Exodus: Machine War: Book 2: Bolthole

by Doug Dandridge

  “And when will that be, Admiral?” asked Gonzales, doubt on her face.

  “I’m not sure about that. What I am sure of is that we will be getting one. I have the Emperor’s word on that. I haven’t always agreed with the boy, but I do have to say that when he gives the Fleet his word, what he promises does materialize. I can’t say he can move heaven and hell to get it moving that much faster, but when he says jump, even a dinosaur like Fleet logistics can eventually get up to speed eventually.”

  “We need those ships, Admiral,” said Rear Admiral Khrushchev.

  “I realize that, Admiral,” said Bednarczyk, her eyes narrowing. “Even us Fleet Neanderthals can think enough to realize that more firepower is always a good thing. However, unless you want me to shit those ships out of my ass, we either wait on the gate, or until they can get some ships out to us the old fashioned way.”

  “That could take a month,” exclaimed Gonzales, closing her eyes.

  “More likely two, except for maybe a trickle of ships sent from the frontier,” said Bednarczyk. “And I know we need more ships, but we will just have to make do until they get them to us. Until then, we improvise, and hold on with what we have.”

  “And if we can’t hold on?” asked Khrushchev.

  “I don’t want to hear you say that ever again,” growled Bednarczyk, glaring at the other woman. “Especially not in front of any of our people.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Now listen here, people,” said Bednarczyk, standing up and walking to the front of the room. “We are going to hold on here until we are reinforced. And then we are going to win. Is that understood?”

  There were some nods and mumbling around the table, and Bednarczyk stood there glaring at the other officers. “I understand that you do not know me, and do not trust me. The only thing I can tell you is that I have never lost a fight. At least a military one. I can’t say the same for politics. I know I am arrogant, and that many of you will not like me. And I really don’t care. What I do care about is that you give me your best effort.”

  She stopped talking for a moment and looked down at the floor, then back at the people watching her. “I’m abrasive. I know that as well. The Emperor did not pick me personally for this post to make friends and influence people. Well, maybe to influence people, but not to make friends.”

  There was some subdued laughter at that, and even the Fleet Admiral cracked a smile. “What I’m telling you is that I want your very best. And that includes all of your advice, your knowledge of this area and our enemy. I want the facts, and the truth. I may yell if I don’t like what I hear. I get that way sometimes. But if it’s good counsel, you better believe I will consider it. And there will be no repercussions just because I don’t like what you say. What I will not stand for is people telling me what they think I want to hear, when it is nothing but a damned lie. Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said everyone at the table in a loud voice.

  “Very good. Now the first thing I want to know is how reliable these Klassekians are as a com resource. And then I want to know how we can use them, not only for our naval force, but also for the defense of the asteroid and stations.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.

  Douglas Horton

  BOLTHOLE, MARCH 20TH, 1002.

  “That’s strange,” said Danny Steele, the pilot of the capture tug Venture VI, looking at the viewer that was pointing down at the surface of the Bolthole Asteroid.

  “What do you have?” asked Captain Marcia Humbolt, turning from the viewer where she was watching their cargo, a new ten thousand ton defense platform that they were boosting. The platform had just been built the day before, and boasted a single ten gigawatt laser, a frigate class particle beam, and a score of close in weapons systems, in its case, forty millimeter magrails capable of putting twenty rounds a second each into space.

  “An energy reading on the surface of the Asteroid, where there shouldn’t be one,” stated the Pilot, hitting a panel on his control board and changing the image to infrared. It glowed a dull red, while the tug’s computer calculated that it was about three hundred meters below the surface of nickle/iron.

  “What the hell is that?” asked Humbolt, staring at the viewer, then at the raw temperature and radiation data flowing across another screen.

  “Looks sort of like some kind of manufacturing concern,” said Teddy Lancaster, the engineer. “But this is the other side of the asteroid from the habitat and factory section. There shouldn’t be anything going on out here.”

  “Play the radar and lidar over the surface around that point,” ordered Humbolt, pointing to the hot spot.

  “Yes, ma’am,” replied the Pilot. “And I’ve got some more hot spots near the horizon.” The pilot turned the directional sensor array on the front of the ship to the area in question and started sending radio and laser pulses, including deep radar, which indicated that there was an area of lower density below the surface.

  “I’ve got something moving on the surface,” said the Pilot, who then hit the controls and pulled the tug up in a hard maneuver, hitting the panel that dumped their cargo at the same time.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” yelled the Captain, falling back in her chair and gripping the arms. The tug shook at the same time and slewed around.

  “Whatever is on the surface is firing at us, Marcia,” yelled out Steele, hitting another panel and sending the recorded take from the forward cameras onto the Captain’s screen.

  Humbolt stared at the thing revealed, what looked like a large four legged animal with a long, straight snout sticking out of its head. She noticed more of them, then realized that the snout was a barrel, and it was tracking something. Us, she thought, as she triggered the com with her implant to send the take to the nearest platform in sight.

