by Knox, Barry
Gideon noted the sandbags provided excellent protection, but he was concerned about what was inside the building. If it contained explosives or munitions, a hit from a mag rail projectile or even a laser would blow up the building and kill everyone in the area. He had also tried to scan the building and had failed as Xia had.
“Anna, look at the detailed camp information we received from Michael earlier and tell me what this building is for and what it contains,” Gideon said.
“It is designated as the ‘disposal building,’ and there are no contents listed,” Anna replied a second later.
“Gunny, we need to see what’s in that building before we have company. Those czar troop transports will be landing any minute,” Gideon said, “Any ideas how to get in?”
“Let’s try the door, sir. If we try and burn our way in, we just might set something off,” Xia said.
“Agreed. Use your electronic warfare scanner. Scan it, and if it’s clear of intruder traps, try and open the lock,” Gideon said.
“On it, sir,” Xia said, walked over to the door and began scanning.
“Sir, the door is open,” Xia yelled to Gideon over his shoulder.
Gideon walked over and commented, “That didn’t take long.”
“I didn’t have to brute force the lock open, sir. It was already open,” Xia said.
“Manelly, Kindle, Sipes…Gunny and I are going to take a look in the building,” Gideon said over the platoon channel.
All chimed an acknowledgment.
Xia turned the door handle and pulled the door open. He stepped into a small entrance room, and Gideon followed. A single dim red light flashed in the dark on the adjacent wall. Gideon closed the door behind him, and his helmets’ auto vision system adjusted to the dark so he could see. The blinking light was located by another door that looked to be the entrance to the rest of the building. A few seconds later the light started blinking green. Xia used his electronic warfare scanner again. “This door is open too, and there are no alarms or traps. It also looks like this room is used as an environment buffer between the outside atmosphere and a normal human environment inside. The temperature is normal now, and there’s enough oxygen in here to support us without our armor,” Xia reported.
“I assume the flashing light is an environment indicator,” Gideon said.
“Yes, sir. That’s what my scanner shows,” Xia said, paused and added. “The door leading into the interior of the building is also shielded from infrared and motion scanners. I still didn’t know what’s in there.”
“Let’s go in, Gunny. Assault entry. You go right, fire low, and I’ll go left and fire high,” Gideon said as both men shouldered their weapons. Xia turned the handle to the door slowly with his right hand until the door opened, and with his right foot he quickly pushed it in. Xia went in to the right as Gideon followed and went to the left.
Both men held their weapons at firing positions in case there was resistance. Seconds later Gideon saw something he didn’t expect. The building was a single room with women and children huddled together in a corner of the building. The women’s faces showed terror as they searched the darkness to find out who had entered the room. The children started crying.
Gideon and Xia stopped and stood there, looking at the group. The women wore torn, dirty clothing that barely covered them, and most of the younger children were totally nude. They were all thin and looked to be severely malnourished. There were seven women and twelve children.
“We’re United States Marines. We’re not going to harm you,” Gideon said through his helmet speakers. The women and children jumped when he began talking but seemed to settle down once they were told they wouldn’t be harmed.
One of the women stood and asked, looking into the darkness, “Sir, can you get us some water?”
“Yes,” Gideon replied over his speakers, then switched to the platoon channel. “Manelly, Kindle, Sipes…we have people in the building. Sipes, gather water bladders from Manelly and Kindle, and bring them to me.”
“Yes, sir,” Sipes said.
Gideon then looked for a way to light the room, saw several biochem light panels on the ceiling, but couldn’t find a lighting control panel. “Gunny, look outside for the light controls. There has to be one out there,” Gideon ordered.
Xia pulled his water bladder out of his armor’s hydration system and handed it to Gideon. He then walked out, closed the inner door behind him, and exited the outer door to preserve the atmospheric temperature and air inside the building. A few seconds later the lights came on, and the women and children instinctively covered their eyes with their hands. Gideon’s auto vision instantly adjusted to the light, and, using his normal vision, he could see other things he hadn’t noticed when the room was dark.
