Cyborg War

Battalion Headquarters was full of activity trying to get replacements sorted out in to the new position as Major Erica Walker arrived. "Captain I'm Major Erica Walker from regimental headquarters G-2, here to see General Hawks."

"I'll inform the general you're here, Major Walker. Please wait here." Captain Rice told her.

"General, there's a major here from regimental headquarters G-2 to see you." The captain told the general.

"He'll have to wait. There too much going on right now to talk to someone from G-2 at this moment." The general snapped at Captain Rice.

"It's Major Erica Walker, sir." He added.

The General looked a little shocked by this news. He knew who Major Erica Walker was. She was the one who got General White his predecessor relieved of this command. "Tell her I'll see her in a couple of minutes." General Hawks told him.

Captain Rice left the general's office. General Hawks paced back and forth in front of his desk thinking. 'She's here to sack me I'm sure of it. My staff and General White's staff all believe this, they all said she's a headhunter. Regimental Headquarters G-2 is always looking for someone to blame when things don't go as they think they should. Well, I might as well get this over with.'

"Captain Rice, send in Major Walker." The general told him over the intercom.

"Major Erica Walker reporting, Sir." She said standing in front of his desk.

"Please sit down Major." He told her from his seat behind his desk.

"Thank you, Sir," She said and then continued, "I'm here to ask you some questions about the resent battle of the Lower Valley."

"I'll be happy to help you as much as I can Major Walker." He replied.

"My team and I have been looking at your staff's reports and they both tell a grim story, but you did win the battle. Why?" Major Walker asked.

"Major I wished I knew. I was within 15 minutes of ordering a full retreat to our new, but still not completed defense line 20 miles back, when the forward lines reported the enemy had made a hasty retreat from the battleground." He told her.

"I see, but you didn't try to advance your troops. Why?" She asked him.

"Why! I had less than three battalions left from an entire Army Group. It might have been a trap for what remained of my army. The commanders on the front lines had report the enemy numbers seemed as strong as when the battle started, yet they retreated. I myself ask WHY!" He said.

"Then you feel they should have won the battle?" Major Walker asked.

"YES, they should have won. I had nothing here or even 20 miles back to stop them." He said.

"How much do you know about the first and second battles of the Lower Valley?" Major Walker said.

"From what I've read of General White's staff reports it looks like he had two great victories major." He replied.

"Yes. General White and his staff did like to praise themselves didn't they. Which is why he and his staff were replaced." Major Erica Walker said with a little smile.

"Are you telling me their report is not accurate?" He asked her.

"General White lost more than three times the men and equipment you did. He also retreated four times and the enemy also retreated like they did for you. They too didn't seem to be lacking in troops, but they still retreated." She told the general.

General Hawks sat there a little puzzled by what he'd just heard.

"There is a lot of things missing from those reports. It's taken my team and I over six months talking to personal who had been there and lived. We even checked letters from those who died there to get the truth. You and your staff gave a true report so I'm here now." She told him.

"Then you're not here to replace me?" General Hawks asked.

"I know a lot of people think I'm just a headhunter General Hawks, but I'm not. Regiment knew General White's reports weren't completely correct. So he was replaced. You're not going to be replaced. If anything you'll be promoted." She said smiling.

Hearing this was a relief for the general and for the first time he could that Major Erica Walker was not only nice but a very pretty and young woman too.

"I'm glad to hear I'm not being replaced but I think you're here to find out something more than you're telling me. Aren't you?" General Hawks said.

"I have a question for you General Hawks. If you were in charge of the enemy plans of attack would you attack the Lower Valley?" She questioned.

"Definitely not. It's the worst place to attack." The general said.

"Why do you think that?" She asked.

"Well it a desert area. Little to no water, even we have to bring water here. Then the desert hills after that. Good for defense but hard for the attacker. After that the Great Desert where more people have died than in these battles." He replied.

"And their generals know this too, right." Major Walker stated.

"I know they do." The general said.

"Sir, what I'm going to tell you is still very secret and not to leave this room." She told him.

"Captain Rice, I'm not to be interrupted. Hold all calls and visitors there." He told Captain Rice over the intercom.

