***I’ll be quiet as a mouse***
Moments later, his eyes teared up and he felt a slight sting behind his eyelids as the Dana bot exited his head. For a moment, there was a brief cloud inside Winger’s helmet, like a dingy fog swirling behind his face shield, but it dispersed and no one seemed to notice. The Dana swarm headed for his neck ring, forced its way through a seam and emerged into the dust of the cabin unseen by anyone. Only the slightest flicker in the dust betrayed her presence.
Bedbug’s hull had been shattered in the impact but all hands had self-sealing suits and no one had been lost to vacuum exposure. But there were plenty of injuries. Banner’s was the worst. Already, Tsukota and M’Bela were trying to direct their own already-launched swarms into Banner’s suit, to form a life barrier inside and keep the poor scientist from going into shock. He was having trouble breathing and his face was ashen and pale, even inside his helmet. His head lay at an impossible angle and he reported that he couldn’t move his arms and legs.
“Could be a spinal injury,” Tsukota reported. “He needs to be lifted out of here.”
Winger knew he had some critical decisions to make. Should they abort? Operation Moonglow was created to gather critical intel on the Chinese base and what they were trying to excavate nearby. If it was another sphere—or even a Keeper unit, as Dana thought—Quantum Corps needed to know it and soon. There were indications that Red Hammer was on site at Tian Jia, maybe even running operations there. They couldn’t let the cartel gain any more advantage from whatever technology their offworld benefactors might have.
But there were serious injuries among the Detachment. Lou Siobhan was out of commission and the selenologist Banner was getting more critical by the moment.
What had happened to Bedbug? Had the Chinese shot at them? There had been a flash of light just before the hopper went crazy and crashed. Particle beam, perhaps? Magpulse?
Moreover, did they have enough able-bodied troopers to complete the mission? And what was happening with the embedded ANADs? Maybe Dana was right. There might be a Keeper nearby that could influence ANAD systems in some way they couldn’t detect. It wasn’t really so far-fetched.
“Skipper—“ it was Ozzie Tsukota, still bending over the body of Banner. “Skipper, he’s not going to make it if we don’t get him some help…ANAD can only do so much. I think his windpipe’s crushed…he’s paralyzed…ANAD’s inside—I’m using a respirocyte config—but it may not be enough. My ANAD’s acting strange anyway, I have to send commands several times…anyway, Dr. Banner needs help…fast.”
“Okay,” Winger made his decision, “here’s what we’re going to do: Ozzie, you stay here with the injured. Send a coded message to Farside that we need a medevac ship here as fast as possible. The Chinese should pick that up and while they’re observing that, the rest of us will move out on our original mission. I don’t want to risk another attack like this, so we’ll go overland.”
Mighty Mite Barnes looked out the cracked porthole at the undulating terrain. “Skipper, the crater walls of Copernicus are about ten kilometers from here. How close do you want to get?”
Winger said, “The mission rules leave that up to us. We can boost that ten kilometers. I’d at least like to get inside Copernicus, maybe even down to the mountains at the center. But we’ll have to split up, to keep from attracting too much attention. There will be six of us, so we’ll split up into equal sectors, and approach from six different bearings. And stay low, when you boost, under ten meters if possible.”
“That’s pretty dangerous, Lieutenant,” Nguyen noted. “With all the low hills and boulders the size of houses around here.”
“I’m aware of that,” Winger said. “And we’re going to use that, use the terrain to our advantage. Once inside the crater, hold your position and we’ll see if we’ve triggered any reaction. Now, everybody get your ANADs back into containment.” He didn’t tell anybody about the Dana bot and her little swarm. But over his own coupler link, he said Dana, stop fooling around and get back inside my head. We’ve got a mission to complete.
***Wings, I think I’ll just stay outside for a while longer…lots more room out here…you know us swarms like things loose***
Winger tried to stifle an expletive: We’re getting ready to boost out of here…if you want to come along, you might want to come back inside.
Nanotroopers Episode 13: Small is All! Page 6