“The light control panel was on the atmosphere unit behind the building,” Xia informed Gideon. Then he asked, “Did the lights come on?”
“Yes…yes, Gunny,” Gideon struggled to answer when he saw human waste and trash in another corner of the room and bodies of dead women and children stacked in another corner. He was glad he hadn’t taken off his helmet. “Gunny, keep an eye on things out there and let me know the second the czar soldiers land.”
“Yes, sir,” Xia said.
Joseph entered the building, carrying water bladders, and stood by Gideon as he looked around at the awful sight.
“Here’s some water,” Gideon said over his speakers. The woman who had asked for water walked toward Joseph, and he handed the bladders to her. Joseph stood frozen, he didn’t know what to do and said nothing.
“Sipes, go back outside with Doctor Qasim,” Gideon said over a private channel. Joseph didn’t respond and walked out.
“Sir, Michael just showed up and brought some escaped prisoners. Should I tell ‘em to leave?” Xia transmitted to Gideon over a private channel.
“How many prisoners?” Gideon asked.
“Eighteen, sir, and a few are armed with some czar weapons they must have taken off the dead czar guards and soldiers.”
“No, let ‘em in. They shouldn’t be in the way, and they don’t have anywhere else to go,” Gideon answered.
“Sir, since a few of them are armed, we could send ‘em out as a diversion, and maybe that’d buy us some time till Tidwell arrives. The prisoners aren’t our responsibility, especially if we can use ‘em to save us,” Xia suggested.
Gideon considered this for a second. He knew the prisoners wouldn’t get very far before the czar transports spotted them, and it would take only seconds for the czar transports to kill them. “Let them in the area. They’ll be killed if we send them out, and it won’t buy us enough time to make a difference. Post the prisoners with weapons around the perimeter.”
“Yes, sir,” Xia said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
“I’m going out now. I’ll be back soon and let you know what you should do next,” Gideon said over his speakers to the women and children, who were eagerly sipping water from the bladders. None of them said a word as he walked out.
Gideon closed the external door to the building behind him, turned, and saw Michael looking at him. “You gave the women and children water,” Michael stated in a deep voice. “That is good.”
“Do you know why they’re in there and weren’t grouped with the other prisoners?” Gideon asked Michael.
“The women are widows of the Czar Socialist Society and were sent to the labor camp because they had no one to take care of them. They worked until they were too old or injured and could not work; then they were sent here to die. The children are orphans and have no one to take care of them. All orphans of the society are sent to a camp. If they can work, they live. If they are too young or if they are injured, they are also sent here to die,” Michael said.
“Why don’t they just kill them?” Gideon asked in disgust, “Why make them suffer?”
Michael walked closer to Gideon, selected a channel for everyone to hear, and, using a deeper voice, answered,
“The Czar Society are a vile people whose feeling for their fellow man has grown cold. The death of these people in this building is a game to them. They bet precious metals every day on how many will die in the building and how many will die when they just decide to walk out and end it all,” Michael answered.
“Incoming enemy aircraft detected! Incoming enemy aircraft detected!” each marine’s Anna reported in unison in their ears.
Gideon pulled up an area tactical heads-up display and saw three aircraft, marked red, coming in from the east. The three aircraft suddenly broke formation, each vectoring to a designated LZ outside the prison camp.
Seconds later the three czar assault-troop aircraft came into view, Gideon watched as the aircraft landed. Four czar platoons of soldiers from each aircraft poured out and took up defensive positions as the aircraft took off. Moments later, four platoons from one of the aircraft fanned out and entered the camp.
Gideon knew they were looking for survivors. Their own survivors they’d help; everyone else they’d kill. He also knew the czar commander of the assault force knew where he and his marines were. Their aircraft sensors had surely detected them and reported their location. As soon as they had filtered through the camp, they’d attack the hill. They could use the aircraft to destroy everyone on the hill if the commander desired, but that wasn’t the Council of Czars way. Lives of czar soldiers were cheaper than the utilization of expensive armaments. The deployment of expensive weapons would only be used either as a last resort or to test a new weapon.