"During the first battle of the Lower Valley one attack made little sense but not much attention was paid to it. A large group of their commandos slipped through the front lines. Ten miles behind our lines, there was a hospital unit and a supply unit their raiders captured these units. After several hours their front lines surged forward to just beyond this area. Within 30 minutes and without being attacked by enough of our troops to make them move yet they all returned back to the original front line positions and fought harder there than anywhere else on the line. After two hours of this their whole army had left the battleground in a retreat from a battle they were winning." She told him.

"Where they after the supplies?" General Hawks said.

"No supplies were taken. The people in both the hospital and supply units were shot. It was by firing squads from the look of it." Major Walker told him.

"They used a commando unit just to murder everyone in a non-combat unit?" He asked.

"Not everyone General Hawks. Among the dead we found two women. A nurse who died before they were captured and a Lieutenant Colonel Mary Morris. She was shot also by a firing squad. She was in charge of the nurses there. There are 35 others missing all the women who worked in the hospital and in supply." She said.

General Hawks was shocked by this news.

Seeing the look on General Hawks face Major Walker continued. "The second battle of the Lower Valley was almost a repeat of the first. However we had more female soldiers in non-combat units to free up men for fighting. Commando units attacked all of these units in the same way and except for about a half dozen who were shot by firing squads over 300 females soldiers were not found. Also in the North area fighting four towns and cities were attacked the same way. About 100 women were found among the firing squad dead, but almost 15000 women of all ages were missing." She said.

"So you believe there kidnapping our women. Why?" He asked.

"Maybe? During the first battle about 70% of our soldiers were human and 30% were the X1 Combat Robots. The enemy had 60% humans and 40% X1 type Combat Robots. During the second battle we used 50% humans and 50% X1 Combat Robots, while the enemy had 10% humans 85% X1 type Combat Robots and 5% of what they called the Z1 combat Robot. One of the captured enemy X1 Combat Robots memory told us his commander was a Z2 unit. As you know there is a standing order to capture any Z type Combat unit, which is a problem because they will self-destruct if capture is possible." She explained.

"Yes, I know about the Z units. I've lost over 100 humans soldiers and almost 300 X1 Combat Robots who tried to capture a Z type unit. They wait to self-destruct until they can destroy as many as possible of our troops and..." He stopped dead in his statement. "Captain Rice, bring me all the casualty and MIA reports from the battle right now." He told the Captain over the intercom.

"All of them Sir?" The Captain responded.

"Yes and fast." General Hawks said.

In less than 30 seconds Captain Rice and three clerks stacked folders on the desk next to the wall in the General's office and then left. The General picked up one small folder and checked it.

"Major Walker, start looking for a folder labeled HQ units 3, 4, and or 5, also any that might be a supply or hospital unit, starting at that end of the table and I'll start at this end." He said without explanation.

Major Walker found the HQ folder and put it on the General's desk and continued searching. As the General found a file he placed it on his desk.

"That's enough Major Walker. I need to check some things first then I'll give them to you to check." He said as he thumbed through the HQ folder first.

In a while he handed it to Major Walker. "I sent 3rd, 4th and 5th units of my HQ back to the second line of defense an hour before I was going to call for a retreat. They never got there. The report I got was they were ambushed and no survivors found. While we were talking I remembered that the ten drivers and three male clerks were found shot like in a firing squad. The ninety females of that unit were not found there." He told her. "Most combat Generals think of the soldiers they need in the front lines to fight the enemy and not about the person typing the orders to do the fighting. For that I'm sorry to have learned a little late." He said.

"Don't feel sorry General. It's taken Regimental Headquarters six years to see this pattern. Now we have to find out why." She said.

"Does G-2 have any ideas as to what the reason is?" He asked her.

"Too many ideas, I'm afraid. The main theory is that the enemy is running out of men. Which is why the increase in robots both X1, Z1 and Z2s." She told him.

"I think you have another idea. Correct." He implied.

