The battle on the 1st Tokyo Bay Landfill Island wasn’t being broadcast on any news station, but the situation was being monitored from various locations. One of those locations was a large meeting room on the top floor of a high-class hotel in Marunouchi.
The battle between Lacia and the Japanese military was being projected into the empty center of a donut-shaped desk. Recon drones had been dispatched by the people gathered in that room for that very purpose.
“So that’s the new ultra high-performance AI, huh?” Kimitaka Shinguji said, watching Lacia on the screen with an exasperated expression. “MemeFrame’s in some deep trouble.”
On the display, Lacia was effortlessly piercing through the military cordon. As the CEO of Shingubo, a company that supplied military-use hIEs, Kimitaka idly considered how he would fight against Lacia, out of habit.
He couldn’t see any good way to face her, unless he made use of autonomous drones that had been taken out of general use due to the ease with which their controls failed. In fact, in order for their command systems to not fall to hacking, it would be necessary to utilize fully autonomous units that would automatically hunt down and destroy any targets in a target area, based on commands. Of course, using invisibility or control over friend or foe markers, he was sure Lacia could overcome even that.
Kimitaka, the CEO of an electronics company, was treating the situation as though it was someone else’s problem.
“I doubt the ruling military faction will take this sitting down,” one of the men at the table said. “I’d say the request for special government aid to MemeFrame will be shot down.”
With coffee cups in hand, fifteen VIPs sat around the table, chatting about the situation. The group included executives from automobile companies and officials from the Ministry of Industry. The Antibody Network, an organization of volunteers who destroyed hIEs, was funded by this group of individuals who used their private funds to maintain the massive network. These were the Network’s core members.
“I heard that Mr. Kaidai’s son got caught up in the Mitaka Incident and vanished,” Kimitaka said. “You can’t help but feel sorry for MemeFrame.” He, too, was a member of the core of the Antibody Network. Of course, to outsiders they would simply describe this as being a social gathering.
“I doubt the IAIA will let that hIE slip away, but we’ve got more important things to worry about right now,” Kimitaka continued. “The bankrupting of MemeFrame will be huge, and we need to make sure we’re all on the same page going in. Otherwise, it could have a massive impact on the country’s economy.”
On paper, the Antibody Network had no actual leader. However, if you asked anyone in the know who was pulling all the strings for the organization, they would tell you it was Kimitaka Shinguji.
“If we’re getting onto the same page, there’s something I’d like to ask: Mr. Shinguji, have you finished the mass-production models yet?” one of the men in the group asked. He was the middle-aged president of an investment fund company, known by some as the ‘soldier of fortune’ of the financial world but, when he asked the question, his eyes were shining like those of a hopeful child.
“The mass-production models are going through final adjustments to ensure they’re fully autonomous,” Kimitaka said, putting emphasis in his words so the other men at the table didn’t get distracted as soon as they smelled money. He could almost see their eyes turning green. “We have to go with fully autonomous, there’s no other choice.”
Kouka’s ‘owner’ had been the whole Antibody Network organization. So, following her destruction, her data had been put to use by the whole organization to ensure that no single member could claim to be her sole owner. The questions Kouka had created with her final moments were still on people’s minds. Kimitaka’s goal was to complete what had been started with the Oi Industry Promotion Center attack; he would get heavily trained humans to join forces with his mass-produced units and, with all that firepower, he would complete the terrorist goals of the Network.
“If we can shorten the time it takes to train up our combat units, it will allow us to hit targets that are in the public eye immediately, while people are still thinking about them,” Kimitaka said. “The impact of our actions will be on a completely different level from before.”
“But fully autonomous units often run off on their own and are easier to lose, are they not? Considering the price of each unit, couldn’t we just invest in some expensive missiles instead?” asked an investment consultant named Chujo. Of course, that wasn’t his real name.
The Kuhonbutsu Base of the Military Branch of Digital Intelligence was in charge of interpersonal intelligence and conspiracy activities. They had been monitoring the Antibody Network since its foundation; Chujo was their representative. The meeting they were sitting in currently had been called after the Mitaka Incident. There was strong doubt in Digital Intelligence that someone in the core of the Antibody Network had been the traitor who brought one of Snowdrop’s flowers onto a helicopter during the Mitaka Incident which, in the end, caused the annihilation of the entire troop of air cavalry.
“Would you rather have cheap missiles that don’t hit their target, or missiles that not only could hit the target but also have a good chance of making it back in one piece?” Kimitaka asked.
With his deep ties to the military, Kimitaka had been deemed free of suspicion by the Kuhonbutsu Base and had even been invited to help in their investigation. Even with his sixty years of life and everything he had seen during them, he still couldn’t help but sweat under the pressure of that meeting.
“Even if we brush up the brand image of the Antibody Network, we can’t exactly become sponsors,” someone from the table said with a laugh.
“Honestly, I’m grateful for the boom in demand,” Kimitaka put in. “I understand that interests around the equator are blooming splendidly, but I suppose you all are behind at least some of it.”
Lacia’s attack on Higgins’ above-ground facilities had turned the world on its head. In Indonesia, the embers of old conflicts had been stoked into raging fires. The gears of automation had slipped just a hair in Africa and South America, leading to many major incidents throughout both continents. Lacia’s actions had inspired ultra high-performance AIs all over the world to prepare for war.
“Anyhow, I’m glad the fighting has been brought out into the public eye,” Kimitaka continued. “If we tried to handle this whole thing in the shadows, I think we would have lost control at some point.”
The core of the Antibody Network was a group of men who saw the final stages of the existential conflict between humans and machines as an excellent business opportunity. The whole Network was divided between the lower ranks—who were volunteers working to destroy hIEs—and the upper ranking members of the Network’s core, who were taking things in a completely different direction. It was just the kind of breeding ground for corruption and evil that could be seen all throughout the world.