by T. R. Harris
With Anbor-Namin one of the regional capitals of the Expansion, Adam guessed the population had to be in the billions. Even three million AN-9s couldn’t kill them all, not before their batteries ran dry. But they could kill enough to send the planet back to the stone age.
Cannin had mentioned his robots could operate for six days between charges. They were also capable of tapping into local energy sources for the recharge. Theoretically—until they destroyed all the power plants—the robots could operate for weeks.
Adam was startled by a tremendous rumbling vibration. He looked down the long avenue just as a fifty-story building half a mile away toppled over. It wasn’t burning or appeared to be damaged in any way. It just falling. Then through the billowing cloud of dust, Adam noticed the glow of laser beams and he understood instantly.
The robots had cut away the supports for the building, causing it to fracture and fall. Thousands of creatures were probably inside the building, seeking shelter from the killer robots outside. Collapsing gigantic buildings full of people was a very efficient way of multiplying the kills.
Flash bolts erupted from a side street. A crowd of terrified creatures ran into Adam’s view, followed by a trio of AN-9s, coming down the street in a configuration he’d never seen before. The rolling tracks had split apart and were now serving as legs, complete with knee joints and footpads. The robots easily climbed over fallen debris and the twisted remains of alien cars and trucks, following their targets.
Adam concentrated on the AN-9s, trying to access the firing controls of the flash weapons. But there was nothing there. He was shocked back to the reality that his ATD was down. He’d had the device for so long that he felt a deep sadness upon its passing. He’d also come to rely on the device more than he should have.
In his reverie, Adam almost missed it when one of the AN-9s noticed him. A laser beam lashed out in his direction. Adam jumped on mutant-enhanced legs, landing across the street before the robot could retarget. He rushed into a still burning building.
More beams penetrated the smoke-filled room he was in, but the AN’s aim was off. Adam was moving too fast for it to get an accurate lock.
The lasers stopped, replaced by a barrage of metal slugs piercing the gloom. Adam dove behind a fallen concrete column just as bullets raked the other side of his hiding place…until Adam heard the gun click several times, out of ammunition.
This was his chance.
Adam burst out into the street, holding a two hundred pound chunk of broken concrete in his hands. The AN-9 was recharging its laser batteries and it was out of live ammo. Adam lifted the concrete block—just as an incredible surge of raw electricity struck his bare chest.
Unlike the first time Adam had been struck with the electric stun charge, he knew what was coming. He held his ground and didn’t fall. Instead, he allowed his mutant cells to absorb the energy and spread it throughout his body.
Although the robot could absorb energy bolts and deflect metal rounds with its magnetic repulse field, it had no defense against a crazed superhuman slamming a two hundred pound block of concrete onto its head. The dome on top crumbled, as did a pretty good portion of the AN-9s internal volume. When Adam brought the block down for a second time, the robot fell silent.
But it was still deadly.
Adam literally flew through a blown out window in the building he’d been hiding in. He reached the other side of the fallen concrete column just as the AN-9’s self-destruct bomb went off.
As the smoke cleared, he leaned back against the smooth surface of the fallen column. That’s one down, he thought. Only three million, three hundred nine to go.
That’s went Adam heard the voice in his head.
It was Arieel.
Her mental voice felt low and depressed. She was calling out his name, over and over, in a slow cadence.
Arieel! Can you hear me?
The force of her mental response actual hurt. Adam! Is it really you?
Yes it’s me!
Where are you?
In the city…a city. Where are you?
We are gliding over an open area. The robots fire at us if we get too close. Why have you not been answering my calls?
The escape pod passed through the diffusion shield of the Klin ship, draining my ATD.
Yet it is working again.
Yeah. I just got zapped by a robot. It must have recharged the damn thing. I guess Formilian technology really is the best in the galaxy.
Damn right! Arieel said. Adam sensed her mental smile, as she adopted Human–speak to make her point.
Can you lock onto me?
Yes I can. I will have Colonel Nolan steer toward your location immediately.
I’ll move out of the city so you can make a safer pickup. Just keep tracking me.
We will. I am so glad you survived.
Likewise, I’m sure.
Adam was now able to scan the local area for hostiles, and there were plenty. He also found they were firing their flash weapons. Even knowing some friendlies would die from the self-destruct bombs, Adam set about severing a number of firing circuits in the AN-9’s flash weapons. At least the killer robots wouldn’t survive to kill thousands more. A dozen explosions sounded around him.
When the area was clear, Adam set off toward the south end of the alien city. He ran barefoot over broken and sharp debris, allowing his mutant healing powers to keep him going. He didn’t have an accurate measure of his speed, but he figured he had to be running at close to a hundred miles per hour. Take that Usain Bolt!
He left the city and entered an area of suburban communities that had been left relatively unscathed throughout the invasion. The Klin killers were concentrating on the larger population centers, at least initially. He came to a large park, once covered in green grass, now being coated in a fine layer of soot blown in from the burning city. He waited for the Rutledge to arrive.
Epilogue
Two months later Adam and his team were once again in the conference room near the top of the O’lac Building on Formil, facing the same cast of characters as before…minus the Nuorean representative, of course. The invaders from Andromeda were persona non grata again, having had their leaderships’ role in the whole bounty-affair exposed. In light of the new crisis facing the galaxy, no one paid much attention to the Nuoreans anymore.
