by Isaac Hooke
“An attack from two fronts,” Slate said. “Perfect, just perfect. Well, I always wanted to go in a blaze of glory!”
“As Crusher said, if you’re exposed, reposition, Bolt Eaters!” Marlborough said. “Move to the eastern sides of the tanks!”
“The armored cores won’t be able to last long under those rays,” Tread said.
“Yes, but we will,” Marlborough said. “I hope.”
Eric stood up and moved Pounder, carrying the two English Hoppers with him. He was hit by a ray—he knew because the two Hoppers went limp in his arms.
Damn it.
Pounder’s own shielded core wouldn’t last long against those gamma rays, so he quickly leaped over one of the tanks and took cover. He was hit by a laser from Bokerov in the process, and a fresh bore hole appeared in his forearm.
“We just lost two tanks,” Hank said.
“Reposition the remaining tanks behind them, if you can!” Marlborough said.
Eric was forced to move as the tank above him hummed to life. He switched back inside of himself and stayed crouched behind the tank as it repositioned. He was shielded in front by the debris from the destroyed English party, but that wouldn’t stop Bokerov from randomly lobbing shells over it.
Eric heard the characteristic whines of such shells, and he took cover underneath the tank, which had thankfully pulled to a halt by then.
He waited for the explosions to come, but when they did, they sounded distant. He slid out slightly from underneath the tank, and gazed to the west. The explosions had struck the still distant Frankendogs.
Bokerov was under attack from the quadrupeds, too, then, and was firing back.
“About time he gets a taste of the alien weaponry,” Frogger said.
“Mickey, patch me in to Bokerov,” Marlborough said.
“Transmitting on an open line,” the comm officer said.
“Bokerov, we have to combine our forces if we hope to survive this,” Marlborough sent.
In answer, Bokerov only unleashed another shell barrage. They continued to come in randomly, verifying that the Russian had lost all eyes in the sky.
“When humans invented the word anti-social, they had that bitch in mind,” Slate commented.
“And you,” Eagleeye quipped.
“We can’t stay here, Sarge,” Dickson said. “The termites…”
Eric glanced to the west. The cloud consumed the sky entirely. It was like a black veil, hanging down from the heavens, swirling menacingly.
“All right, here’s what we’re going to do,” Marlborough said. “There’s another entrance to the cave system, two kilometers to the northeast. I’ve marked its location on the map. We can get there, by giving Bokerov a wide berth. According to the terrain data, there’s an outcrop on the shoulder of the mountain about two hundred meters to the east. And beyond it, several more such outcrops reside upon the path to the cave, separated by between fifty and three hundred meters each. We’re going to move from outcrop to outcrop and make our way toward that cave entrance.”
“We’ll be completely exposed between each outcrop,” Hyperion said.
“Yes we will,” Marlborough agreed. “Which is why we’ll leave cover one at a time. I want fifty meters separation between each unit. Stay low, run in a zig-zag pattern. We’ll send the tanks and mechs out intermittently, to help draw the fire. The rest of us will do our best to cover you. Eric, you get to go first.”
“Great,” Eric said. “Newest member of the team always gets to be the guinea pig.”
“I’m glad we understand each other,” Marlborough said.
“Might I make a suggestion,” Eric said.
Marlborough remained quiet on the line.
“We’ll be too exposed, if we race across individually,” Eric said. “Instead, why not use the mechs to ferry us between outcrops? Each Ravager can carry two Cicadas or combat robots in one arm, while using the other to keep the ballistic shield facing toward Bokerov, protecting us from any laser attacks.”
“What about a gamma ray attack from behind?” Dickson said.
“We dispatch one tank to accompany each mech,” Eric said. “Providing a shield against the gamma rays. The rest of us will continue to offer covering fire against both flanks, of course. We have more tanks than mechs, so we don’t need to send the tanks back each time, just the mechs.”
“Without a tank, when a mech returns to retrieve the next two passengers, the Ravagers will be at their most vulnerable,” Dickson said.
“That’s true,” Eric said. “Which is why we’ll send the next mech and tank combination while the previous mech returns, so that both can remain crouched within the profile of the trailing tank. The biggest risk will be from Bokerov at that point, but by constantly altering our speed, we can mess up his targeting. And of course, the rest of us will continue laying down suppressive fire.”
“Let’s do it,” Marlborough said. “Eric, you get to be first. Bring yourself, and one of the Savages with Pounder.”
Eric switched to Pounder’s point of view, and moved at a crouch to his position near the rightmost tank. Eric picked up his Cicada body, and a nearby Savage.
“I’m ready,” Eric said.
“I got a tank ready to follow,” Tread said.
“Let’s move,” Eric said.
He raced Pounder out into the field. He was careful to keep his shield positioned toward Bokerov. In the feed from the rear view camera, which he kept at the top of his HUD, he spotted the trailing tank that Tread raced after him.
He altered his speed to prevent Bokerov from tracking him easily, but his ballistic shield still took some hits before he took cover behind the outcrop. Along the way, Tread reported one impact from a gamma ray.
