A Man and his Tank - Part I: The Talking Tank

Sometimes, all a patient needs is the touch of another human being. The darkness parted from Arjun's vision as he felt a tough but smooth touch on his palm. He recognised these sterile, titanium white walls - he was at the corps hospital at Starbase Haven, Tau Ceti. The sight that was new, was the man in front of him.

"W-what ..."
"Calm down, lieutenant." The nurse ordered. The pip of a major on his shoulder would have made Arjun jump to attention had it not been for all the tubes and lethargy holding him down. "You are really lucky, lieutenant. Your friends put you into cryo just in the nick of time. You don't even want to hear how serious your condition was." Arjun had later learnt that he had suffered a skull fracture, subdural hematoma and multiple severed arteries and it would have been worse had it not been for his helmet.

Indeed, Arjun felt lucky to be here. Something about the steadiness of the major's hands, and the confidence in his voice, re-assured him even though he did not know he needed re-assurance.
"Lieutenant, are you feeling all right?"
"I-I ..."
"Go ahead." Arjun tried to turn around but realised that all the tubes attached to him made that rather difficult in this state.
"I-I feel ... may I ask, why am I lucky enough to have a major at my bedside?"
"Because you are a lucky man, lieutenant", the major smirked as he introduced himself, "Major Benjamin Cohen, aide to General Burton, Director, Experimental Armour Group. He has ordered you to take part in a test. Go meet him when you feel ready."

General Burton? Arjun realised that the major must have been talking about General Fun E. Burton of "Barton's Barnhouse" fame. A rather popular choice as a target of jeering and banter by the guys on the ground for his patronage of all sorts of ridiculous experimental contraptions. Was he now to be a part of one of his demonstrations? Were his squadmates here too?
"Eridije, d-did we win?"
"Relax, soldier. The war can wait." Again, the major placed a commanding hand on his shoulders. Something about them, was, compelling, yet soothing, "Now, you need rest."

"W-wait, sir." Arjun called for Cohen just as he was about to get up and leave. He gestured to his tied arms and the bowl of algal soup and noodles on the table beside his bed.
"I-uh, cannot move my hands. I need help." Cohen met Arjun's grin with a broader one.
"I see ... Liz!" He beckoned to a junior nurse, "the patient is awake. Help him with his meals. I have other business to attend."

And so, the major left Arjun with a rather unattractive English lady for breakfast.

"He is rather clever, isn't he?"

Arjun checked the date. It was the 3rd of January, 2944. Within the time he was in cryo, the calendar had run through its last page and had to be replaced. Yet, here was Starbase Haven, still the most important location in the Orion Arm. Here, under Tau Ceti's cool orange light, there still must be docked hundreds of hulls. Some on guard but the rest, resting till they are bound to Earth, her colonies or far away clusters of the Pleiades, Draconis and Eta Reticuli. From here, he knew were ferried, billions of tonnes of materials, from the mines of the colonies to the factories of Earth and back by superintelligent navigators, keeping the way to Humanity's homeworld secret from the invaders.

Arjun had been to Haven before. He had even been to to the surface of Tau Ceti g; curious, how that name had stuck even though it was the first planet in the Tau Ceti system. However, previously he had only been to the common soldiers' halls, where there was always orchestral music and exotic alien food and drinks, though he had never touched the latter. Here, the mood was far more solemn. There were no alien technicians here either. At least, there were windows, in the single mess hall and his squadmates.

"I thought Allah was going to make you his own but I should have known a bastard like you would have not even found a room in hell." Hafeez welcomed him with arms opened for a hug, which Arjun accepted.

"As if you would have found one, bastard!"

On the table was an elite serving of delicacies Arjun had not seen tasted or even seen since the war started. Puris, cabbage stuffings, soya chunk soup and curd spiced with chillis, ginger, tomatoes, onions and even alien delicacies like devshroom from Teegarten, grimberries from far off Taygeta and the boiled sea kaleslyni from further off Disso, completely natural, the benefits of the interstellar trade they were fighting to establish and protect or so the cynics in the opposition would tell you; arranged truly artistically. With such a feast before him overwhelming all of his senses, Arjun could not help but pick up the napkin and prepare to take the cutlery next, had it not been for Nidhi screeching in disapproval.