“Tidwell. ETA?” Gideon transmitted on a private channel.
“Twenty minutes, sir. The landing gear is still stuck!”
“Do you know the current location of the czar aircraft that just landed the czar assault group?” Gideon asked.
“They’re twenty-five miles north of your position, circling at ten thousand feet in an air-support formation. I haven’t been detected, and my present vector will take me within two miles of their location; permission to destroy the enemy aircraft as I pass them, sir?” Tidwell reported and requested.
“Permission granted to destroy the aircraft. On approach to our location, you’ll see our beacons on a hill west of the camp. Destroy enemy targets as close as twenty yards from our location upon arrival,” Gideon ordered.
“That’s kind of close to your position, sir,” Tidwell said.
“If you see targets that close to us, we won’t have long to live anyway,” Gideon replied.
“Yes, sir,” Tidwell said.
“Sir, the czar soldiers have completed their search of the camp and are moving toward us,” Xia transmitted over the platoon channel and helmet speakers for the few escaped and armed prisoners to hear. Gideon looked and saw the twelve platoons of soldiers running to positions around the bottom of the hill.
“Hold your fire until they begin their assault. Use all your mag rail rounds set for high velocity first and switch to particle-beam microbursts,” Gideon ordered.
The marines chimed acknowledgments.
As soon as the last enemy platoon was in position, the czar attack began.
VTOL Bernice, Planet Leonis
0609—February 28, 2372
Tidwell used Bernice’s AI to target the three enemy aircraft as he neared their position. He allowed the AI to calculate weapons’ trajectory to the targets and allowed fully automated firing control. The three red target tag indicators on Tidwell’s attack console began flashing red as soon as the AI had performed the attack calculations. Seconds later the AI initiated the attack.
The weapons pod doors under Bernice’s belly suddenly opened and the magnetic rail gun pod dropped, rotated, and locked into firing position. One of the ten magnetic rail guns in the pod fired; then, per the AI attack calculations, two other rail guns fired microseconds later. As quickly as the pod deployed and fired, it suddenly retracted into Bernice.
The three mag rail projectiles streaked to their individual targets, and within a second all three enemy aircraft were destroyed simultaneously. Tidwell watched as the red flashing target icons on the attack console changed to a green destroyed icon.
Tidwell then took a second to check the status of how the AI was troubleshooting the landing-gear problem. The word WORKING continually flashed on the problem-isolation display.
Small Building , Political Prisoner Camp, Planet Leonis
0611—February 28, 2372
“Fire!” Gideon ordered as the czar troops assaulted the hill. The four marines fired their MPB-92 mag rail guns. Plasma spewed out of their weapons as they continually fired projectile after projectile. As soon as the marines began firing, the few prisoners began firing their weapons. Their weapons consisted of a mix of czar laser and low-powered mag rail rifles. Within seconds the enemy answered with their own laser and mag rails.
The initial volley of mag rail projectiles pushed back areas of sandbags around the perimeter, but the sandbag walls held. The sandbags would soon give way if the already-hit areas were hit a few more times. At least the czar mag rail weapons didn’t generate the amount of potential energy as the MPB-92. After a minute of continual fire from both sides, the czar assault stalled as the czar troops began seeking cover behind rocks and even lying in the small craters created by the impact of the marines’ mag rail projectiles fired from the MPB-92s. Several czar soldiers lay dead or wounded at the base of the hill, and a few prisoners fighting alongside the marines lay wounded. The force of the impact of czar mag rail projectiles or laser beams, which had pierced their environmental suits and flesh, had thrown them from their position behind the sandbags.
“Cease fire!” Gideon ordered.
“Sir, permission to help the prisoners patch up their environmental suits,” Joseph said over the platoon channel. “I can’t fix their wounds but I can save them from the heat and no air”.
