Ancient (Earth 50,000 BC Book 1)

by David Edward

  It had taken all of Logan and Odessa’s experiences to work with X7 on the battle plan. It was a difficult situation. Their primary objective was to free the sixty Machians from their clan that they knew for sure were in captivity.

  The secondary objectives were to rescue any other captives, destroy the oldtech, destroy the facility, neutralize the defenders, and preserve as many resources as they could under the assumption that there were at least eight other facilities like this one on the planet somewhere.

  Odessa had remembered seeing the Baytorian at the top of the ramp on the ship that took the diggers. Remembered the pent-up energy and rage the figure had exhibited.

  Logan lifted the visor of his helmet. The white combat armor reflected the luminary as he moved. “E7, anything to report?”

  “No, sir. There has been no significant activity. I did see the lights last night just as before. There was some movement, but with the storm, I could not make out any meaningful details.”

  Logan looked over to Odessa, who nodded. Then he said, “Okay. Go ahead and start your piece of this. We will keep localhub communication silent until we either think it is safe to use them, or things have fallen apart, and it doesn’t matter anymore.”

  E7 and the E2 units activated their quick-flight belts and floated off the ridge back down the gorge.

  “Odessa, are you ready?” Logan asked her. He was calm, as always, but there was an obvious edge to him.

  “Yes,” was all she said. She looked nervous. She was nervous.

  Logan then turned to X7. “Do it,” he said with as much authority as X7 had ever heard him use.

  Underneath the near-constant flow of purple headers, X7 issued the first major command of what would come to be famously known, luminary-wide, as “the moment it all ended.”

  X4 led three wings of E2 units—twenty-one units in all counting himself. He commanded the first squadron of seven directly from the point position of the vee formation. There was one squadron in the same vee formation to his left and one to his right, both led by an E2 unit.

  While X4 was tactical prime of this first attack wave, X7 was battle prime. X4 and X7 were in direct contact over the peer-to-peer connection.

  All of the units were positioned at the extreme edge of the peer-to-peer communication range. The androids were there as well, formed up and awaiting the command from X7 for their phase of the attack.

  In addition to the twenty-one etherreal units, there were one hundred and seventeen normal androids and two hundred and thirty-four combat androids. All freshly charged from the old ships.

  When X4 received the go communication from X7, he and his units accelerated quickly to just below the speed of sound. They flew to the site of the Thorik. When over the ship, they accelerated to just over the speed of sound, creating an audible bang.

  The air was cold, and the sound flashed out in a ring of disturbed air at the point of acceleration.

  The first part of the plan was to make the attack look like a desperate move to save the diggers by a few remaining etherreals.

  X7 rationalized that at some point in the past, some other clan members must have avoided capture or assassination and launched a rescue attempt. He argued that even if this had never happened, the facility, given its methods, must have protocols in place for this very thing.

  It would be the primary contingency. The obvious single vulnerability to the entire operations.

  A logical but ill-conceived attack by low-level etherreals would conceptually be a “normal” event after an abduction. This is how X7 planned on orchestrating the first wave of the attack.

  X4 and his teams decelerated to a near stop just short of where they believed the entrance to the facility was given the lights E7 had observed. The noise from the sonic boom carried with them, and a shorter noise radiated from their stop when they decelerated.

  This was an obvious mistake, made on purpose to alert the facility and to see what type of response it generated. X4 and his team started to slowly circle the area as if looking for signs of its inhabitants, as though they did not have better information.

  Within a few micro cycles, X4 reported peer-to-peer to X7 that he could see glinting coming from a higher elevation back on one of the far mountain ranges. It was airborne series 8 units. There was apparently a defensive launching point higher up in the mountain overlooking the area from the opposite side that X7, Logan, and Odessa were on.

  X4 moved to engage them. He and his team only carried standard defensive armaments from the Thorik. Not ineffective at all, but nowhere near the firepower necessary to defeat the enemy series 8 automatons en masse.

  There appeared to be seven groups of three automatons, each heading from the mountain area. They flew gracefully and quickly. Each group of three was many measures apart from the next, with one unit in front and the other two units following very closely to either side.

  “They have responded from a point above the facility built into the mountain at a higher elevation,” X7 said to Logan. Since neither Logan nor Odessa could use the scanners in their combat armor, they could not see the details about what was going on in the battle, so X7 was giving them audible voice updates.

  If Logan squinted, he could see flashes of light reflecting off the enemy automatons as they sped through the air and could just barely see the etherreal units flying slowly silhouetted against the mountain. But not enough to make out any details or tactics.

  X7 kept the etherreals in the vee formation, a good formation for following the leader in flight but not a particularly good formation for combat engagement. He did not want to give away any level of sophistication until phase two of the battle.

  “It is interesting they responded with twenty-one automatons, the same number as X4 is attacking with,” X7 noted in audible. “I am labeling their launch point as Opportunity One.” Giving a short name to an area of interest or battlefield target was helpful in staying organized and efficiently discussing battlefield events.