"Hey! Has medical cleared you for such heavy food yet?"
"Well, Nidhi,  ..."
"Nope. I am not hearing your excuses, Arjun. Until you are fit again, you are to follow the diet and therapy regime closely."

For a moment, the four friends looked at each other far too seriously. Then, the ice broke and they erupted into a cheer.
"So, don't tell me you got out of there before killing that parasite."
"Oh, of course, ..."

Over the meal, the squad caught up. The fighting had piped down in Eridije but the planet was still not entirely secured. The occupiers were still hunkered down, waiting for reinforcements. The one opportunity to dispatch of them, he had squandered out of haste by himself. The planet has shifted hands multiple times in the last four years, so what did it matter if he was here recovering in a hospital instead of out there with the rest of the corps? No. Arjun could not believe he was failing upwards like that. He felt that he deserved to be punished for that blunder.

After the lunch, the squad went to a workshop module as ordered. The place was cavernous, with all sorts of machinery and objects around. Lathes, industrial fabricators, even an elemental transfuser. Among them were many of Burton's rumoured failures, the sonic siege engine, the hover howitzer and many more; still as works in progress. The four had been to Haven many times and yet, never did they imagine all this was right there. Colonel Gurmeet greeted them inside. Arjun thought through how he should face his brigade commander, carefully, with far more thought than he had put into his action. His eyes flinched in anticipation as the colonel began talking. Thankfully, the colonel did not mention the matter for now.

"At ease, son. High command is testing a new generation of main battle tanks. They have requested you as the test driver." This shell flew over Arjun's head. It was straight out of the blue.
"Sir, is that so? May I ask what is so special about it and why have they requested for me specifically?"

"Well, I have no idea, son." The colonel looked around. "Nonetheless, I wish you the best of luck. General Burton and an important civilian dignitary will be here any moment. Act disciplined and try to leave a good impression about the corps, all right."

Arjun felt the warning was a backhanded insult for his mistake. He was about to facially express his dissatisfaction when their hosts appeared. On one side, a clear blue eyed American man with the four stars of a senior General, the other, a gray haired old lady Arjun only knew from news recs.

"At ease, I am General Hal E. Burton, director, experimental armour group." The officer introduced himself, "and our guest who needs no introductions but whom I shall honour nonetheless, Sabrina Steelheart, CEO, Steelheart Industries."

Of course, Steelheart Industries was involved. The military licensed private company produced nearly a fifth of the motor pool and supplied parts for the rest of the army. Ms. Steelheart was a self-made inventor to Humanity but, Arjun knew from POWs that she was outright feared among the enemy. The Covenant calls her, "the wicked witch of Earth", and for good reason too.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Kavya interjected.
"... Granted, corporal"

Kavya stepped forward toward Sabrina, her composure noticeably breaking as she bent down to touch her feet.
"Ma’am, it’s such an honour for me. I ..." Arjun rolled his eyes, watching Kavya's fangirling. Kavya must have realised the same too, as she coughed to regain her feet, "... If it’s not improper to ask, may I request a rec with you later?"

Sabrina accepted her respects and helped her up.
"Stand up straight, pretty. We’ll definitely have a rec later." Arjun could not help but find the industrialist's smile rather condescending. "For now, we have more important matters to attend."

"Indeed. Lieutenant! Do you see that metal box over there?" Arjun turned around to look at the direction the General pointed at but then, something happened; the direction looked back. What appeared to be a slightly modified Mk. IV, turned its turret around and swiveled it up and down.
"Ah! Who is in that, tank?" The colonel sprang back.
"No one, colonel." The general laughed. "Meet Kitty, also known as XM Mk. 26-001. The first, sentient tank."

"Kitty? That is one cheesy name." Sure, naming armoured vehicles after felines was a Human tradition; there literally was a rarely used "Bengal Tiger" in the army's arsenal but this was too over the top. More importantly, Arjun was still, to use a colonial parlance, not grokking it. He did not hold his intelligence in high regard but he knew a lot about tanks and he was not convinced a metal box with tracks could have a mind of its own. Self driving models are not life and they were not particularly useful on a battlefield either. Even if they had improved on those, could they really replicate sophont though and intuition. Nonetheless, he hid his disbelief. "With due respect, General. How does it work?"

