by Isaac Hooke
“Shaw, do you see anything down there?” Rade asked.
“The buildings are obstructing my view of the pedway,” Shaw said. “And as for elsewhere in the city, Bax hasn’t picked anything up. If something got out, it’s staying close to the cover of the nearby buildings.”
“TJ, can you deactivate those repair swarms?” Rade sent.
“I’ll try,” TJ replied. Then: “I’m not finding any obvious backdoors.”
“You did leave our repair swarm inactive, didn’t you?” Farhad asked.
“Unit D, switch to diplomacy mode,” Rade sent the unit. “Babysit the colonists.” He then muted Unit D’s speakers so that he wouldn’t have to hear the colonists anymore. He knew Unit D would inform him if the mayor or someone else had anything important to add.
“If there are bioengineered creatures buried in the underground pedway system,” Lui said. “Why didn’t this Zoltan dig them out on his own, using the remaining robots he had? The ones that chased the colonists to this skyscraper?”
“Probably lost interest in his so-called creations after the threat from the colonists was gone,” Rade said.
“It’s also possible he didn’t have enough robots left to dig them out,” Tahoe said. “There couldn’t have been many that survived, not with all the defense units the colonists had placed in front of the skyscraper.”
“You know,” Manic said. “Even with all those repair drones, it would probably take at least a day to dig out that collapse. You’re all getting stressed out for nothing.”
Rade continued to run his scope over the buildings near the pedway shed, and just when he had begun to mentally agree with Manic, movement caught his eye in the adjacent street.
Rade swung his scope toward the object, and with the targeting reticle he followed a large creature as it leaped from one rooftop to the next.
The thing was headed toward the skyscraper.
“Bax has detected movement,” Shaw said. “You got one incoming tango southwest of your position. A very large tango.”
fifteen
Rade increased the zoom and did his best to keep the creature centered in his cross-hairs. It was about twelve meters long and six meters tall. It balanced on six thick legs capped by razor-sharp talons. A long neck extended from the torso, topped by a large, mostly featureless head. A lengthy tail provided counterbalance to the weight of the body and head.
At first Rade thought it was a machine, because the body was covered in what appeared to be metallic plates. But then he noticed that the tips of its feet and tail were greenish in color, which almost implied body armor of some sort.
“That’s one nasty looking bug,” Bender said.
“Could be a robot,” Manic said.
“That ain’t no robot,” Bender said. “Look at the green feet. Got to be armor of some kind.”
“Don’t think so,” Manic said.
“Units C and D, guard the colonists,” Rade transmitted. “The rest of you, up here!”
A distant roar echoed from the tango.
“Bitch has got quite the bark,” Bender said. “But does it have the bite to match?”
“Same thing could be said about you,” Manic retorted.
An answering roar came from closer to the skyscraper. Rade immediately shifted his scope downward, searching for the second target. The way the buildings reflected the sound made it difficult to pinpoint. The local AI of his faceplate wasn’t able to give him a fix.
He was about to ask Shaw if she had anything when Harlequin spoke up:
“Got it,” Harlequin said. “Seven o’clock.”
A flashing icon appeared in the lower left of his display, and Rade steered his scope toward it until he had the second incoming tango in view.
“Everyone, to the southern portion of the rooftop,” Rade said. “Sync your cobras and rifles to mine. I want us to combine our shots.”
The status and vitals of his brothers were displayed in a stack in the upper left of his vision. He aimed his scope at the approaching tango’s head, and followed it with his reticle, waiting for the sync indicators to turn green.
Bender was humming something in the background. Occasionally he enunciated actual words: “Gonna hunt me some bugs. Gonna hunt me some bugs.”
When the weapons had all synchronized, Rade followed the target a moment longer, concentrating on centering that moving head in his scope. He activated the AI tracking mechanism to help him better line up the shot.
He squeezed the trigger.
