Hero, Survivor, Legend

Day 537. The war raged on. Momentum ever growing, streets filled with smoke, fear, and chaos everywhere. The worst war the world had ever seen. Started as usual by the age-old but flawed sentiment - that if we don’t do it, they will. Against all odds, we had survived the third world war. We thought it would be our last. An all-out nuclear war that would wipe us all off the face of the earth. That’s what the best political and scientific minds of the world kept telling us. They were nearly* wrong. We lost a continent.

Antarctica was no more. The largest nations used Antarctica to display their power in the form of nuclear contest, or rather, a proxy war, demonstrating their capability, might and range. It was absolutely devastating. Recorded live and streamed globally, so the world could collectively watch as humanity intentionally destroyed the 5th largest continent in the world, killing all life in its wake and destroying nature in its purest beauty. Recorded to prove points, flair egos, show strength, and to decimate opposition. And after all that destruction, the result? It was a stalemate, a three-way tie between the US, Russia, and China. All those explosions, ice caps melted, rising water levels, dead animals, and all we had to show was a stalemate. It did, however, stall tensions and soothe egos, albeit for a short while.

It was, therefore, no surprise that 25 years later, we got what we truly wanted - a full blown war. With growing political tensions between NATO countries, global economies on the brink of collapse through a series of geopolitical constraints largely accelerated by corruption, and poor investments into AI, a misunderstood proclamation of next-gen advancement in AI by China, was the tipping point that led the US to wage war in the hopes it would crush its competition before they could shift the power balance permanently in their favour. And so began the Fourth World War.

In a way, this too was largely a proxy war - one fought by robots, drones and heavy artillery designed to be used autonomously or controlled remotely - commonly referred to as ‘Advanced Robotics, AI & Systems’ i.e., “ARAIS”. It was devastating to watch. Entire cities destroyed, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. More than a year in, the war soon reached a point where both sides were evenly matched, quickly forming a stalemate. After successfully cornering Russia for them to finally surrender, the US and its allies advanced with incredible speed and tact, and were deep in Chinese territory - about an hour out of Beijing; desperately hoping to take the city and end the war that they themselves had started.

The border between the two armies soon turned into a deadzone, where no known man had entered for over 168 days. With the militaries advancing, China was spread thin - it never wanted war, nor had it started it. The breakthrough in AI was meant to help the world over, particularly to help developing nations build infrastructure quickly and provide food and water to those in need with the help of advanced robotics. Instead, they were forced to utilise its resources on war efforts and building state-of-the-art machines that would win them the war. In an attempt to de-escalate the war during its early stages, and in a measure of good faith, China offered the world access to its AI. But it was to no avail. Expecting far more capability from the AI, the US believed China was holding out on the true algorithm, and when they didn’t receive it, the US ramped up the war. Having given up the primary advantage that they had, the US and its allies quickly levelled the playing field. When Russia surrendered, and China’s remaining allies either lost or chose to stay neutral in the wake of the US’ momentum, the war shifted.

With the war now on its doorstep and with Beijing in sight, China needed a stop-all solution, a strategic masterpiece, a miracle. And so, they gathered their brightest minds in an attempt to devise a solution that could systematically take down all machines in the deadzone, even if it meant taking down their own. Their plan hinged on simultaneously knocking out all forms of communications in the field, including local networks and satellite, topping it off with a highly compressed sonic wave that would fry the core receivers and motherboards within a 3-mile radius. A modified form of an EMP, as all advanced systems were hardened against EMPs during the early days of the war.

While sound in theory, the solution required multiple sonic wave blasters to be set off simultaneously across the 18 mile deadzone. Due to technical complications, they couldn’t be set off remotely. And so, a ragtag team of 20 of their best soldiers and experts were assembled with one simple goal in mind. Stop the opposing robotic army or die trying. The proposed solution, however, was further hindered by the no-man deadzone. Enemy drones and satellite imagery with visual heat maps made it impossible for anyone to make it into the deadzone without being discovered. In order to do so, the team split up into two major teams taking long routes around the battlefield to start at opposite ends of the deadzone. Wearing anti-thermal gear, covered in black from head to toe, they travelled only through the dead of night, leaving behind any digital technology to avoid being traced. The team was further hampered by the weight of their packs which included food, water, the sonic blasters and some cabling and analog equipment designed to connect all 8 devices through the trench. These also had to be laid a few feet below ground level and covered with a layer of mud so as not to be noticed or picked up on enemy scans. It was excruciatingly hard work, and incredibly slow for such a small team, but they endured.

The mission started well, with the red team and blue team both successfully setting up their first devices. Two down, six more to go - raising hope back at the control centre. Then disaster struck. The blue team was brutally killed. A hidden series of landmines designed to take out a fleet of 15-foot-tall robots was accidentally set off by the team while settling down to camp. All 10 members of the team were annihilated. It caused a major incident - forcing a 10-day ceasefire while investigations were raised into how and why the team were there in the first place.

