Forsaken World | Book 6 | Redemption

by Watson, Thomas A.

  “He will when he’s ready, Jennifer. You’re his dream, and I’m sure he wants it to be perfect,” Lilly smirked because under no circumstances was she going to tell Jennifer the real reason.

  Scanning around the area, “He needs to hurry the hell up,” Jennifer snapped.

  Along the slope, Heath and Dwain were hooking up the charges others had placed on the trees after tying them together. Running his spool back up the hill, Heath turned around to see his wife double-checking his work. It wasn’t being nosey, that was Robin’s job as it was Kathy’s job to double-check Dwain’s work.

  Like Ian had told everyone when they’d practiced, ‘If a charge doesn’t go off, don’t go near it. Leave the thing there until it decays’.

  Working to hook the wires up to a relay board, Heath felt Robin step beside him. “This is going to be loud,” she informed him.

  Nodding, “I’m sure it’ll be heard back at Bimble,” Heath agreed.

  “No wires coming undone and all connections are still hooked up,” Robin reported. “I’m going to help Rhonda and her group watching our backs.”

  Heath just nodded, but Robin was already walking away as Dwain came up to hook up the lead wires he’d strung out. “I think Kathy wet her pants,” Dwain chuckled. “She hates explosives, but the boys told her this was her job and she did it. She just wasn’t thrilled.”

  “I think the fact our daughters helped to make most of the charges let your wife know, ‘Do what you have to’,” Heath replied, then rechecked his work. “You nervous?”

  “I could shit pink Twinkies right now,” Dwain admitted. “You want to know the weird part? I’m not even worried about those across the lake. I’m petrified of all the bots that’re about to be turned loose.”

  There really wasn’t anything Heath could reply about because the very things that were protecting and fighting for them terrified him and nearly everyone else as well. Looking off as he pondered that, “You know, yes, this next level shit does scare me, but I trust Ian and Lance with my life and that of my family. They designed it and if something goes wrong, I know it wasn’t their fault,” Heath said.

  “Hey,” Dwain snapped. “I wasn’t implying I don’t like this terminator stuff, but I don’t understand it and these machines kill on their own. We’re alive because of this stuff and I would die for those boys, but...” Dwain paused, turning to look down at the camp. “It’s just a shame humans are nearing extinction and some are still trying to dominate others. Heath, I’ve tried to follow the programming code Lance designed and I can’t even grasp it.”

  “And yet, they’re trying to fight for what’s right and not rule because if they wanted to, they damn well could,” Heath said. “They’re more mature than most people ever will be.”

  Finished hooking up his wires, “Yeah, and I’m glad they took a chance on us,” Dwain admitted again. “I’m going to get the power cables ready, you keep watch.”

  Heath couldn’t help but chuckle, the area he was ‘watching’ was the west slope where they had just wired the trees up, just in case a stinker tried to climb up the sixty degree slope. Scanning around, his eyes stopped on Tiger. The bot was just pulled up on the rise, aiming the best it could through the trees. Heath was one of the few who knew the only reason Tiger had been made was so Ian and Lance could prove to themselves that they could make a machine to throw four-inch steel balls.

  In Lance’s and Ian’s eyes, Tiger was a failure because they couldn’t get it to meet the standards they’d initially set out for it. They’d wanted Tiger to fire five hundred rounds a minute, with the projectiles near or at four thousand feet per second. Neither goal had been met.

  The maximum rate of fire Tiger could sustain was two hundred rounds a minute. Any faster and the projectile speed dropped, jams started occurring and finally, motors started burning out. A four-inch steel ball weighed twelve pounds and the ingenious system of centrifugal cones that fed the barrel could only move so much weight at a time.

  For speed, Tiger couldn’t break twenty-six hundred feet per second. Heath didn’t know what the problem was but thought the boys should be thrilled with that. They were launching a steel ball over seventeen hundred miles per hour but that hadn’t been the goal they’d set, so they weren’t happy. On the day Tiger was first tested, Heath had watched a twelve-pound steel ball hurl eight hundred yards to strike a four-inch-thick steel plate.