He would have been forgiven for thinking that nothing had happened, because the tango continued to approach, leaping from Persian rooftop to rooftop. It would reach the skyscraper in thirty seconds, according to the latest on-screen estimates.
“That armor seems to be equipped with an anti-laser coating,” Lui said. “Similar to our ballistic shields. About eighty percent of our laser energy was deflected.”
“That means twenty percent still penetrated,” Rade said. “We keep firing.”
He continued following the lead tango with his scope, opening fire when he had the head centered in his reticle. He soon switched to fully automated firing, because he found it impossible to strike the same spot repeatedly on his own, which was the most effective strategy. He, Harlequin and the Centurions fired at a faster rate than the Hoplites, whose lasers required a longer recharge interval; together they ensured that the barrage didn’t let up.
“Our friend isn’t slowing down,” Tahoe said. “If we’re doing twenty percent damage with each shot, shouldn’t we have penetrated by now?”
“Yeah,” Rade said. “In theory.”
“Unless we’re facing a new type of anti-laser material here,” Lui said.
“Maybe the bug is friendly?” Fret said hopefully.
The creature leaped from the ring of apartments that surrounded the skyscraper and into the street directly below. The armored tango roared, then raced toward the base of the building: it left a trail of claw marks in the asphalt and previously fallen robots. Repair drones incongruously followed, attempting to fix the damage to the street.
The tango leaped onto the skyscraper and began scaling it, the talons on those six feet digging deep into the steel and glass surface. The repair drones lingered at the base of the building, concentrating on the street-level damage; evidently, they couldn’t keep up with the creature’s advance.
“Don’t think it’s friendly.” Rade took control of his aiming and fired down continuously at the creature. It was easier to hit the same spot on its head now, because it wasn’t jumping around in his cross-hairs as much. The AI tracking mechanism helped, of course.
“Get Shaw to fire the Vipers?” Bender suggested. The Vipers were far more powerful than the cobras of the Hoplites. A concentrated burst from the ship might just be enough to take out the enemy.
“Lui, what kind of a dome breach will a single concentrated shot of the Vipers cause?” Rade said.
“We’ll poke a hole in the glass with the spot size of a centimeter,” Lui said. “In theory, the dome is thick enough to prevent the puncture from enlarging any further as the air gushes out. We won’t notice any difference down here. The dome repair bots will have it fixed well before the atmospheric content changes very much.”
“How much energy will the dome sap from the shot itself?” Rade asked.
“Only about ten percent of the intensity,” Lui replied.
“All right Shaw,” Rade said. “Focus all Vipers on the tango. Target the same spot area on the head. Fire when ready.”
“Direct hit,” Shaw said a moment later.
Rade was staring directly at the creature through his scope. “Where did you hit it?”
“In the head region, like you asked,” Shaw said.
“I’m not detecting any signs of damage,” Rade said. Too bad.
“That would explain what I’m seeing,” Shaw said. “The beam reflected right back up, forming a second breach in the dome. Luckily, it didn’t hit the Argonau
t. I’m detecting repair bots mobilizing along the inner surface of the dome glass to the affected regions.”
“One tough bug,” Bender said.
“It’s going to be in range of our grenades soon,” Fret said when the creature reached the fifteenth floor and still showed no signs of slowing.
“Hell,” Bender said. “It’s been in range since it touched the building. We can drop our frags down on it anytime.”
“Yeah, but have fun hitting it with any accuracy from that height,” Fret said.
Rade hesitated, looking away from his scope to stare down the barrel with his own eyes at the tango. The heights were dizzying: it was a good thing he was lying prostrate.
“Maybe we’ve been going about this the wrong way,” Rade said.
“What do you mean?” Manic asked.
Rade aimed through his rifle scope once more. “I’m going to target one of the unarmored feet.”
“Assuming the feet actually are unarmored...” Fret said.
“They are,” Bender said. “Like I told you before, look at the green tips.”