"Unfortunately, Lieutenant. That is not my forte. Madam, if you may." The industrialist cleared her throat as she began to explain.

"A few months ago, the star battleship Vallabhbhai earned fame for sinking the Arcturian flagship, the star galley Prince of Devonia, in a battle that became ridiculously one-sided as it progressed ..." Indeed, Arjun had heard about that incident and how the Covenant hounded the poor vessel down but he could not see the relevance here. He could watch the matter now too, with a rec being played on the hall canvas. Neither sound nor smell was present in this video of space. Just the lag of time on a telescope sight between the moment a macrolaser broadside was fired and the moment it confirmed that the broadside made its far away speckle of a target light up like a star half the time span ago.

"... the performance of the star battleship was far, far beyond the benchmarks. On investigation, the electronics officer discovered that the starship's computer network had spontaneously evolved sentience during the battle..." The rec cut to the engineer talking to a hologram of a dashing blonde, naval man with all sorts of greeblies on his uniform, like in those Japanese anthropomorphic sculptures of old seaships. "And you will not tell anyone about it." That sounded more threatening than promising.

"... While the Vallabhbhai was destroyed by an overwhelming Covenant flotilla, the officer recovered important research about his existence. His sapience was made possible by many factors, including the direct interface between his sensors and his processor through the new classical-to-quantum encoding buses, the extremely outlying stimuli of the battle, the reinforcement loop from recorded battle damage and many other factors. I hope you have understood the matter. I will not bore you further with unnecessary technical details." Arjun nodded. He was dumbfounded at the moment. Was this all true? Could machines of war develop independent thoughts and more importantly, did they implement that on a tank? Was that a limit they should cross?

"Did Kitty develop sentience on their own as well?"
"Not exactly, lieutenant. Kitty was given birth to, so to speak, in our lab. Their data corpus was trained on thousands of hours of collated combat records and ordinary maintenance and travel records ten times as large. Combat is an outlier, even during war but the outlier is rather necessary in this algorithm. But I am getting ahead of myself."
"I follow, ma'am. So, they think? They act by themself?"
"Kitty can think but I warn you, pretty, Kitty is a tank. Kitty thinks like a tank. Kitty is more like a pet than a Human." Arjun could not hold his laughter back anymore.
"A pet, ma'am? A metal box that weighs 60 tonnes, can run at 60 m/s and has the firepower to level a city is a pet?"
"Hey, I only weigh 55.6 tonnes!" A disapproving motor hum pulled the attention of the gathered humans back to the Kitty in the room. Colonel Gurmeet jumped for concealment.
"The tank talks!"

If the tank's prompt huff did not break the composure of those present, the colonel's reaction certainly did. Arjun's amusement however, faded as a realisation descended upon him. Despite being able to communicate in Human language, this so called living tank was not as intelligent as a Human. Communication models were a millennium old by now, Human speech is no longer proof of sapience. Even their creator, claimed this "kitty" was only as intelligent as a kitten.

"Sir, Kitty is not going to be deployed by himself, is he?"
"No. Do not worry, lieutenant. We still intend to keep a Human in the loop, much like how dogs in our police forces need to be deployed with trainers." General Burton re-assured him. "Besides, there are so many functions like repairs that Kitty cannot reliably do on himself and this is where you come in, lieutenant."

"I have requested your squad to test how a kitty with an ace commander performs against a conventional tank with an ace crew. If he performs well in the demonstrations, I am sure the Security Council will approve of integrating them into our forces. Do you feel you and your crew are up to the task, lieutenant?" Now, Arjun realised why he and his friends were here. At least, why they were here. Arjun wondered, did he deserve to be in this room? However, this was no place to express his doubts.

"Sir, I can vouch for my men..." But he did not specify if he could vouch for himself. His throat parched before he could formulate that assurance into speech."
"Great. Now, let's take Kitty out for a ride."

