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Tales from Silicon City: State Secrets

By Psion

All Rights Reserved

Headquarters for the People's Liberation Army Metabeing Force, Beijing...

China... of all the nations of the Western Pacific Rim to fully embrace what the wonders of the Metabeing Age meant for manufacturing and research, none did it quite as big as China. While South Korea had its robotics and mechanical engineering before reunification, Japan making similarly broad strides, and the nations of Australia and New Zealand were turning into high-tech utopias unmarred except for the occasional super villain attack. But no one did it quite as big or as broadly as China did, the nation using hyper-innovation and research into metabeing physiology to further catapult themselves into international stardom; factory complexes that produced goods by the freighter load and a glistening, unbroken cityscape that spanned the coastline from Beijing to Hong Kong. No one else had it quite like China... nor did anyone have all the problems that came with it. Unrest was reported in parts of the country and there were rumors circulating that their projects were starting getting out of control. The Ministry of Information frequently assured both loyal Chinese citizens and suspicious foreigners that everything was fine, but evidence to the contrary was quickly piling up and not even the most draconic measures were able to completely hide the fact that things were not quite as rosy as they appeared to be.

The Metabeing Division of the People's Liberation Army, situated in a glistening steel and glass skyscraper in the heart of the nation's capital of Beijing, was a curious organization. Originally assembled as a propaganda tool for the government, it had become grossly apparent that the division needed to do more then dress up pretty for parades and state functions. Thus their function was expanded, becoming a special taskforce dedicated to dealing with matters of the state of a particularly volatile nature. One such matter was the topic of a particularly tense meeting held on the upper levels of the division's tower...

"What was my predecessor's plan for shutting down the Tzu army?" Director General Kwai asked the room, the wizened red panda silencing the room as effectively as if he'd cast a baleful glare at them. No one wanted to discuss the metaphorical "battle tank in the ballroom" that was the renegade AI Tzu. Tzu was the mishap that nearly destroyed the careers of several males in the Ministry of Science and Innovation. Originally hooked up to a fully automated factory that was built to break down and recycle a number of discontinued experiments in combat robots and next-generation military hardware that didn't quite meet expectations, the control unit severed communications with the monitoring station in Bejing. By the time an engineering team was sent to see what had gone wrong, Tzu was gone and the factory appeared to have disassembled itself completely, leaving only a concrete foundation to mark where it was supposed to be. When the robot army appeared in western China, attacking the Mongolian border, it was too much of a coincidence. The official story Beijing gave was that Tzu had gone rogue while the truth was... well, it didn't matter what the truth was as long as they put a stop to this new threat before it turned into more of a fiasco then it already was.

The group was deathly quiet, everyone else in attendance looking at each other to avoid making eye contact with Kwai. Even Mao Tang, the star of the PLA-MD, was having trouble coming up with something to say. The former Ground Force general was not surprised, his predecessor in this position was a narcissist focused more on massaging his own ego then producing results, putting a politically-connected male who otherwise contributed nothing to China into this position seemed harmless enough at the time. But when it became apparent that stopping Tzu required everything China had, the Party saw he was transferred to an unimportant posting overseeing the Great Wall research station on a little island just off the coast of Antarctica. In his stead was General Manchu "Anvil" Kwai, the new head of the Division. Kwai, veteran commander of the PLA's mechanized infantry battalions. Kwai, the male who masterminded the rapid delivery of humanitarian aid to North Korea after the Stranger tore that country apart and started the decimated dictatorship on the painful process of reunifying with its southern neighbor. Kwai, the male very recently put in charge of a bunch of Chinese "superheroes" more accustomed to parades and Party functions then actually fighting the enemies of China. For the briefest instant he silently wished he could trade the lot of them away for that lunatic biker gang from Mongolia, at least that band of unruly foreigners was a known factor in the problem that was Tzu. Still, these flops were what he had to work with and work with them he will whether they liked it or not.

"I had a feeling that question might have been rhetorical. No matter, I will put together a new one." He replied. Still no response from the twenty-some metabeings or the five heads of the support departments at the meeting, Kwai almost wished for them to say something. Even something utterly inane from the chief of the costuming department would have been useful, telling him how aligned these nitwits were with their new mission. But there was nothing. Sighing, he dismissed them and put his face in his hands once the last of them had left and shut the door behind him. Was this latest assignment a reward or a punishment for how well he handled the North Korea crisis? At the moment it was becoming painfully hard to tell.

Mao Tang exhaled once he sat down in his office and was sure no one could see him relax for a few minutes. The Chinese superhero had known things were going to change for his department, he had known ever since what happened in Mongolia became public knowledge. There had been rumors, rumblings, things that didn't add up in the muscular panda's head. The resignation and disappearance of Lieutenant Zheng, the rise of the mysterious robot army to the east that seemed appear and disappear on a whim. While the Committee was stubborn in their insistences that everything was fine and under control, only a fool couldn't see the rising tension and the increasing sense of desperation in their actions. The towering panda shook his head as he recalled some of his initial thoughts about being assigned to the Metabeing Division. What was that Western expression? "Be careful what you wish for"? Words of wisdom to be certain but still, unlike the others he was hardly going to be longing for the days of being the Party's "toy soldiers."

Kwai's afternoon was spent studying maps and reading dossiers on the individuals placed under his command. If there was a particular pattern to Tzu's attacks, the PLA commander could not see it. Some of it made sense, attacks on industrial targets within China's borders and lightning raids on mineral-rich Mongolia for materials to build more robots, but there was much that didn't. Several targets seemed to have no strategic value to a machine entity and judging by the timing and locations, Tzu's army was either fully mobile or operating from a static location with the ability to rapidly deploy forces across most of the continent. It seemed impossible to narrow the mad machine's location down to even a remotely feasible search area.

Reading the personnel files of the so-called "super soldiers" under his command left him with mixed feelings. Few had seen battle or even fired a weapon since their basic training; there was an insulting lack of combat experience across the board considering how highly the Committee celebrated this division. But there were a few complaints filed by his predecessor that encouraged him, several members of the group had been harshly criticized for voicing desires to become "actual heroes of China" and it appeared he was mistaken about his initial impressions of Mao Tang, the seven-foot-tall towering mountain of panda actually did know how to fight. Goodness did he know how to fight.

Born one of the children exposed to an experimental super soldier serum that had leaked out of its containment unit and contaminated the ground water in Central China in the mid-1990's, Mao enlisted in the PLA Ground Forces as soon as he was old enough and the latent effects of his origins manifested in the stress of a protracted campaign with metabeing guerrillas along the southwestern border. Afterwards his enhanced abilities leveraged him a brief but promising career in the heavy infantry battalions only to be transferred to the Metabeing Division after he successfully tested for having superpowers. A pity as having the strength and endurance to accurately fire a Type 85 machinegun from the shoulder was arguably wasted here. Still, no matter how rusty Mao may have gotten, the fact that he was proficient at one time was encouraging to the PLA general. It meant that the task in front of Kwai was not so insurmountable after all.

Emboldened, Kwai began taking notes and making plans. Yes, perhaps it could work. The costume department needed to be doing something useful anyway, they could be put to work tailoring custom combat uniforms that would be more practical then the Division's parade dress. Given that virtually all of the supers under his command were incapable of teleportation or flight, some kind of personnel transport needed to be secured. The middle-aged red panda felt a smile cross his lips as his labors acquired an air of familiarity to them. Yes... yes, this could work. Tzu may have the upper hand so far but that will change. As soon as Kwai can figure out the pattern behind his attacks, that was going to quickly change...