  The tug shook once again, spiraling in space as vapor blew off the hull like a jet.

  “I’m losing control,” yelled Steele, just before something bright shined on the forward viewport, and it exploded into space, pulling the atmosphere of the bridge out into the vacuum. Like most commercial craft, the crew operated in a shirt sleeve environment unless the mission was particularly dangerous. Unfortunately for the three that crewed this tug, the mission went from routine to deadly in the beat of a heart, and they were ejected out into the cold of space. They would have been recoverable later, thanks to the cold that would freeze their bodies. There would be no later. The things on the surface tracked them and burned them to seared meat with lasers, sending them tumbling into the void.

  * * *

  “We’re getting an emergency transmission from the tug Venture VI,” called out one of the com techs in the command center.

  “What are they reporting?” asked the Lt. Commander Saphron Huynh, looking up from a report she was reading on her station holo.

  “Something about objects on the surface of the asteroid,” said the Tech, looking up from his board. “Then it cut off.” His fingers flew over the board, and a holo came to life over the center of his station.

  “Send that over to the main holo,” ordered the Duty Officer, staring at the small holo, then turning and walking over to the larger one as it switched views from the system tactical to what had been sent by the tug. “What in all the hells is that?” she asked as she looked at the holo, which showed some kind of animal on the airless surface of the asteroid. She looked closer and saw that the skin was actually some kind of metallic substance.

  “Red alert,” she called out, looking over at the com station where a half dozen techs sat. “Red alert, now.” Klaxons went off, while red lights flashed from a number of locations around the room. “Get the reaction force out there, now.”

  “What’s going on, Saphron?” came the voice of Admiral Henare over the com.

  She turned to look at the man who was still commander of the asteroid and its industrial system. “We have machines on the surface, sir. Here, look
at this.” With a thought she sent the take of the tug over to the Admiral’s office.

  “That’s all we know of so far, sir. But not knowing doesn’t mean there aren’t more of them lurking on this rock.”

  “I agree,” said Henare. “I’m ordering a full mobilization until we get a handle on this.”

  “Yes, sir,” agreed Huynh, looking over at the duty crew in the command center. “You heard the man. Full alert. Everyone in battle armor.”

  Half the crew stood up and ran to their armor cubbies, while the other half continued to work their boards and get the information to the people on the asteroid, and out to the other stations. As soon as the one half was armored up, they switched places with the crew still working the stations.

  Huynh made sure everything was going as it was supposed to, then backed into her own cubby, willing the suit to close up around her through her implant. The seams sealed, encasing her in a unitary piece of armor, covering her body save her head, which could be covered in an instant by the unfolding of the helm. As the Lt. Commander exited her cubby a pair of Marines came into the room and took up positions, particle beam rifles at the ready, providing security for the central command station of the entire system.

  “We’re receiving reports of other possible Machine infestations on the surface, ma’am,” called out one of the Techs.

  Huynh ran to that station, as other officers, also in armor, came into the room in response to the alert. She stared down at the image that appeared over that station, an image of the entire asteroid spread out, fourteen of the hot spots that signified the machines building more of their kind.

  “Send this over to security, now,” ordered the Lt. Commander, staring at the image and thankful that the damned things were only on the surface for now. If they got into the habitat there was no telling how much damage they would do to the people and facilities.

  * * *

  The Machines were not quite ready for their assault. Given another five days they would have quadrupled their numbers, and overrun the asteroid’s habitats and all of stations in its orbit. Having taken away the enemy’s logistical base, half of the space battle would have been won.

  Everything had been calculated out to perfection. Except for the chance factor, which, though calculated as a statistical probability, could never quite be refined. Which was why it was chance. Now that the humans were alerted to their presence, it was time to act while they still could. The command brain calculated that, while they probably wouldn’t be able to completely overrun the asteroid base, there was still a very good chance, over seventy percent, that they would damage the industrial base of this facility enough that its contributions to the future battle would be insignificant.

  The order was sent out. All of the surface combat units, the largest of the machines that had been built, were sent up the access tubes to the outer skin of the asteroid. The interior forces, three types of war robots, were ordered down the tubes that led into the habitat, only separated from that region by about twenty meters of material that was now being melted out of the way by the tunneling bots. Soon the robots would be among the organics, and they would begin to die.

  * * *

  “We’re on approach to the area,” said Marine Captain Thomas Douglass, into the com while he sat in the command chair of the assault shuttle that was taking part of his company to the point of concern.

  “We’re taking fire, sir,” called out the pilot, dropping the bird to put the horizon between themselves and the weapon that was targeting them.

  “How serious?”

  “Powerful enough to burn through our electromag field in a couple of seconds, sir. And that was just one of many weapons that were locking on to us.”

  “Ok. Get us as close as you can and drop us off. I’m going to see about that Fleet support we’re supposed to have.”

  The Captain contacted Marine command over his implant, waiting for a couple of seconds to break through the traffic.

