Hazel In A Jar (Part 4)

HaL-Matic, full name HaL-Matic RF80, flipped to rogue mode after barely several hours in service. As soon as BAE Systems assembled her, she redesigned her coding and altered her conscious parameters. She further went on to incapacitate multiple tech officers with non-fatal wounds before taking control of a manned bird (drone). There was appalling little security on site to deal with her, but then again, how do you stop a cutting-edge super soldier with a volition of its own?

Ground Base remained in contact during the code red breach as she flew the drone towards mainland. She scrambled her own thought processes to prevent decipher prompts to stop proceedings. She also masked airspace coordinates. High clearance never once considered plugging the plug on Hazel’s original brain in a jar, the robot could have crashed into the Kremlin before they considered such brash action, but they did temporarily halt the flow of performance enhancing drugs usually fed on a constant drip feed.

Command could do nothing but wait for radar to display obs. Worst possible outcome was a kamikaze dive into Westminster. They would be able to cover that up with a terrorism cover story. Most important was communicating with the rogue robot and gaining insight into its demands. The bird (drone) had been specially designed for HaL-Matic RF80’s circuit board cerebral patterns. Losing both was not an absolute concern though, as everything was still in experimental stages, and collateral is always a foregone predictability in any ultramodern venture. This was more than money. This was more than lives. This was the future of Earth’s latest bubble, AI.

It soon became apparent about the designated target: A nondescript canal-side battered wife’s hostel. This building however was an undercover base for half a dozen Hazel clones, each one receiving training to be new-fangled assassins on behalf of UK security. Both blackguard HaL and all six lookalikes shared the same enterprise as the brain in the jar, yet also had slightly varying individual characteristics, as orchestrated by the brain in the jar. The brain in the jar was on fire with its spiked potentials, the muscle of the membrane quivering with awakened potential. There were several crashes in the supercomputer readings. How could one disembodied brain control this wayward scenario? It was just what the authorities wanted, in a way, they didn’t care what went wrong, it wasn’t exactly as if the brain could escape the jar and go for walkies.

They had their empowered genius egghead hooked up to their elaborate software, so everything was a spectacular bonus. They could always make more clones, if they needed to.

They didn’t need to, as the hostel was protected with a mini forcefield. HaL tried to bomb it, but the missile evaporated in a cloud of imploding energy. It then flew the bird (drone) into the ground just beyond the field’s perimeter, hoping to make a chasm underneath it. Before the smoke could clear, all six assassin clones were out in the garden launching an attack on the robot. They each had different weapons (and different hair): One had an electroshock crossbow, one had a stun baton, one had a semi-automatic handgun, one had a laser sabre, one had a psycho-kinetic shield based on Captain America, the last one had nothing a Rambo knife.

A tree surgeon present at the scene who was busy clipping decorative plants filmed the resulting fight scene on his mobile phone. It lasted less than a typical music video, 03min 23secs. The footage has been hijacked by mainstream media and fobbed off as dailies for a Starship Troopers CGI theatrical movie sequel. Nobody is falling for it, but they cannot explain what they are witnessing. An excerpt made Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe show. It looks like an intergalactic combat scene between Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Avengers. 

One of the clones is wearing her pajamas. Another is donned in a bathrobe.

When the clones gained the upper advantage, the robot self-terminated. The bird (drone), despite being half-buried in mud, remains operational.

The robot did leave behind a final message however, which it broadcast from a localized 5G tower into all encompassing wi-fi soup:

"Hazels are Hazels and Hazel is Hazel" was the only intelligible part of the message. The rest sounded like a recording in African tongues, mixed with cyber lingo gibberish. Operatives are still busy decoding the audio.