  The steel ball had shattered on impact. It hadn’t punched through but Heath knew if it had hit a tank, those inside would damn sure have heard and felt the impact. Looking over the sensors Ian and Lance had set up for the test, Heath’s eyes had grown wide seeing the temperature of the steel plate target. From one impact, the temperature of the plate had jumped over two hundred degrees.

  Just thinking of how fast the thing could fire, Heath knew Tiger and the other gun bots could eat through any armor, given time.

  Like the gun bot ammo upgrade, Tiger’s ammo had been upgraded but Tiger got two different types of ammo. The ‘steel shot’ were steel balls with a lead core and now weighed eighteen pounds. Steel shot didn’t shatter on impact. ‘X rounds’ were balls with a steel shell, lead lining, and a hollow core. Heath couldn’t even pronounce the explosive Ian had cooked up to fill the core. It was thicker than honey and green. After the ball was filled, a plug with a blasting cap was screwed into the hole.

  One thing Heath did know, it took a lot of energy to set off the explosive Ian had made. But Tiger’s shots impacted with over a million-foot-pounds of energy, and that was enough to set off the cap and explosive. Watching a test fire and the stream of steady explosions hitting the target, Heath felt pity for anything Tiger ever shot X-rounds at.

  “They could conquer the world if they wanted,” Heath surmised, but knew neither wanted anything like that. They just wanted to be left alone with the group they had gathered, and try to live in this forsaken hell trying to make a better world.

  “Hey,” Robin said, coming up beside him. “Time to pull back,” she told him, and Heath glanced at his watch and realized attack time was near.

  Lilly called over the radio, telling everyone to make sure their headsets were on. Despite knowing, Heath reached up to test the headphones connected to his helmet. Gun bots weren’t loud but Tiger and Dragon were, and there was even more in store for the buttheads below.

  “Percy, you ready?” Lance called out on the radio.

  “I’ve been ready, holding these in the air sucks,” Percy responded.

  Knowing what Percy was talking about, the glider drones, Heath shuddered. Even Lance and Ian didn’t like those, but they were needed for the attack. The fixed wing drone had engines that could power a plane three times its size, but struggled to tow the two drones into the air.

  The road through the production area of the valley was the group’s runway for the fixed wing drone. When it lifted off for patrol, the fixed wing could get airborne in a hundred yards. On the first test flight towing the gliders, it had taken the fixed wing a mile and a half to get the gliders airborne. What nobody liked was how low the drone was because it’d had to fly right over Bravo in Bimble.

  On the practice run, the gliders had been packed with eight hundred pounds of lead beads. When they lifted off for the attack, each would be packed with eight hundred pounds of explosives and it would once again be flying over Bravo.

  It was Patrick’s brother David who’d suggested using a tow vehicle to help the fixed wing get airborne faster and to Heath’s surprise, it had worked. Using a truck, they were able to get the fixed wing and gliders airborne in half the distance, but they still had to fly over Bimble because the fixed wing just couldn’t get the altitude to start a turn.

  The compromise was everyone in Bravo was going to clear the flight path, just in case of a crash.

  Back at the clubhouse, Amie was piloting the fixed wing and Percy and Gail were flying the gliders, and none of it was easy. It took Amie nearly an hour to pull them up to seven thousand feet. The fix
ed wing and gliders all handled like bloated whales, but could be flown.

  “Percy, start the dance!” Lance called out, and everyone dove for cover.

  Coming in from the south, Gail’s glider was cut loose first. Both Amie and Percy had to start fighting their controls when the extra weight was cut away and Gail started her descent back to earth. When the cable dropped away, Gail only had twenty minutes of battery power but she wouldn’t need that much.

  The dark landscape below was featureless except for the glossy surface of the lake below. A UV laser from the hover drone over the camp lit the way, aiming at the dark ground. The laser point terminated at the gate through the wall around the camp. “Banzai!” Gail cried out steering her glider at the beam, and Percy cut his glider away while Amie fought the plane as it shot ahead, suddenly released from all the weight.

  All of a sudden, the quiet was shattered. “FOOLS!” the Borg Queen’s voice bellowed out in the darkness from loudspeakers to the south and northeast. “HOW DARE YOU ENTER THE REALM OF THE WILD ONES!”