Eric lowered his body to the ground. He activated Dee to take control of his Cicada body and provide suppressive fire. The Accomp wasn’t allowed to fire at enemy units on her own of course, so he rigged an alarm to fire whenever she had sighted an enemy. When the alarm came, he’d switch control of Pounder to the autonomous AI onboard, then return to his body, squeeze the trigger, and finally switch back to Pounder.
Eric maneuvered Pounder behind the tank, which had positioned behind the outcrop. There wasn’t much cover here for the bigger units, and when more tanks arrived, they’d be exposed to the gamma rays. There wasn’t much Eric could do about that—the armored vehicles were just as exposed at the previous position. Hopefully their armor would last long enough to reach partway to the cave.
Eric left cover once more as the next mech and tank combo came in. He raced back toward the crouched Bolt Eaters, and kept his ballistic shield oriented toward the enemy.
He heard the high pitched shriek of incoming shells. An impact alert sounded on his HUD, courtesy of the mech’s proximity system.
Eric fired his jumpjets directly backward to give himself a horizontal boost. The explosions hit behind him, and the shockwave sent him hurtling forward. He fired his jumpjets to compensate, and he landed on his feet and continued running.
He raced past the mech, which carried Frogger and a Savage. Then he swerved out in front of the trailing tank.
He was exposed to the gamma rays now, so in addition to varying his speed, he zig-zagged his motion.
He received an alert, and momentarily switched back to his body. His rifle was aimed past the edge of the outcrop at a Bulava crouched behind an enemy tank. The cross-hairs were already centered, and he squeezed the trigger, then promptly returned to controlling the Ravager.
He reached the platoon line and dove Pounder behind the wreckage of an English tank as the next mech and tank group left cover.
Eric moved back and forth like that, ferrying Cicadas and support troops to the first outcrop, aware of the ever-encroaching black cloud. Only one of the Hoppers had survived, a Private First Class Dunnigan, and Eric personally ferried him across.
They lost two tanks on the first run. And five more on the mad dashes to subsequent outcrops.
; They also lost Hyperion.
Eric had just dropped him off, when an artillery shell could be heard, arcing toward the outcrop.
“It’s going to hit!” Dickson shouted.
Still inside Pounder, Eric increased his time sense, and spotted the shell. It’s computed trajectory would land it on the other side of the outcrop, right amid the crouching units.
Before anyone could scatter, Hyperion clambered onto the rise and leaped into its path.
The shell detonated early, and Hyperion’s pieces scattered around the outcrop.
“He saved us,” Tread said, staring at the wreckage. “Hyperion finally got to see his boys.”
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Traps said.
Eric never did get to pay Hyperion back for all the times he had saved his life during the latest deployment. He owed him so much.
And now he was gone.
“We’ll grieve for him later,” Marlborough said. “We’ll grieve for all of them.”
Too bad we’re not capable of grief.
“Traps, buckle up,” Marlborough continued. “You’re in charge of the Savages under Hyperion’s control.”
“Understood,” Traps said.
“And take out that tank!” Marlborough said.
One of the Russian tanks had moved well away from the others to get in that shot, and it was exposed out there. The Abrams took it out with a barrage of laser fire.
The platoon began the crossing from the final outcrop to the cave. By then Bokerov was staging a similar retreat, using outcrops and natural rises to make his way to the cave located at his region of the mountain. The Bolt Eaters used the opportunity to hit his exposed flanks with laser barrages.
Back and forth the mechs ran, depositing support robots and Cicadas inside, while the surviving tanks rolled in after them.
Eric made the final run, picking up the last two units. There were no tanks remaining outside to shield him from the Frankendog gamma ray attacks, so he zig-zagged as he ran toward the cave. It was tricky, given how relatively steep the shoulder of the mountain was in this area.
He reached the cave and dashed Pounder inside.
Behind him, the sky was completely dark with the swarm of termites.
24
Eric lowered his two passengers, and then set Pounder to guard mode before reverting back inside his own body.
He was located near the entrance, and electrified his skin as a precaution. The termites in the forefront of the cloud would begin arriving very soon now. He could hear the buzzing outside, like the hum of a hundred trillion angry bees.
Around him, the walls and ceiling were relatively ragged, but the floor was smooth, thanks to the Kurds, insurgents and others who had hidden in these caves throughout the centuries of wars that had raged in the region.
“Move the Tanks and mechs deeper into the cave,” Marlborough said. “Meanwhile, the rest of us will place the demolition charges!”
Demolition blocks were the only options available to them when it came to collapsing the cave, because the tanks had no shells left and the mechs had exhausted their missiles. There was the possibility of using the lasers and electrolasers to carve out ceiling sections for potential collapse, but that would take a long time.
Eric directed Pounder further into the tunnel, following the other mechs and tanks. All units had activated their headlamps at that point, providing illumination. LIDAR would have served just as well.
Meanwhile Eric and the rest of the Cicadas moved quickly, sharing demolition blocks amongst themselves, and planting them along the rock ceiling in a specific sequence: the Accomps had calculated the best spots to place the charges, based on instabilities and other weaknesses the scans detected in the rock surface, and just underneath it.
