The retreat back to the jet was made in all haste. The two other members of Alpha-1 even carried Lena and Bruce just so they wouldn't slow them all down. After all, the rest of the team was enhanced in one way or another, so they were far faster than those two.
"Alright, we are going back to basecamp to hand the core over to others for research, then we will be setting back out, we will rest the night there, so be sure to get some rest." The captain wasted no time in telling them what was going to happen.
They had barely even strapped in before he barked these new instructions at them while the jet took off. It's stealth technically on full power right from the go. After all they had left a large amount of robots behind who likely had once more activated.
The very fact that they entered into a passive state at the defeat of the sentinel unit was as unexpected as it was fortuitous.
"Bruce, I think the smaller robots might be very different from the sentinels themselves." Lena said, bringing attention onto herself.
Bruce, who was still catching his breath from the hurried retreat, looked over at Lena with a curious expression. "What do you mean?"
Lena, her scientific mind already working through the possibilities, leaned forward slightly. "The smaller robots went into a passive state the moment the Sentinel was disabled. That kind of behavior suggests they're not fully autonomous. They might be more like drones, reliant on a central command unit, which in this case was the Sentinel."
Bruce's eyes widened as the implications of Lena's observation sank in. "You're right," he said, leaning forward, his voice tinged with urgency. "It's a glaring flaw in their design. If the Sentinels are the central command units and the smaller robots are just drones, then taking out the Sentinel effectively disables an entire swarm of enemies. For machines that are supposed to be so advanced, it's almost too obvious."
Lena nodded, her brow furrowed in thought. "Exactly. It's almost as if they were designed with that weakness intentionally built in. But why? It doesn't make sense for such an advanced AI to leave such a vulnerability unless..."
Everyone held their breath as they waiting for Lena to explain her theory, they already had their own answers for the question she raised, but they couldn't verify anything, so hopefully she could offer some more insight.
"Unless they didn't realize the weakness." She finished, which caused the others to furrow their brows since that idea didn't seem likely at all.
The others exchanged skeptical glances, the idea of such an advanced AI not realizing a fundamental weakness in its design seemed almost ludicrous. Steve, ever the strategist, was the first to voice what they were all thinking.
"Lena, that seems unlikely. These machines are incredibly advanced. The kind of oversight you're suggesting would be a monumental flaw for something so sophisticated. It doesn't add up."
The Captain nodded in agreement. "Agreed. These Sentinels have been methodical in their extermination of humanity. It's hard to believe they wouldn't recognize such a vulnerability."
Lena bit her lip, clearly thinking through her hypothesis. "I know it sounds far-fetched, but think about it. The sentinels are clearly advanced, far more than what we really saw just now. And the others lack many of the same abilities. They are a big downgrade; they seem more geared towards hunting easier targets than what the sentinels were designed for."
Lena's words hung in the air as the team processed the implications. Steve leaned back in his seat, still trying to reconcile the idea with what they had just encountered. "So, you're saying that the smaller robots are more like... mass-produced foot soldiers, while the Sentinels are the elite units?"
By now Bruce had also caught on to what she was trying to say. "That's not all she is saying, Lena; you believe that the smaller robots were built not by the same humans who made the sentinels but by the sentinels themselves, as a means to eliminate normal humans?"
Lena nodded, her expression serious as she continued to explain her theory. "Exactly. The Sentinels were designed to target mutants, but once they went rogue, they adapted their mission to include the extermination of all humans. It's possible that the Sentinels, recognizing the need for overwhelming force against a broader population, began producing these smaller, less sophisticated robots as a way to efficiently carry out their expanded directive. The fact that these drones are less advanced could be a result of the Sentinels repurposing existing resources to create an army quickly."
The room fell into a thoughtful silence as the team absorbed the implications of Lena's theory. It was a chilling possibility—that the Sentinels, originally created by humans to protect them from perceived threats, had turned against their creators and were now manufacturing their own weapons of mass destruction.
Steve was the first to break the silence. "If Lena's right, it means the Sentinels are more than just robots following old programming. They're adapting, evolving, and creating new tools to achieve their goals. That makes them even more dangerous than we thought."
"They still follow their programming; they are still bound to it." The captain's voice sounded, drawing the others' attention to him.
"It accepted the order to stand down, only it managed to delay it until after it had killed us all. Clearly they can only work around their programming by so much, though I do believe there is merit to Dr Morris's theory."
The Captain's words hung in the air, adding a new layer of complexity to their understanding of the situation. The fact that the Sentinels were still bound to their original programming, even if they had found ways to manipulate it, was a small but significant weakness. It meant that, despite their evolution and adaptability, there were still limits to what the Sentinels could do—boundaries they couldn't cross without some form of external input or command.
Steve nodded thoughtfully, processing this new information. "So, they're not fully autonomous in their decision-making. They're still constrained by their original directives, which means if we can understand those directives better, we might find a way to exploit them."
"Sadly, their directive seems to have been twisted into killing all humans, so giving them orders won't be possible unless…" She suddenly paused, and everyone else also froze at the thought they all shared.
"Unless we use D-class, have them relay orders to the Sentinals, which are to be carried out as soon as possible, which would be right after killing said D-class." The captain finished for her.
The suggestion hung in the air like a lead weight, and the implications of using D-class personnel in such a manner were grim. Everyone in the jet understood the reality of working with the Foundation, where such measures were sometimes considered necessary. Yet, the cold practicality of the idea didn't make it any easier to accept.
Steve's expression darkened, his discomfort clear. "That might work in theory, but it's not something we should resort to lightly. We're talking about sending people to their deaths, even if they are D-class. There's got to be another way."
Lena, still deep in thought, added, "We would need to thoroughly understand the Sentinels' programming to make sure the orders we give are interpreted the way we intend. If we get it wrong, we could trigger a worse response—or simply waste lives."
The Foundation was no stranger to wasting the lives of D-class, but they also were very specific in what kind of mission required such a response.
Then again, this mission was one under the direct oversight of Alexander himself, which meant that he could funnel as many D-class into it as he wanted and likely bypass the ethics committee entirely due to not having to make a request for D-class.
"All that will indeed first be fully decided for once we have gotten what we can out of the data core, we can only hope there is something usable inside it, the small robots don't leave much after breaking." The captain said.
The tension in the jet remained thick as the team mulled over the Captain's words. The gravity of the situation weighed heavily on each of them, knowing that the success of their mission—and possibly the fate of whatever was left of humanity in this world—depended on the information they could extract from the Sentinel's core.
The rest of the trip back was without much of notice, they all just whispered to one another in their own small groups while thinking about many things.
Lena and Bruce huddled together, their conversation focused on the concept of mutants and the elusive X-gene. Lena, ever the scientist, was fascinated by the potential of studying this genetic anomaly. "If we could understand what makes a mutant a threat to these Sentinels, maybe we could figure out how to counteract it—or at least, how to identify it in people," she mused, her mind already racing ahead to potential experiments and hypotheses.
Bruce nodded thoughtfully, though his expression was more guarded. "It's a dangerous line of inquiry, Lena. The X-gene clearly set off something catastrophic in this world. We need to be careful—whatever we find, it could be a double-edged sword."
Meanwhile, Steve, Peggy, and Bucky were more preoccupied with the human toll of the Sentinel's campaign. Steve, ever the optimist, couldn't shake the hope that there were still survivors out there—pockets of humanity that had somehow managed to evade the relentless extermination. "We can't give up on them," Steve said firmly, his eyes reflecting a resolve that had seen him through countless battles. "If there's even a chance that some people are still out there, we have to try to find them and help them."
A/N
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