“That could be coloring on the armor,” Fret said.
“Maybe,” Rade said. “But the green portions are smaller in radius than the metallic areas. They have to be unshielded there.”
“Everything always has a weak spot,” TJ said.
“Exactly,” Rade replied. “I’m going to let it climb more of the building, first. If it lets go, I want its fall to be from as high a point as possible.”
“The higher they are,” Manic said. “The harder they fall.”
“Shouldn’t that be, the bigger they are?” Harlequin said. The Artificial sounded excited, as if Harlequin had caught Manic doing something incredibly wrong and was now going to be lauded by the rest of the team.
“Ooo, you’re one smart robot,” Bender said. “Can you sign me your autograph with your pussy hairs?”
“Spec-ops personnel don’t talk like that,” Fret said, mocking an InterGalNet forum comment he had read aloud to them all a few days ago.
“Ain’t spec-ops no more,” Bender said. “Gave that up to hunt bugs. Speaking of which, boss...?”
Rade held back, letting the creature close to within five floors.
“If this doesn’t work,” TJ said. “And you let it get too close...”
“It’ll work,” Rade said. He smiled grimly as he added: “And if it doesn’t, we’ll blame Shaw.”
“Thanks,” Shaw transmitted.
Rade reduced the zoom level to compensate for the closer distance, and he followed one of the claws with his cross-hairs as it lifted from the surface and embedded in the building’s outer metal. The skin looked like it was made of scales. Reptilian.
Rade waited a moment longer, then he fired all lasers in sync at the exposed foot. He saw a small wisp of smoke emerge, and black blood gushed from the reptilian extremity. The tango howled and immediately let go of the building with that foot, but the other limbs kept it secured to the surface.
The creature continued its ascent, holding the injured foot away from the skyscraper. Some of its lower limbs slipped on the blood spewed onto the surface by the wound, and the thing took a moment to find purchase.
Rade used that opportunity to aim at another foot. He got it.
The creature loosed another howl. That limb also let go of the building, leaving only four appendages grasping the surface.
The beast pulled its body toward the building so that it was hugging the exterior closely, effectively shielding its exposed feet from view.
“Uh,” Bender said.
“All right,” Rade said. “I’ve just about had enough of this. Unleash frag grenades. Blow the bitch off the building.”
The rooftop shook as the frag grenades exploded. Incredibly, the tango managed to hang on. It was only when Tahoe’s Hoplite fired a couple of grenades directly into the building itself—precisely where the tango was hanging on—that the creature was finally blown from the skyscraper.
It seemed to fall in slow motion, its limbs flailing helplessly in the air. It struck ground with an audible crash, and cracks spidered outward from the solar-paneled asphalt around it.
The body sprawled spreadeagled across the street. It didn’t move. Black blood flowed out from underneath, pooling.
“Well,” TJ said. “And that’s that.”
“Don’t look now,” Shaw sent. “But you still have that second tango to worry about. And I’m detecting another approaching from the northern side of the building. Same type of creature.”
“I’ve got the northern bug in my sights,” Lui said a moment later.
“All right, unsync,” Rade said. “Target the feet of these things. Fire at will.”
“What the hell is that?” TJ transmitted.
“What?” Rade heard it then, a buzzing coming from the southwest, the same direction as the pedway entrance.
“Sounds like the repair swarm,” Tahoe said.
“Negative,” Lui replied. “Apparently, we released something else trapped in the pedway. We have a Perdix swarm, Argonauts. Laser equipped drones. Likely repurposed at some point from the city’s defenses. I’m counting roughly five hundred.”
A swarm of red dots had appeared on the overhead tactical map, approaching from the southwest.
Unfortunately, none of the Hoplites were equipped with Repellent modules: expensive electronic warfare countermeasures that used directional interference to disrupt drone navigation.
“Shit,” Rade said. “Deploy shields!”
Cobra mounts swiveled away on the left arms of the Hoplites, and the long shield pieces unfolded in their places.