  The etherreals started to fire their heavy shooters when they were just out of range, changing direction in an uncoordinated manner to face the approaching enemy automatons head-on.

  X4 made a motion, and the vee formation to his left accelerated and took a flight path that would curve around the defenders and head for the area of the mountain labeled now as Opportunity One. The move was designed to cause the assumption that the Machian forces thought that Opportunity One was the main facility entrance.

  When the Thorik was attacked, the series 8 automatons were not using flight belts.

  They were using them today.

  The interesting part was that the belts were generating a low humming noise. This meant they were frequency-based, not magnetics-based. Frequency-based flight used sound to vibrate waves to push against gravity.

  Odessa had provided a theory she wanted to be employed if they discovered the enemy was using quick-flight frequency tech.

  X7 knew there were pros and cons to both frequency and magnetic flight. There would be two meaningful differences today between the technologies.

  The first would be that magnetic flight could achieve higher speeds. It could provide movement faster than the speed of sound.

  The second was that it might be possible to disrupt the quick-flight frequency belts.

  “They are using quick-flight frequency belts as we discussed,” X7 said to Logan and Odessa.

  Odessa made a face to Logan that conveyed interest and good luck.

  As soon as three of the enemy units broke away from their main group to match the path of the etherreals heading for the Opportunity One location, X4 reversed his course and began flying backward at a good clip, still firing the heavy shooters at an extended range when it seemed an automaton might be targeted.

  This was the second feint, the appearance that they were trying to draw the enemy away from Opportunity One.

  The hum from the enemy quick-flight frequency belts grew louder as the automatons accelerated their f
light, seeing the change in direction by X4 and sensing an opportunity to attack. When your assumption is that you are the superior force, seeing an enemy split their forces and have one element retreat leaves open the door for an aggressive strike.

  Once fully engaged by the series 8 enemy automatons, X4 and his two squadrons turned and flew away, quickly appearing to be in full retreat. No longer firing at the pursuing enemy automatons, they headed for a specific spot near the summit of the mountain range they had flown over to get to the facility.

  The flight of etherreals arching to the Opportunity One hangar had nine enemy automatons in pursuit. The pursuers began firing their concussion ordinance.

  Even a miss from this type of weapon could knock an etherreal unit sideways with a near hit. It could destroy them completely with a direct hit. The wide detonation area disrupted their apparent sprint for Opportunity One. The ordinance exploding in the air nearby and sending out pressure waves from the detonations created an immediate danger.

  This was a suicide run.

  It had been decided that it was important to show losses early to keep the different phases of the attack plan as surprising as possible.

  The E2s followed their orders, and one by one, fell from the sky after being shot down, offering as much resistance as possible before the fateful blows and pulling nine of the enemy far away from the group pursuing X4.

  X7 relayed the information to X4 about the frequency drives and instructed X4 to keep his speeds within a comparable range, as though he had not noticed the drives and assumed they could match any speed.

  The series 8 enemy automatons who finished their downing of seven etherreals in the mountains were apparently landing to make sure that the downed units were no longer functional.

  “The group that broke off and downed our E2 units have followed them to the ground,” X7 said in audible to Logan.

  “They are overconfident,” Logan said to Odessa, who nodded.

  X4 timed it so that the twelve pursuing enemy automatons would be within their extreme maximum concussion ordinance range just as X4 and his two flights transitioned over the summit of the mountain.

  On cue, the automaton started firing right as X4 cleared the summit.

  It had been preplanned, as soon as the first shell was fired, before it could reach his group, X4 gave the command, and he and the two remaining squadrons of etherreals accelerated at the maximum velocity the quick-flight belts could produce, which was several times the speed of sound.

  As the sonic booms rattled the landscape and X4 sped away, thirteen squadrons of androids decelerated in their place. Each squadron had nine android units in it, equipped individually with two hand cannons and heavy shooters strapped to their backs for when the hand cannon ammunition ran out.

  The nine units in each squadron were organized into a wall formation, the prime android for each formation at its center.

  Unlike the vee formations they had been using, the wall put all nine units equally forward.

  It provided a three-dimensional attack strategy where the vee formation was designed for following the leader when airborne, reminiscent of squad formations used in ground combat, where the vee could be much more effective as a fighting tool.

  The wall put all the squadron units in a vertical formation, with the units stacked into several rows on top of each other. This presented all the units with an equal distance firing solution to a target positioned in front of the group.

  This flight of androids had been given the callsign Redbird. Each squadron of the thirteen was Redbird one through Redbird thirteen.

  All thirteen squadrons of the Redbirds came in at a different angle than X4 had departed from, so the first volley of enemy automation concussion ordnance exploded in the air away from any impact to the battle.

  Two squadrons, Redbird one and two, accelerated from the larger group and charged the twelve enemy automatons who had been pursuing X4, firing their hand cannons in a coordinated volley.