Adam was both frustrated and disappointed that he was here, once again defining a new threat to the leaders of the galaxy. It amazed him that something as large as a galaxy could actually have threats. Then he recalled all the hysteria involving over-population, oil shortages, global warming and other such catastrophic threats that supposedly endangered the Earth. In reality, the planet was never in danger, only to the creatures who occupied a very thin layer of dirt on the surface. The planet would get along just fine. It was the people who had the problem.
That was the same in the galaxy. It was the thousands of civilized worlds that were threatened by the Klin genocide. Even then, at first the concept seemed ridiculous. How could one race exterminate so many others? Adam was there to convince the power-that-be that it was a very real possibility.
“Are their robots really that effective?” asked the Castorian representative. Adam was too frustrated and impatient to bother with trying to remember their names.
“You saw the aftermath of Anbor-Namin,” Adam chided. “That was the first test of their machines. Although a billion people survived, the planet is a mess. Its cities are gone, its means of production, its infrastructure. The natives weren’t exterminated, but it will be decades—if not longer—before they’ll want to have anything to do with galactic affairs again. They’re going to be much too busy rebuilding their planet. And if there’s one thing I know about the Klin, they will adapt and improve. This is just the current version of their killer robots—the AN-9. Imagine what an AN-20 will be capable of.”
“But can the Klin really expect to attack eight thousand worlds, and that’s just in the Expansion? The logistics
would be unimaginable.” The speaker was a blue-skinned creature with three sets of arms. Adam had seen his kind around, but he didn’t know what they were called.
“They’ve already attacked one, then the black ship left orbit and disappeared into a deep well, to go back where big black invincible warships go after destroying a planet. But it will be back. In the meantime, the death toll on Anbor-Namin will be near three billion. You know how many Klin were lost in the battle?” Adam asked. He held up his middle finger as an answer. He was sure most of the aliens at the table weren’t aware of the other meaning of the gesture. “One. Just one…and I killed him. Not someone in the defensive fleet or on the ground. So, yes, I believe they can. And the Klin are extremely patient. It may take a thousand years for them to fulfill their Grand Plan, but they’ll keep working at it, planet by planet.”
Adam looked at the Juirean Overlord at the table. “Why the hell did you guys have to go piss off the Klin in the first place? Bad move. Bad.”
It was a rhetorical question. Which was good; the Juirean remained silent.
“So what do we do, Captain Cain?” asked the Human Ambassador, Brandon Hale.
Adam locked a cold stare onto the politician. He still owed Adam and his team an explanation why he led them to the elevator with the four armored assassins….
“The Klin’s major weakness is their cockiness.” Adam knew that for half the attendees, the term wouldn’t translate. He didn’t care. “They truly believe their machines can’t be beat and that their strategies are perfect.”
“But you just said they adapt to situations,” Hale countered. “You only adapt when your strategy doesn’t work…and you accept that fact.”
“That’s right,” Adam conceded. “But the Klin are slow learners in that regard. Since their plans are set decades in advance, they’re like trying to turn an aircraft carrier, slow and wide. We have an opportunity to knock the wind out of their sails.”
“Spare us the bromides, Captain Cain,” the ambassador said. “What can we do?”
“Two fold. First, use the Formilian brain-interface technology to build a whole new defensive network geared at penetrating the inner workings of the Klin robots. They can’t be defeated from the outside—”
“Nuclear devices,” said the Castorian.
Adam shook his head. “The robots operate within major population centers. You’d be wiping out millions of innocents and contaminating their planets for generations. The Klin know this. That’s why they didn’t build behemoth killing machines that would make easy targets.”
“And your second point,” Hale asked.
“We find where the Klin are hiding.”
“We have been looking for them for four thousand years,” said the Juirean, sarcastically.
“We’re just going to have to do a better job,” Adam countered. “They’re coming out of their shell, sticking their heads out to build robots, massive warships and to destroy worlds. That has to leave a trail.”
There was an unexpected quiet around the table as the politicians considered their options. They really didn’t have very many. They could send the largest fleet ever assembled against the black ships of the Klin and they still couldn’t destroy them. The more you fire on them, the stronger they get. And if you don’t fire, they simply go about their business and invade more planets. A new approach was needed, one using good technology to overcome evil technology.
For Adam, finding the remaining two hundred thousand Klin and wasting them was the best answer. And if given the chance, he wanted to lead that effort.
Considering that he was The Great Adam Cain, he was sure he’d get his way.
The End of Last Species Standing
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Novels by T.R. Harris
The Human Chronicles Saga
The Fringe Worlds
Alien Assassin
The War of Pawns
The Tactics of Revenge
The Legend of Earth
Cain’s Crusaders
The Apex Predator
A Galaxy to Conquer
The Masters of War
Prelude to War
The Unreachable Stars
When Earth Reigned Supreme
A Clash of Aliens
Battlelines
The Copernicus Deception
Scorched Earth
Alien Games
The Cain Legacy
The Andromeda Mission
Last Species Standing
Invasion Force
Force of Gravity
Mission Critical
The Lost Universe
The Immortal War
Destroyer of Worlds
The Human Chronicles Book Bundles
Bundle #1 - Books 1 -5 in the series
Bundle #2 - Books 6-10 in the series
Bundle #3 - Books 11-15 in the series
Bundle #4 - Books 16-20 in the series
REV Warriors Series
REV
REV: Renegades
REV: Rebirth
REV: Revolution
REV: Retribution
Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series
The Enclaves of Sylox
Treasure of the Galactic Lights
The Drone Wars Series
Day of the Drone
In collaboration with George Wier…
The Liberation Series
Captains Malicious
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