Private Fiknoot and Private Stross sat strapped in their seats, being told the mission details for the hundredth time. They were, after all, recycled goopy clones.
A recycled goopy clone has a genetic code made up of random leftover parts from donors, used to spin in a centrifuge and then inserted into the fleshy 3-D printer. This was the cheapest form of making soldiers. The budget for military spending got hit heavily by consistent audits, so they cut the funding. You get what you pay for - a complete idiot that cannot recall anything aside from the last thing they were told. Which made training of soldiers much easier, which meant more money to save and spend on the real war tools. Any real war was all programmed and executed by a controlled AI robot.
These recycled goopy clones were excellent to use for public relations and military propaganda commercials. And like every military, this one had a person who failed upward. So, they approved his stupid mission to fly over the Atlantic and toward the east coast border of the United States.
It had been over one hundred years since some FDA regulation failure caused a widespread disease, killing people or mutating them. After the last government funded airline landed in Europe, all communication with the United States went silent.
Brigadier Marvin Henry Heckleson not only decided on this mission, but willingly accompanied the recycled goopy clones. He was an older man who often spoke about how men nowadays weren’t manly. He had a personal disdain for recycled goopy clones and the AI controlled mech robot soldiers. Every other sentence out of Marvin Henry Heckleson’s mouth was “Back in my day,” or “My generation did things differently!” Now, in reality, his great grandfather may have fought in something. But Marvin Henry Heckleson never saw any combat.
“Listen up you filthy fucking maggots! Once we land I need each one of you sorry sons of bitches to scope out a 5 meter radius! Do you copy?!”
“Do you copy?!” The recycled goopy clones replied.
“God damn it. Scope out a 5-meter radius!”
“Scope out a 5-meter radius!” They replied.
Fiknoot and Stross were the only two goopy clones with Marvin on this dangerous mission. Neither thought to take their seatbelt off since no one told them. Marvin Henry Heckleson sat in the front seat. It used to be called the cockpit when a pilot would fly, but everything was automated now.
“UAD detected 700 kilometers out. 600. 400. 200. 200.” The onboard unit alerted Heckleson.
“Getting biological readings for UAD. Cross referencing known species…error. Getting biological readings for UAD. Cross referencing known species…error.”
A giant bird or something was flying around it. Almost inspecting it, then soaring away but still remaining in sight. It was the body of a bald eagle twice the size of the plane, but with the head of a deformed pig. Opening its mouth while thousands of bat-like creatures flew directly toward them. Marvin panicked.
“We are under attack!” He shouted at the goopy clones, who then shouted the same thing.
He ran backward toward his idiot soldiers, instructing them to take their seatbelts off and to grab their rifles.
The onboard unit was set to reach its destination. It would continue to do so while repeating its error in the readings. The code sequence that only Marvin knew could override the system.
The bat-like creatures burst through the window. He shouted “Shoot!”
Fiknoot and Stross start firing at these small pig bats. There were so many of them, swarming like locusts. Marvin was trying to make his way to the system, but the creatures started biting his legs.
“Ah shit!” He screamed. Then when Fiknoot and Stross stopped firing and began to take their pants off he screamed again, “Keep shooting!”
Fighting desperately as these pigs were biting his arms and legs, he reached for his knife and stabbed one in the stomach. It squealed like a pig.
Stross was overtaken by them. They picked him apart. He didn’t say anything. All his brain was doing was telling him to “keep shooting.” He died with his finger twitching on the trigger.
Fiknoot, however, was a sight from a Rambo movie. Shooting and killing so many of them. He was closest to the override system. Heckleson couldn’t make it. Those greedy pig bats ate his Achilles right up.
“Fiknoot! I need you to enter the override sequence on the machine.” Fiknoot turned to the computer within arm’s reach.
“Ok good! Enter 69 and click override communications/transport.” Fiknoot typed the code in and clicked the override.
“Now page Command!” Fiknoot hit the command button.
“Tell them the…” A pig bat gouged Heckleson’s throat.
“This is Nest responding to Pigeon.”
“Tell them the.”
“Tell them the?”
“Tell them the.”
“Damn it Heckleson. We said this was a bad idea! What the hell is going on out there!”
“What the hell is going on out there!”
“Damn it, is this a goopy clone?”
“Damn it, is this a goopy clone?”
It was nearly lunch time. He didn’t want to put in the extra effort to figure out exactly what happened. His superiors already wrote off the mission as a failure. He clicked download to get the diagnostic and video footage from the plane.
“Ok soldier this is an order…Hit the self-destruct button.”
Fiknoot hit the big red button.
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