Higher Ground

Reiten, M. T. "Higher Ground." Original novelette, in Robosoldiers: Thank You for Your Servos, which see at link, pp. 3-36.

Combat-initiation story, in which one of the two focal characters is Uniform Four, a male-gendered (p.5)

human-shaped M-1 Guardian fighting [... machine and] one component of the Autonomous Platoon Engagement System, basically a powered armor suit ["based on a manned power-armor design" (p.27)] inhabited by an AI. The latest, greatest evolved sentience, capable of rational inference and supposedly self-aware. ES 2.0, ubiquitous as all hell Stateside, was tricky when put into a weapons platform. AI-inhabited robots were prohibited on US soil per the so-called "Terminator Laws," but were allowed for overseas military operations. (p. 4)

So note THE TERMINATOR film series, the fighting suit powered armor in Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers and the works in dialog with it — notably Joe Haldeman's The Forever War — and see under Literary Criticism, "In Search of the Ultimate Weapon: The Fighting Machine in Science Fiction Novels and Films" by Leonard G. Heldreth.

The human protagonist, Nina, is a signals officers, and other gadgets of interest include "autonomous data-monitoring units" that, among other things "injected disinformation and counter-propaganda into the enemy data streams" (p. 7 f.). She is also a green second lieutenant, and Uniform Four is also new, only "downloaded this morning" (p. 10). The main enemy weapon here, an EMP device (Electromagnetic Pulse), that offers — especially in context — intellectual challenges to human and AI robot, as well as an existential threat. Held down by the EMP and a sniper, Nina and Uniform Four need to contact their COP (Combat Outpost), for which they need communication through AI mini-drones, one of which transmits enemy intercepts from "original sources to proper [verified] receiving agencies" and the other "is only allowed to spread disinformation into enemy traffic": "One only tells the truth. One only tells lies" — "Like the logic puzzle" (pp. 22-23). In addition to logic, the AI unit is capable of judgmental comments, plus joking and laughter: classic man/woman cinematic banter (p. 34 and passim).

Also: a pack of canine-form (largely) and canine-behavior "stretcher-bots," who are not coming to rescue Nina and Uniform Four; and a kind of trap for an M-1 Guardian unit that comes across as electrified "zombie-arms," reaching out of the snow to grab him/it — an ingenious horror device built from medical prosthetics and other stolen goods (pp. 32-33).

RDE, finishing, 26Dec23