they could from the sensors. He decided to make it official and assigned the team to go over everything. IR, radar, lidar, whatever they could get to assemble it into clear data packages on each ship. The team jumped on it.

~~>*<~~