  At a thousand feet, Gail could see the gate on the screen with stinkers packed several hundred yards back from the barrier. Inside the camp, she could see people coming out of the buildings, looking around in fright. Right before impact, Gail noticed the gate was made from oak tree trunks.

  ‘KABBBOOOOOOMMMMM’

  Shook the night and Lilly watched on her tablet a feed from the drone overhead. The thirty-thousand-pound dozer parked by the gate was tossed back like an angry child had thrown it away. Lilly’s mouth fell open watching a blue flame erupt and ripple over the sea of stinkers packed against the barrier. The blue flame ran the entire two miles along the barrier, burning off the toxic fumes the stinkers put off. Then just as quickly as it had come, the blue flame burnt off and Lilly was shocked to see the stinkers away from the blast weren’t on fire. Even those that had clothes on and caught on fire, it was quickly dying out.

  “Fire in the hole!” Heath shouted, and hit the detonator. A series of five blasts, nanoseconds apart, rocked the world on the slope. Like a giant hand had reached down, five acres of trees at the top of the slope tilted as one and slid down the slope, leaving the lip of the ridge bare.

  All the gun bots, Tiger, and Dragon pulled to the lip of the ridge as Percy steered his glider back to Earth. He’d gone last in case Gail’s glider hadn’t destroyed the gate, but he could see stinkers starting to move toward the hole. The laser from the drone was moved, aiming at a smaller gate on the east side where the camp had a marina set up.

  “GET SOME, BITCHES!” Percy shouted, diving his glider down.

  ‘KABBBOOOOOOMMMMM’ again shook the earth, but Heath got to see this one as he ran forward toward the lip. The fence near the lake was just tree trunks in the ground and the explosion had sheared them off like they had never been there.

  He could see people running everywhere but he could already see the tank moving toward the blown-open gate. One by one, the gun bots stopped and extended their legs, lifting off the ground and leveling their platforms. Then each swung their barrel over to aim west, then dropped the aim down into the camp.

  A sharp ‘Boooom’ sounded and Heath felt the shockwave as Dragon sent the first round. There was no gunpowder, just the hypersonic crack of an eight-pound steel dart streaking away. It seemed to Heath’s eyes like the report and impact on the side of the tank three quarters of a mile away were nearly instantaneous. To his amazement, the Trophy system did go off but only after the round had hit the side of the turret.

  There wasn’t any doubt and even from here, he could see the round had punched through the turret. The tank was rolling to a stop and one of the hatches on the turret blew off.

  Heath glanced around to see crews dragging thick cables over to Dragon, connecting them to the back. These were power cables from the buggy tracks to give Dragon the extra power it needed to fire four rounds a minute like Ian had wanted.

  A deep ‘RRRRRRR’ sounded and Heath turned to see Tiger unleashing steel shot on a Bradley. The reactive armor on the Bradley’s side erupted and did stop the first rounds, but there were another twenty right behind them. Like it was in slow motion, Heath watched four-inch holes appear in the side of the armor. Unlike the tank, the Bradley detonated when the ammo inside went off and the turret flew up in the air.

  “Come, my children! Show them you are Borg!” the queen’s voice screeched into the night as the gun bots started shooting. Big gun bots targeted Bradleys and the others aimed at Strykers. Reactive armor erupted and Trophy systems went off, but streams of steel were raining down. Each round that impacted, heated the armor until the rounds behind it punched through.

  Almost at the same time, three Bradleys and two Strykers blew up, and the fires that erupted lit the interior of the camp. From the south, the two big gun bots and thunder bots opened up, joining the carnage.

  Gunfire from the camp aimed at the slope made Heath duck, but a gun bot swung over to let a burst go and the gunfire stopped, never getting close. ‘EEEERRRWWW’ sounded overhead, and Heath looked up to see Angel Bot zooming over and letting loose a burst at others in the camp shooting into the night. This was why Denny only had three monitors in Heath’s track. Ian and Lance wanted Denny’s focus on Angel because he had control of the fire button.