  Since each android had two canons, one on each arm, thirty-six rounds detonated in and around the airborne enemy, striking enough units, in combination with the force of the explosion shockwaves, to disable all twelve and send them to the ground. Some of the enemy automatons blew apart with direct hits. The remaining ones fell from the sky and would be destroyed upon impact.

  “Phase two initiated,” X7 said to Logan.

  The event had taken place close to where the group stood, so Logan and Odessa were able to watch the perfect timing of the exchange and the brutal bombardment the hand cannons could produce when fire was coordinated.

  The scene was a series of contradictions, the clean white mountain landscape from the recent storm and snowfall, the bright blue morning sky with luminary rays shining through it, contrasted to the red and black explosions and the bent and twisted metal fragments that used to be functioning enemy automatons falling to the ground.

  So far, things were going well. However, this was to be expected.

  Only now would the enemy in the facility start to recognize that this attack was more than a simple, desperate, etherreal gambit.

  The Machian battle group had been divided into phased brackets.

  The original flights of twenty-one etherreals, the flight of one hundred seventeen standard androids that they had reactivated from the older ships flying with callsign Redbird, and two flights of the combat androids. One group of combat android armed with heavy repeaters to be used in phase four who carried the callsign Bluebird for the heavy bombardment phase, and the final group equipped with hand-to-hand bracings to be used in phase five, the mop-up phase, who carried the callsign Blackbird.

  The etherreals led by X4 had not been given a callsign. In the unlikely event that an early transmitting peer-to-peer communication was intercepted, they did not want any signs of military sophistication present, like a callsign. This would have suggested multiple formations and a central command and control structure.

  X4 and the two remaining groups of E2s landed next to Logan and Odessa. They had returned, flying slowly up the gorge waterway, out of sight and out of mind from the current attack.

  Upon seeing their arrival, Odessa said to X7, “How many E2s do you want for phase three? Fourteen are available.”

  X7 quickly crossloaded some scenarios. “I recommend half. X4 and his squad can go with you and the captain later. An unexpected benefit.”

  “Agreed,” Logan said and nodded to X7 and Odessa, implying he should give the order for phase three. “Initiate the Songbirds.”

  Seven of the E2 units, now designated Songbirds, glided off the ground and returned down the gorge so they could approach the battle from a different direction.

  The Redbirds were sent the order by X7 to initiate phase three.

  This was the third and final attack feint designed to bring out the rest of the defenders, no matter how many. It was planned to create confusion and hopefully some anxiety in their enemy.

  Six of the Redbird squadrons formed into an extended flying wall with three squadrons on top and three on the bottom. This was an impressive combat formation. They accelerated in tandem in the direction of the Opportunity One location where the original defenders had come from.

  The remaining seven Redbird squadrons shifted to a box formation; this was the wall formation horizontal instead of vertical. They proceeded to slowly move across the combat area as if still looking for the facility.

  Within moments, hundreds of airborne series 8 enemy automatons emerged from Opportunity One. They were in a new type of formation, grouped into squadrons of four units instead of three. Not using the vee formation, they were now in fluid four formations. This placed two units to the front and one unit trailing to either side.

  It was a good formation for aerial combat when you believed you had superior firepower and that you held the initiative.

  “The enemy is launching a massive counterstrike from Opportunity One, as expected,” X7 reported in audible to Logan. “It looks
like a change in their tactics as well. They have modified the series 8 formations into a more efficient combat structure and have increased the size of their individual formations from three to four units.

  “I count one hundred fifty-two series 8 units launched from Opportunity One in thirty-eight squadrons.”

  “Good, X7,” Logan said, “but that number still feels reserved to me.

  “They adapted quickly. Nevertheless, they have still underestimated the magnitude of our threat.

  “While this is an advantage, we cannot assume they will continue to do this given what we are about to hit them with in phase four.”

  However, phase three was just getting started and still had some surprises of its own left to deliver.

  The Songbird E2 units that X7 had allocated to phase three began to buzz randomly and independently about the combat area at high speed and high elevation.

  Each E2 was well over the speed of sound, zipping across the zone, then returning to cross the zone at a different angle.

  When an object traveled faster than sound, it created a cone of noise, a thunderous disruption that vibrated the air and disturbed sound waves by sending out pressure cones that moved faster than the sound they were generating.

  This cone was the impact of the pressure waves colliding with the sound waves.

  Since the object was moving faster than the sound waves, they could not get out of each other’s way. This created a rolling boom cone that continuously generated waves as long as the object was moving at an accelerated speed.

  By having the E2 units buzz around the area at supersonic speeds, the Songbirds were bombarding the combat zone with disruptive, noisy sound cones. The hope was that these sound cones would impact the frequency flight belts the enemy was using and would also create vibrations and noise confusion.

  The tactic would not work on larger frequency drivers, but the hope was it could work on the small quick-flight versions.

  It turned out the hope was realized, as the speeding E2 etherreal Songbirds flew over the advancing enemy automatons, the flight path of the enemy stuttered, dropping, and raising them in elevation randomly. It was not enough to ground them, but it was making coordinated aerial attacks and just simply aiming much harder.