Tau Ceti g is a beautiful world, much like how Venus is. Standing on its surface is like being five hundred meters under water except the temperature exceeds 500 K too. Technology made it possible for a Human to survive on the surface but the constant hazard meant that despite its orbit being one of the busiest locations on the Orion, its surface only had a miniscule population of pioneers.

A lander descended on one of the wild valleys of its equator. On it, arrived the test party with two tanks, one far more alive than the other.

"You know, I always wanted to be a tank commander. Don't take it personally, bhaijaan but today, I am going to enjoy living that dream." Hafeez rubbed his palms together through the secured gloves but the grin gave way to a comical annoyance when Nidhi got in first.
"In your dreams, corporal."
"B-but ... Kavya, you are with me, right?"
"She outranks you, Hafeez."
"Ah! Frak it."

Arjun enjoyed not being the center of the banter for once but it was time for him to embark on a greater task. One he was not exactly sure how to handle. With a deep breath, he went up to the tank as he lowered his turret.

"U-uh, ... Kitty?"
"Yes, commander. Come in." The tank invited him inside, opening the hatch for him.
"All right, Kitty. Let's buckle up." This caused the avatar to display themself putting on a helmet.
"Yes, commander. Can you please load a round into my gun?" So that was one place where the design team had still kept the "Human element". All the better, for if Kitty grew vengeful from this circus, like in fiction, at least they would not have an opportunity to hurt more than once. Arjun picked up one of the dummies from the ammo rack and loaded it into the breech. Kitty's avatar, meanwhile, displayed a bullet being loaded into a gun sized representation of the magnetic cannon rigged to their arm. "I am ready now, commander. May I suggest a route to follow?"

Kitty immediately pointed to their scribbling of a route to advance through on a map displayed on the board. It was not a poor choice for a spot, on a raised cove allowing a hull down position overlooking the opposite ridge. Arjun nodded his approval.

The tank waited there for a minute. When nothing showed up or stirred, Arjun approved of Kitty moving over to the next point, facing an overhang through the valley. Driving across the alien landscape, Arjun realised that Kitty truly was something novel. They made the hull dance like it was their own body. They could plan their own way around. Who was he to judge the intelligence of this program? The very thought made Arjun break down on the breech.
"Commander, are you all right? Do you want me to check your vitals?"
"No, Kitty. I ... feel I am not worthy to be your commander." Arjun confessed to the machine. "You are great, Kitty. I do not think I should be here on this seat."
"But commander, you are Lieutenant Arjun Singh, ace of aces with over 20 tank kills and 10 knight kills. Recipient of the Tank Ace Cross, the Peacekeeper Army Heart and six theater medals. Top of the class in O.C.S. If you are not fit to be my commander, who is?" There was an encouraging innocence in Kitty's tone as his avatar brought out an animated case of all the accolades Arjun had received in his life. His tone sounded as if he was genuinely curious, rather than pitifully empathetic.
"Kitty, ..." Arjun could not explain his mental block at the moment to them. "I know I have had many achievements but I have made many mistakes too."
"I do not understand how that is relevant commander." The avatar's ears swayed sideways in confusion. "As your faults have been identified, your model must have trained itself to have become even stronger, right?"
"Kitty, you ... are right." Arjun slunk back with a suppressed giggle. The allegory and words of this machine were simple but their effect was profound. "I feel better now."

The conversation was cut short as Arjun noticed the avatar's facial expression darkening and their ears growing sensors,  animating themselves.
"Commander, I feel, something is wrong."

Just then, Arjun felt a hitch through the liquid in his suit as Kitty took a sharp turn in both his turret and hull and he heard a sonic boom pass by. "Shoot!" escaped his lips out of reflex and the next thing he knew, Kitty had nailed a dummy round to his crew's tank,  barely peeking out from the end of a rockface.
"1-0. Good job, Lieutenant. Both teams. Return to your initial positions."

For a moment, the air had been sucked out of Arjun's lungs but now it had returned with a shocked smile.
"How?"
"I-I just felt we were driving into an ambush, commander. From all the data available to my tactical models, I just felt so. It was just my ..."
"Intuition! Human intuition", Arjun finished the sentence for Kitty, the smile on his face growing an understanding. With renewed vigor, he focused on the task at hand.
"All right, Kitty. Let us make sure we are not even ambushed again. This time, together."