Eric was on drag during this charge-laying process, so he was the first to receive a zap as one of the termites in the forefront arrived. In moments, several more zaps flashed across his body, and more began to appear on Brontosaurus and Slate in front of him.
“They’re here!” Eric said.
“Dash forward!” Marlborough said. “We blow the charges!”
“But we haven’t placed them all!” Frogger said.
“It’ll have to be good enough!” Marlborough said.
Eric dashed inside as the landings increased in intensity. Roughly half the platoon was affected now, with zapped termites dropping motionless to the floor around them.
“Blow it!” Marlborough said.
Eric wasn’t yet past the border of the last placed charge, so he switched to Bullet Time, and ran for all he was worth.
He could see the growing explosion above him, and stressed his servomotors as hard as he was able. He raced underneath that cloud, and past the last charge, and then reverted to normal time.
He was sent flying forward by the shockwave. Behind him, the roof came tumbling down, and dust filled the tunnel.
None of their headlamps penetrated the thick dust, and Eric couldn’t see a thing. He switched to echolocation, and his forehead sensors began to emit a series of chirps. He wasn’t the only one with that idea: the air filled with the sounds of similar chirps.
The outline of the cave, and the other Cicadas and the tanks beyond them filled his vision. He turned toward the collapse. It covered the cave section almost entirely, but there was still a small opening near the top that termites could use to come inside.
“I need another charge!” Eric shouted. He had run out of them on his own.
Brontosaurus tossed him a charge. Eric took it, and hurried toward the collapse. The dust had disoriented the termites for the time being, because none were swarming through the opening. Yet.
Eric couldn’t use his electrified skin as he crawled up the fallen rocks, because by touching them he was grounding the unit. So he kept it deactivated while he made his way to the top. He made a quick scan via echolocation, and Dee pointed out the best spot to place the charge. It was located two meters inside the small crevice formed by the debris and the ceiling. Because of the slight depression there, that spot was perfectly suited to the seal the cave. If he placed the block anywhere else, he was more likely to enlarge the gap by shifting the debris underneath, rather than shrink it.
Unfortunately, to reach that particular spot, he’d have to crawl inside the cramped opening.
I hate confined places.
Eric pulled his body into the gap and began the crawl inside. He could only imagine how much more nerve-racking it would have been without his emotions suppressed.
Maybe it’s not such a great idea to be trying to break free of our Containment Code after all…
“Eric, stay safe!” Bambi said.
“Always do,” Eric said.
“If you die, I’m going to kill you,” Crusher said.
“Thanks,” Eric told her. “But somehow, that’s not very reassuring.”
He moved forward through the tight opening, yanking his body along, finding whatever grips he could upon the debris beneath him. It was tricky, because the rocks shifted underneath him. Half the time whenever he grabbed one it shifted underneath him. Sometimes more than one moved, and his entire body slid to the left, or even backward. Because the surrounding surfaces were so close around him, he could almost feel the weight of the rock pressing down above him. But so far, any fear he might have felt was mostly suppressed.
He switched to Bullet Time and amped the output of his servomotors to hurry things along. Finally he reached the spot in question and removed the backing from the demolition block and affixed the sticky side firmly to the ceiling. He still couldn’t see anything through the dust, but ahead of him, termites appeared on the echolocation band.
Their hunter-killer algorithms seemed to have trouble with the tight gap, because they’d fly only for maybe a meter before hitting either the ceiling, or one of the surrounding surfaces, and then landing. They’d crawl for a short way before taking to the air again, before hitting something else.
Eric began
backpedaling as fast as he was able. He kept Bullet Time active as he turned himself around and retreated. He kept his rear cam feed visible in the upper right of his vision, and watched the termites close with him.
When the micro machines passed beneath the demolition block, he decided that was as close as he was willing to allow the termites to approach. They’d be on him in another two meters.
“Brontosaurus,” Eric said. “Detonate the block.”
“But you’re not clear yet,” Brontosaurus sent.
“Do it,” Eric said. “Because it won’t matter in a few seconds. If they touch me I’m gone anyway…”
The explosion rocked the cave. Eric was sent shooting out of the gap, and he smashed into Hank before rolling onto the floor.
“Watch it!” Hank said. “You hunk of trash metal!”
“Sorry,” Eric said, scrambling to his feet.
He still saw through the dust only by echolocation. He turned back toward the collapse and was satisfied to see that the gap had disappeared along the top.
“Do you guys hear that?” Manticore asked.
Eric paused to listen. Everyone had ceased all movement, so that the gentle hum of servomotors wouldn’t give off any noise pollution.
He heard it then, a rattling, buzz-like noise, coming from somewhere deeper inside the cave.
“The termites have entered the tunnel system from other cave entrances,” Dunnigan said. “Higgins warned you about this!”
“We haven’t forgotten,” Marlborough said. “Cicadas, set the rear charges!”
Eric checked the map. According to the blue dots representing the cicadas, Brontosaurus and Tread were already some distance down the tunnel, no doubt placing the prerequisite charges.
Eric and the others hurried to join them, and then they retreated closer to the previous collapse.
“Hit it, Dickson,” Marlborough ordered.
The multiple explosions filled the cave with a fresh amount of dust, just when the previous particles had begun to clear.