“Is Doctor Qasim okay?” Gideon asked.
“Yes, sir,” Joseph said.
“Permission granted. Help as many as you can, but when the firefight starts again, go back and protect the doctor,” Gideon ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Joseph said and then crawled to the closet prisoner, who was struggling to cover a hole in his environmental suit with his hands. Sipes pulled a small patch of flexible, self-sealing plastanium from a belt pouch and placed it over the hole, which a laser had caused. The patch automatically bonded with the suit, and the suit sealed in seconds. Joseph then crawled to the next casualty.
Gideon peeked over the sandbag wall toward the enemy. The czar troopers did a good job of concealing themselves, given the lack of cover that the bottom of the hill provided, but Gideon could still see them by switching to his thermal-imaging visual mode. Normally in this mode he could see people behind objects such as walls and rocks because they were hotter than their surroundings, but on this planet he saw them as cooler areas surrounded by the heat from rocks and the ground. He was tempted to fire on their positions but decided to wait until they attacked again, because the attack would simply be more effective. He switched back to normal visual mode and continued watching and waiting.
“Something’s happening over here,” Kindle said over the platoon channel. “Looks like they’re releasing a cloud of gas or acid agent.” At about that time Gideon saw the same type of cloud, colored red, being released down the hill from his position. At first the cloud was thick and then began to thin as it spiraled upward. Gideon noted the winds blowing from the approaching storm didn’t affect the cloud.
“That’s not a cloud of gas or acid,” Xia said over the platoon channel. “Magnify it and take a look.”
Gideon magnified his view and could make out the details of the cloud. It looked like a swarm of red insects, flying in formation as they continued their spiral trek upward. Gideon took a quick glance over the mound of sandbags that surrounded the building and counted eight individual red clouds rising skyward.
“There must be thousands of those things in those clouds,” Manelly said.
“Anna,
what’re those clouds?” Gideon asked and allowed the question and answer to be transmitted over the platoon channel.
“I don’t know what it is,” Anna said.
“Okay. Take a guess at what it is,” Gideon requested.
“Undoubtedly it’s some type of weapon. Not gas or acid that would be used to eat through our armor. Probably a weapon based on swarm robotics, where large numbers of mostly simple physical robots work together to achieve a common goal,” Anna said.
“And the goal might be what?” Gideon asked.
“To kill us,” Anna answered.
“Sipes, stop what you’re doing and get Doctor Qasim into the entrance room of the building along with the prisoners who’re wounded and who don’t have weapons. Stay with Doctor Qasim until otherwise notified!” Gideon ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Joseph said without hesitation.
“I thought I’d seen it all!” Kindle commented to himself and accidently broadcasted over the platoon channel.
Gideon watched as the clouds spiraled to a height of one hundred yards, leveled off, and began a circular motion like a cyclone. One of the clouds suddenly stopped this circular motion and moved like a stream of red smoke toward the marines and prisoners on the hill.
“Here it comes,” Gideon transmitted over the platoon channel. Then he ordered, “Manelly, fire one mag rail projectile into that approaching cloud and then one blast of widespread particle beam. The rest of you, keep your eyes on the czar troops. They may try another assault when the cloud reaches us. Anna, record and analyze the attack on the cloud.”
Everyone chimed an acknowledgment.
Manelly fired the mag rail projectile into the approaching cloud. The projectile produced a momentary hole that was quickly filled. He then fired a particle-beam blast, which resulted in a smaller hole that filled in even more quickly.
“Anna, report the effect of the attack on the cloud and offer a plan to destroy the devices,” Gideon said.
“Mag rail projectile destroyed approximately three hundred devices, and the particle beam destroyed approximately seventy devices,” Anna reported, paused, and then continued. “No effective plan of attack against the cloud of devices will destroy them all with our weapons; it’s estimated our weapons could destroy only thirty percent of the devices before we run out of rail projectiles and weapon power packs. ETA of cloud, twenty seconds.”