Rade nestled himself between a goose neck vent and Tahoe’s Hoplite, and held his weapon up over the edge of the shield. He switched his point of view to the rifle scope and aimed at the incoming drones.
The targets moved randomly back and forth as they approached. Seeker bullets would have worked wonders. Too bad they didn’t have any: whoever said it was a good idea to replace traditional ammo with lasers?
“We’re taking heavy laser fire,” Lui said.
Rade saw small white spots appear along the edges of Tahoe’s shield, where the armor was weaker. Holes formed as the metal dissolved there.
“Return fire!” Rade said. “Lasers only! And prepare to launch electromagnetic grenades!”
Rade squeezed the trigger, eliminating one of the drones. Others fell from the sky as the Hoplites struck multiple targets. The small things lacked armor of any kind to protect against the cobras.
“Come on you pussies, that all you got?” Bender shouted over the comm. “It’s pissing drones today!” His kill count was the highest so far according to the stats displayed on the HUD.
Rade waited until the lead units in the swarm were only a hundred meters out. Then: “Fire electromagnetics!”
The Hoplites launched electromagnetic grenades. When they detonated, electrical sparks arced outward between the drones, knocking out scores of them. They fell from the sky like rain.
“Fire again! Again!” Rade cringed slightly with the launch of each grenade, knowing how much it would cost to replace them.
Nothing for it.
The drones were basically on top of them by then. “Switch to frags!” Rade sent.
Fragmentation grenades hurtled into the enemy and once more the detonations took out large swaths of the drones. But they kept coming in. According to the tactical map there were still about three hundred of them.
“There’s too many!” Fret said. “We can’t hold them off!”
“My shield’s badly damaged,” Lui said. “I can’t take much more of this. And my cobra is offline. I took a shot in the firing mechanism.”
Rade was forced to sink deeper into cover between Tahoe and the vent. Tahoe and the other Hoplites shifted their shields so that the anti-laser surfaces were basically lying flat, protecting the mechs from attacks directly above.
“Fire smoke grenades onto the rooft
op!” Rade said. “Get us some cover! Use flashbangs as decoys!” Probably wouldn’t help, but they had to try. The smoke would block visual targeting, and the flashbang heat would fool thermal systems, but the drones likely had backup targeting methods they could use such as radar, echolocation, and predictive algorithms—just like the Hoplites.
Rade only did it to buy the group some time while he figured out how to survive this mess.
Unfortunately, no ideas were coming to him.
Worse, he knew that the other two creatures were still encroaching on the building, perhaps even climbing the skyscraper at that very moment. And there was nothing the team could do about it while the Perdix swarm pinned them down.
sixteen
When smoke covered the rooftop, Rade sent: “Shift positions. Don’t stay in the same place each time you fire.” To Tahoe: “Don’t move yet, Big T, I’m loading up.”
Rade jetted onto Tahoe’s mech, and used the boarding rungs to pull himself into the passenger seat. Tahoe kept his shield held horizontally above him, protecting both his mech and Rade, so that when Rade stood up slightly, his helmet struck the shield.
That made Rade think of the dome enclosing them all. And an inkling of an idea began to form.
“Lui, can we tell if these drones are vacuum capable?” Rade said. “Or are they restricted to atmospheric flight?”
“Like most Perdix models,” Lui said. “Corners were cut to allow it to carry weapons, and yet still have the weight necessary for flight. So no, as far as I can tell, they’re not vacuum capable.”
“Are you sure?” Rade said.
“Positive.”
The smoke was beginning to clear. He spotted drones occasionally flying beneath the shield lines to fire at the Hoplites. Usually the cobras took them out a moment later, that or the bashing fist of one of the mechs.
“More smoke!” Rade said.
He tapped in Unit D, which was still inside with the colonists. “Activate your external speakers. I want to speak with the mayor.”
“Done,” the unit replied.