The tally grew to 4-1 before General Burton finally called them back to the lander. Arjun and Nidhi rose out of the hatch as they approached.
"Well, I believe I have seen enough, gentlemen but I will still appreciate your reports."
"Sir, Kitty was excellent throughout. He never made a misstep and he never misfired. He followed all my commands obediently. But his control, it was as if it was all natural to him."
"Well, that is all fine and well, lieutenant but I requested a report. A written report. I understand this must have been a busy day for you, Lieutenant but please, try to prepare it as soon as possible." Would writing a glowing report allow Arjun and Kitty more time together? Arjun felt he should not entertain that thought but he could not deny the test had laid the seeds of a relationship between him and Kitty. A friendship, as beast and master. Much like how man had once tamed the wolf to hunt mammoths and the cat to hunt mice, was he taming the tank to hunt their enemies in the stars?

Nevertheless, the first thing Arjun did after getting into the lander was climbing out of tank and going to his Human friends.
"Hafeez, do you want to have another round with you in command?"
"No, no, no, bhaijaan. I don't want to be embarrassed like that."

The next few days, Arjun was buried in a text editor. At least, the crew had the rec shoot with Ms. Steelheart, much to Kavya's pleasure and Major Cohen would come to check up on his health regularly, so there was always something to look forward to every cycle. Colonel Gurmeet was entirely happy about his antics for once, as opposed to being only fractionally happy, though he remained jumpy around Kitty. Arjun did meet Kitty once during this interval.

"Ah, welcome, commander. I was getting bored. Are we going to go training again?"
Arjun honestly felt pity for the machine. He had no choice but to be used in battle. No matter how much footage they had been trained on, did Kitty truly understand the horrible nature of war? A part of him felt a great sin had been committed by making life for no other reason than this. However, he was a soldier. To fight for their body politic is a soldier's dharma, even if the cause is flawed. As his body politic was requesting him to bring this machine being to battle, he would. Perhaps, it was the same for Kitty and all the more so.
"Not yet, Kitty." The tank swayed his turret to the side in disappointment.
"Ah! I cannot wait to get back into action."

Finally, one cycle, General Burton called the crew and the colonel to break out the good news; Ms. Steelheart had left long back to attend to business on Earth.

"I have just received a priority message from the security council through Probe Express. We have approval to train a platoon of kitties, one for each of you (Hafeez could barely hide his excitement). Attached with them, will be a detachment of industry specialists and my sides to report on their effectiveness ..." Of course Kitty's supply chain would need some supplements from Steelheart. And why just them? Ms. Steelheart might be an authority on robotics but Haptics Inc. makes the processor. Not to mention, all the mechanical parts supplied by Union Motors. Though more importantly to Arjun, would Major Cohen be one of the general's attached aides?
"... in active combat. They are to be deployed as supernumerary to the Third Indian Corps in their deployment to Karvsk. Well done, gentlemen. This would not have been possible without you." The general was genuinely beaming with happiness. "Colonel, please brief your men."
Colonel Gurmeet now took over the projector, bringing to display a cloudy, snowy appearing world.
"This, is Karvsk. Homeworld of the Kharu..." The being in the attached image appeared quite similar to a bear to Arjun, except for their antennae, throat spiracles in place of a snout and bipedal stance.
"... The Kharu are starfaring but they lack global unity. Nonetheless, we had maintained good trade relations with them. They are being invaded by a Filécal army commanded by the chivalric order, the Knights e la Orbís." Of course, it was the Filéca, the slimy, blue snobs of the Covenant who would decide to invade and rob a poor, disunited planet and probably proselytise them along the way.

"... The Kharu, in spite of their divisions, are doing their best to resist occupation. The Covenant has taken the equatorial landmass but our intelligence states there are pockets of guerrilla resistance in the equatorial forests. The northern landmass is resisting and battles have devolved into armoured warfare on snowy plains and brutal urban sieges. We will send a relieving force, to set sail in February. The fleet will reach Karvsk by August. By then, the hemisphere will be in spring and we will be able to swoop in and fight until the enemy has been dispatched from the world. Any questions?"
"No, sir."
"Excellent, son. Go, pack up."