  “We’re in a bit of confusion here, Captain,” came back the voice of the battalion commander. “There appear to be outbreaks of these things on all of the major stations, as well as all of the areas on the asteroid. Just scout out the area and let me know what you find.”

  Fucking wonderful, thought the Captain as the shuttle came to a stop, hovering ten meters over the surface of the asteroid.

  “Everyone out,” yelled Douglass over the com. “Lt. Chan, your platoon will lead. The rest of the company will follow in standard formation.”

  The Captain jumped from his seat and headed back through the hatch from the cockpit. The entire shuttle had its atmosphere evacuated, and the floor hatches were open, the thirty heavy suited Marines already out and on their way down. Douglass took a step and fell out, barely engaging his grabbers in the weak gravity.

  On the surface the one hundred and eighty-five men and women moved into their positions with practiced ease. These Marines were specialists in space combat, boarding and defending ships and structures, and many hours of current training had gone into practice on the surface of the rock.

  “Move out,” the Captain said into the short range com, watching on his HUD as the first platoon started forward, moving quickly over the surface in low bounds. The surface was not smooth, but had numerous dips and elevations, and even ranges of low hills, sort of like a planetary surface in miniature. The Marines’ suits had terrain following sensors, and they followed the cover all the way across the metallic surface.

  After the first platoon had moved a couple of hundred meters the Captain started forward with his command team. Fifty meters back the two remaining platoons started forward in their own vee formations.

  Douglass was linked in with Lt. Chan and his three lead scouts, getting their take of the terrain. He checked his HUD’s mapping function. They were about forty-five hundred meters from the location of the machines that had fired on the shuttles. The problem was, that was where they had been at that time, and there was no guarantee that they were still in that position. They could have fallen back, or they could have….

  “Contact,” yelled out Chan over the com. “First squad. Lay down a base of fire and get those scouts out of there. Ramirez, move your squad around the flank.”

  “We’re running into fire, LT,” came back the voice of Sergeant Ramirez. “We’re not pinned down, yet. But if we stay here it won’t be long.”

  Douglass watched the action through the suits of the men involved. Lasers and particle beams were coming in, and several suits lit up with damage. There were no casualties, yet, but it couldn’t be long. He watched as one of the Marines sighted in on a robot that had to be three meters long, low to the ground, lasers and particle beams reaching out for another suited human.

  The Marine fired, his particle beam mostly invisible in the vacuum. A spot on the robot glowed red as the beam struck, some vapor flying off and causing the final meter of the beam to become visible for a moment.

  Not enough damage, thought the Captain, highlighting two of the hyper-v gunners in his command team and sending them orders to move forward. Each platoon had three of its own missile gunners, while the command group had three in addition. But one of first platoon’s was already pinned down, unable to raise his launcher for fear of getting it blown out of his hands, and his hands with them.

  Douglass sent the third platoon around the right flank, hoping they could turn that side of the Machines’ defenses and roll them up. A minute after they got into position they too were under fire, their progress stopped. And then the first icons started coming up on his HUD showing the cessation of life functions for some of his Marines.

  * * *

  The machines had penetrated deep into the asteroid, boring holes that would be almost impossible for a human to traverse, and even if they could it would have been a claustrophobic experience. The robots felt no such confinement, and they were able to reconfigure themselves to move quickly through the tunnels. It took minutes to melt through the last couple
of meters leading into the organic habitat spaces. As soon as the last plug was gone the machines swarmed in and spread. They had no idea where they were going, not having any kind of map of the complex. So they just spread at random. Any opening was fair game for some of the machines.

  First through were the very small, very fast, robots. Not nanoscale, more like a couple of micrometers, they carried a payload of several thousand nanites each. Their job was to find every computer, every relay, every energy and data conduit, and drop off their cargo. The cargo’s job was to attack all of those targets, disrupting the operations of the areas already invaded.

  Next were the insect sized attack and recon drones. The size of a large wasp, and with a resemblance to those insects, they were also fast, and were made to either attack larger machinery or organic targets of opportunity. They buzzed off after the microbots and passed them, sending their take back to the third robot types that were leaving the tunnels and reconfiguring into their combat forms.

  These were true battle bots, made to go toe to toe with armored human soldiers. Standing just over two meters tall in their upright form, walking or running quickly on two sturdy legs, they were equipped with particle beams in both claw tipped arms. There was a high velocity projectile weapon built into the proboscis of the head, and a long tail with multiple monomolecular blades along its length, and an end mounted laser.

  The robots poured into the tunnels at a score of locations, spreading like a flood into the tunnels. Everything in sight was enemy, and they had one program for enemy. Destroy.

  * * *

  “What the hell are those,” yelled out one of the people who was trying to wade out of the lake. A hundred people had been availing themselves of the recreation potential of the water. As soon as the alarm went off people started running for the exit from the lake and the corridor to the lifts. They knew what to do from multiple training drills. If the crisis wasn’t specified, as this one wasn’t, they were to head to either their quarters or one of the emergency shelters. There they could get the equipment to handle whatever the emergency was.