"Yes I do. If they were running out, why in the North battle are there about 70 to 75% humans? Second why more of these Z1 and Z2 units and there a rumor of a Z3 and maybe a Z4 even. The X1 are cheap to make and from what we can see of the Z type they have to cost a lot more. Yet they will self-destruct if capture is possible. Why so much protection? What are they hiding? We can't even find fragments big enough to test." She explained to him.

The General opened a small box on his desk and took something out of it. "One soldier I knew was killed by what we thought was a human because he looked like he was bleeding, but he self-destructed as this man got close. Dr. Mills gave this to me telling me it's what killed my man. It looks like a part of a gear from an X1 Robot. Here feel it. Unlike a normal piece steel which feels cool it feels more like your own skin." With that he dropped the piece in her hand.

"It doesn't feel like metal." She said.

"True. And it's harder than my knife blade. If I had known Regimental HQ was looking for pieces of what a Z unit was made of I would have sent it in." He said.

"Can I get someone to take this to regimental headquarters G-2 for me and quickly."

"Of course. Captain Rice, have Lieutenant Hanes take your place and come in here." The General told him.

When the Captain came in the general pointed to Major Erica Walker.

"Captain, I need this taken to regimental headquarters G-2 and given to Lieutenant Louise Parker only. I will call letting her know your coming. Tell her it's a rush job." She told him.

"Captain if it won't take too long then stay there and bring back the test results." General Hawks told him.

Captain Rice headed back to regimental headquarters G-2 in the fastest car they had. By mid morning the next day he and Lieutenant Louise Parker were back.

"General Hawks this is Lieutenant Louise Parker from G-2. She said I didn't have clearance to see the information she had so she came along." Captain Rice said and left the general's office.

The general immediately notice that like Major Erica Walker, Lieutenant Louise Parker was also a very pretty woman. Lieutenant Louise Parker gave Major Walker the file she had brought with her. Major Walker looked at it for a minute.

"Louise, are you positive of this?" Erica asked her.

"Yes I am Major Walker. Very positive." Louise answered.

"General Hawks, that gear you had is not metal. Its organic and its cell structure was a living thing." She told the general.

"Major Walker I have another file you must also see at once." Lieutenant Parker said interrupting her and handing her another file which she read.

"General this is a report on the autopsies of all the women who were found shot. They all had one thing in common, none of them could have children." Major Walker told the general.

"Headquarters maybe right Major Walker about a manpower shortage, but only because of a shortage of women! A kind of 'BREEDING STATION' for their side." The general said to Major Erica Walker.

"Maybe Sir, just maybe they have set up some kind of 'BREEDING STATIONS' behind their lines." She answered.

Major Walker thought about what the general had said. The whole idea of the terror these women might be going through at some kind of 'BREEDING STATION' behind enemy lines sent chills up and down her spine.

"General Hawks, Lieutenant Parker and I would like to go to some of the units which have the most women in them and see if any precaution can be done." Major Walker said.

"Well at the moment the front lines are quiet, but I'll provide you with a driver and car equipped with a communication radio so if there is any change in the situation you'll know about it." He said.

"Thank you Sir." She told him.

For three weeks Lieutenant Louise Parker, Major Erica Walker, their driver Sergeant Barbara Jones and their armed guard Corporal John Miller went from unit to unit with no problems. At a unit some thirty-two miles behind their lines Lieutenant Louise Parker and Major Erica Walker were invited to an officer's club dance which both felt was a needed break. Since they were so far behind the front lines Corporal Miller didn't come with them. That day the front outposts had reported small scouting parties of the enemy but no problems were expected. The officer's club dance was also five miles further north so they would be 37 miles from the front lines.

Louise and I were in the back seat with our best party dresses and high heels on. This was the first time in months we weren't in uniform and it felt good to just be a woman and not 'Major Erica Walker'. After about 3 miles down the road we saw flashing light ahead and M.P.s. it looked like there had been an accident and they wanted us to stop. Some of the M.P.s approached the car. The M.P.s then grabbed each car door and ripped the doors right off and tossed them in the ditches on the road side. Two M.P.s grabbed each of us from the car. Taking us to the other side of the flashing lights standing us up in the road then quickly hand cuffing us and placing a soft black bag over our heads. Someone then grabbed the chain links between the hand cuffs and started pulling me forward. He stopped and said.