  Dragon unleashed and Heath watched the round punch all the way through a Bradley before sending up a geyser of dirt on the other side. The turret launched in the air as the ammo inside blew and Dragon moved its aim to a Stryker.

  Now, all five gun bots, three big gun bots, Tiger, and Dragon were firing into the camp, and the chaos was absolute. Those inside were getting hit from the south, the slope from the east, and from Angel in the sky.

  “I warned all of the Wild Ones’ wrath! They have unleashed my minions among you!” the Borg Queen bellowed. “Now none will be spared!”

  Heath watched crews setting up step ladders behind each gun bot and buckets of bearings were stacked, getting ready to feed more into the destruction below. The gun bots on the ridge were all firing in near steady streams, just dragging their rain of steel into clusters of people running.

  Dropping his eyes, Heath saw seven dark shapes on the surface of the lake heading toward the far shore, and thought they really did look like monsters. The first out of the water, Heath would know that shape anywhere as the front gave a whine and water flew off like the bot had been shaking the water off, but it was just the shredders spinning up. A flash appeared on the side and left a steady flame in its wake.

  “Oh, shit,” Heath mumbled.

  “Let all behold! My prized child is among you!” the queen’s voice echoed over the land, and Phoenix shot away from the water’s edge. The blown-out fence formed a ramp and Phoenix hit it at speed, going airborne. “My Phoenix is among you now, mortals! Bow to your betters before you die!”

  “That’s some cold shit,” Lilly said coming up behind Heath, and Dragon let off another round. They watched Tiger sending rounds into any vehicle not burning because all the armor had died in the first forty seconds. Anyone who tried to shoot became a priority target, so everyone had stopped that and just tried to find a place to hide.

  Phoenix hit the ground and bounced into the air again until gravity held it firm, then it headed straight for a large group running to find cover. The group only realized death was in the camp when they heard others getting shredded. Over twenty were sucked into the shredder as Phoenix plowed through the group, but didn’t stop or turn around and kept going.

  Speeding to the south end of the camp where most of the bunkhouses were lined up, Phoenix locked on the brakes to skid to a stop fifty yards from the outer line. Flame shot out and Phoenix rotated in place, dragging the arc of streaming fire a hundred yards to cover half the line of bunkhouses.

  The Borg Queen’s laughter erupted chillingly in the night as fires burned, then the laughter stopped abruptly. “My lovely child! Show them you are my chosen! Phoenix, unleash and make your Queen proud!�
�

  “Fuck me,” Lilly gasped as Phoenix took off and set the rest of the line of bunkhouses on fire. With the outer line on fire, Phoenix took off to the next row while those in the bunkhouses realized they hadn’t provided cover and only aided in a funeral pyre. Like it was making the queen proud, Phoenix moved through the rows of buildings setting them all ablaze.

  Those in the camp realized something evil was inside, but didn’t notice six more shapes coming in the blown-open gap at the lake. Like they were in no hurry, the six thunder bots pulled into an arc and then at the same time, opened fire. Those running to get away from Phoenix, met the thunder bots.

  With all vehicles destroyed, the gun bots concentrated on warm bodies because stinkers were pouring into the gap now, but even the stinkers were avoiding the south end where Phoenix was making his queen proud. On the ridge, groups were now forming teams to open the hoppers up on the bots and pour buckets of bearings inside to feed the killing machines.

  Heath turned to Tiger when he heard a sharp clank, then realized Lance was changing ammo feeders. When Tiger cut loose again, explosions now rained down as Tiger concentrated on the buildings until Phoenix got to them.

  On the right, Dragon unleashed a round and when it impacted on a building and exploded, Heath knew Ian had changed over to the blunt dart that exploded damn near on impact. It was kinetic energy alone that created the explosion.

  “My children! You are filling your Queen with pride! Show this puny Wade that all he has is dying! Those here could have stopped him, but let him enter the area of the Wild Ones! He defied your Queen so show no one mercy, my children!” she cried out, then started laughing.

  “I would just eat a bullet,” Heath admitted, then turned to see Lilly was watching the view overhead on her tablet.

  “Several have,” Lilly told him.