Most people recoil from fear. When something ugly and scary jumps at them they step back or turn and run. I learned a long time ago that running will never save you. You’ll only die tired. Me…I step into the big ugly, I get up right in its face, and I punch it with all my might. I head butt it, I scratch it, I use knives and guns and anything else I have at hand. I don’t always win, but I will do whatever it takes to keep from losing. That’s my one rule. There are no rules.
Twilight was most effective when fighting her fellow Rogue AIs. She understood them in a way neither Dixie nor Jane ever did, and people didn’t ask questions when she burned down an entire network to wipe out a Rogue AI. She enjoyed the hunt. She probably enjoyed it too much in fact. Dixie spent a lot of time pulling her out of burning networks at the last microsecond. And then she kept on bringing Twilight back to civilization and showing her how the nice AIs treated each other and their humans.
A French economy was already on the verge of failing thanks to the Second Great Depression. The Islamic Jihad tipped it over the edge into full collapse. Hyperinflation ravaged the French middle class, and the working poor lost their jobs, and gangs of angry young adults ruled the streets. A man with the last name of Napoleon convinced his fellow rich and powerful friends to pool their resources with him to build a new French government out of the rubble. He was very passionate.
I’ve found there are three main types of people in the worlds. There’s those that don’t want to fight and never do. They avoid the things that go bump in the night, stay away from anything scary or dangerous. Then there’s those that like the scare, who like to scare others. And then there’s those who stand in front of the scare. People have called them sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves for a long time. But I’m a Cowboy, and we come from the Wolfpack. So we use different names.
Texas Tech’s Dixie, the United States Defense Department’s Jane, and the Rogue AI Twilight became the primary cybernetic defense along the old US-Mexican border. Jane preferred more aggressive actions, while Dixie proved the long-term peacemaker. Dixie converted Twilight to our side, but the Rogue AI always loved working with Jane. They were regular time bombs together, and Dixie constantly struggled to keep Twilight from slipping back to her old ways.