"Stairs up, go up." The voice was gruff.

At the top of the stairs I was pulled down what seemed to be between two rows of chairs. He then had me sit in the second seat in what was a bus. Un-doing my hand cuff on one hand he re-did the hand cuff around a pole in front of me. Then someone grabbed my ankles and pulled my feet forward only to also have then cuffed around the pole. A voice coming from a speaker in this bus announced "There will be no talking during this trip." After others were loaded on the bus in the same way we started on our trip.

For the next two hours the driver of this bus seemed to try and hit every bump in the road if we were on a road. I think we were traveling across country and not by a normal road. We were then taken aboard a train and cuffed the same way in the seats. I think by then everyone there had finally come out of the shock of being captured or kidnapped because I could hear quiet crying and sobbing from what sounded like women. To me and I'm sure Lieutenant Louise Parker knew we were being taken to one of their 'BREEDING STATIONS' behind the enemy lines. I was now for the first time in this trip frightened.

In a very low voice I said, "Lieutenant Parker, are you here?" Then I said, "Louise, are you here?"

Quietly form behind me I heard, "Yes I'm here. Behind you."

"I'm here too Major. I'm Sergeant Barbara Jones your driver." Barbara said.

"Do you think their taking us to. Well one of those 'STATIONS'." Lieutenant Parker asked.

"Maybe. We shouldn't call each other by rank. We don't want to give them any information if possible. Call me by my first name Erica. Do you both understand." I said.

Both answered "Yes, Erica."

We were on the train for at least six hours before we were taken off. Then a short 15 minute bus trip and into a building. We were made to laid down on a hospital gurney were our hands and legs were shackled to the table. then rolled down a long hall and into a room. There I was un-shackled told to stand on the floor where I was hand cuffed again.

"I'm X1-782 medic unit 3. Come with me please." The robot said.

The X1 robot brought me into a small room and closed the door behind him. Do not be afraid, I'm going to remove your underwear so you can use the toilet. The X1 unit quickly removed my underwear and pantyhose then held up my dress and helped me sit down.

"I know those fool guards on the train don't have enough brains to let you women use the restroom." The X1 unit said.

I had been so frightened during the trip I hadn't even thought of asking to use the ladies room. When I was finished the X1 put my shoes back on and help me up.

"Oh, you forgot to put my underwear and pantyhose back on!" I said.

"It will be easier for me to help you to go to the bathroom without them because I must hand cuff you each time I bring you here. It will also be less embarrassing for you too." The X1 unit said.

The X1 robots were genderless, but if asked I'd say this one was a female if they had a gender.

I was placed back on the gurney and re-shackled to the table before the cloth sack was finally removed from my head. The lights were brighter because of having been in the dark for eight plus hours so it took a while before I could really see the room. It was a large room but almost looked more like an operating room than a prison cell. This would increase my fear for what was happening. The X1 unit returned with food raising the part of the gurney where my head was and fed me since my hands where still shackled.

"Now you get some sleep Miss." The X1 said and left the room turning off the lights.

I didn't feel tired but I think the food may have been drugged to make sure I did sleep. When I awoke I was in a different type of gurney where my hands were shackled on each side of my head and I now had on a hospital night gown and no under garments either. For the next three weeks I only saw or talked to the X1 unit who ask no questions except for my name and if it was alright to just call me Erica instead of 'Major Erica Walker'. The X1 also would not answer any of my questions.

The X1 would come in my room every 15 or so minutes to see if I needed anything; change my hospital night gown after washing me and sometimes wash my hair too. This went on like that for three weeks. On the first night of the forth week I was again drugged to put me asleep again.

The next day three other X1 units came in with the X1 I knew. They said nothing to me but must have been doctor type units as they gave me a complete exam. Even my private areas, robots or not it was still very embarrassing. Then the three X1 units left.

"I'm sorry about that Erica, but the doctors had to make sure you were completely healthy." My X1 'nurse' told me.