Maintaining utmost secrecy was the lynchpin required for the mission’s success. So, China did all it could to cover up the incident, going as far as to publicly distance and disgrace the men who died in the explosion - stating they defected and tried to escape. The progress made so far had been meticulously covered up as they proceeded and so, was never found in the investigations, with the remaining devices believed to have been buried before the team died.

Meanwhile, the red team received a warning and managed to get themselves underground, laying low for 15 days until they received news that the war had resumed. Slowly and ever more carefully, they kept going. Planting the next device. They could only crawl on their hands and knees, and often had to take massive detours to avoid an ongoing fight, or because the terrain was too difficult. To make matters worse, they were quickly running out of food and water. The blasters and their components required to make it all work, were also weighing them down, causing them to do multiple trips to make any headway. For the sake of their country and millions of others, they persevered, getting that third device set up before long and moving onto the fourth. Progress was excruciatingly slow, and on the 62nd day, they lost radio. With no comms back to base, and knowing they wouldn’t receive any backup, the team kept going.

Working in relays, scouting ahead, then setting up shelter, followed by the devices and covering up their efforts, making camp underground or in a trench, sheltered from spying eyes, and repeating the whole fiasco. Mùchén died from a wayward shell. Qian died from overexhaustion. Xiaobo, their scout, broke his arm and multiple ribs when he tumbled down into a trench. He had to be left behind. They lost two more between setting up the third and the fourth device. That was half the team. Morale was extremely low, and soon two defected. They likely died trying to make their way home. And so it was just the captain, his trusted lieutenant, and the only woman they brought on the team, Jing. Although short, and a bit frail, she was an expert with all things hardware related.

The three of them persevered. The captain and his lieutenant pulling extra shifts so Jing wouldn’t die of exhaustion. They had to make it all the way to where the Blue team died to try and recover the remaining devices, hoping they were buried safely. With food running out, their progress slowed, until they had to stop and take shelter for a few days to recover. When they finally reached the last known location of the Blue team, Jing created a device that could ping the blasters and they slowly recovered the remaining three devices. A short funeral later, they moved on. On the way back however, they realised they weren’t alone, and there was an enemy camp nearby. With the prospect of raiding their food stores, the captain and his lieutenant went on a daring raid in the middle of the night, succeeding with only a fraction of what they would need. Leaving Jing behind to rest and stay hidden, they attempted a second raid two nights later, only to be caught and executed shortly after being tortured. They didn’t break.

Jing, unaware of the assassination, waited a full two days more before moving on. The captain and the lieutenant claimed to be deserters from the Chinese army, trying to escape a doomed sentence, and so, no search party was sent after Jing. All alone, she had no choice but to keep going. Doing the work of at least 5, she carried on, bit by bit, hands and legs bleeding from the non-stop crawling, body aching from not being able to stretch or walk on two legs for days. She nearly died on multiple occasions. Gave up twice. But kept going back, thinking of all those lives she could save. She focused on the blasters and their remaining numbers. Fifth one done. Sixth complete. Only one more to go. Her leg broke. Not from a mistake. It was from a falling robotic arm. She screamed, she cried, and nearly died from blood loss. After hours, she managed to move the robot's arm off her leg by dismantling parts of it and using it as a lever. She then used the frame as a splint, ripping off a section of her shirt to bandage the leg with a tourniquet. She wondered how she even got here in the first place. Her name meant calm or peaceful. And she embodied that throughout her life, never thinking she’d land up in the heart of a battlefield. She pondered why her parents chose her name, and she wondered if she would have been someone else, if they chose different. Finally, she decided it didn’t matter. Finishing her mission would bring peace and calm to not just her, but her entire nation, and hopefully, the world over.

Dying, out of food and water, with a broken leg, she carried on. Surviving on rainwater, bugs and earthworms she found in the soil. On day 137 she reached the final location. She connected the last blaster and using some spare parts she saved from the robot's arm, she managed to create a radio and communicate back to the control centre. They quickly pulled back a section of their army to be used as an emergency force, and coordinated a systematic take down of all other comms before having her execute the sonic blasters. Silence. Horror, as the hope drained from her thinking their mission was a failure. And then, it worked. Every ARAIS device across the 18 mile deadzone lost communication with their hosts and were instantly fried. China’s emergency force quickly stepped in to regain its ground and take strategic control of the opposing military's top generals. They were able to quickly and effectively negotiate an end to the war and have the US and its allies pull out their forces - the Fourth World War ended.

And so, against all odds, Jing Yang was someone who shouldn’t have been on the team, someone shouldn’t have succeeded, someone who shouldn't have made it out alive, but she did. And the world was better for it.