by Isaac Hooke
“Concentrate on the seven survivors on the plain,” Rade said. “Let’s eliminate them. As usual, link your cobra targeting systems to my unit.”
Rade picked off the survivors on the plains in that way, concentrating fire on their torsos one by one until all were immobile and smoking.
By then the dust had cleared below.
“No sign of any survivors,” Keelhaul reported.
“TJ,” Rade said. “Send a few HS3s down there just to be sure.”
“You got it, LPO,” TJ replied. The scorn when the drone operator said the word LPO was obvious. He never called Rade boss, and rarely referred to him by his callsign anymore.
Rade ignored the disrespect. He had already privately chewed out TJ a few times for displaying obvious contempt in front of the men. He had to choose his battles.
“External Hoplites, remain in your hides for the time being,” Rade said.
While the HS3s proceeded down the cliff, Facehopper came forward in his mech.
“Good job, Rage,” the chief said on a private line.
“It was nothing, Chief,” Rade said. “Thanks for letting me lead the assault.”
“And thank you for actually leading it,” Facehopper responded. “It’s not every chief who can rely on his LPO unfailingly in combat.”
“That’s because not every chief will give his LPO a chance to prove himself,” Rade responded.
“Oh you’ve proven yourself many times over, Rage,” Facehopper said. “It’s why we made you LPO in the first place. And I know that you’ll only continue to demonstrate courage under fire.”
A few moments later TJ reported: “Nothing is moving down there, and the EM-band is clear. Looks like we got them all. The metal torsos of a few of them were split open during the avalanche. It seems there are no occupants in any of them. Only electronics. Combat robots, people. Big ones.”
“You said electronics?” Lui asked. “So it’s something you would expect to find in a SK-made robot?”
“Sure,” TJ replied. “Or in a UC robot. But, while the individual electronic components are all readily identifiable, their arrangement is peculiar.”
“Peculiar?” Commander Parnell said. “In what way?”
“Well,” TJ continued. “It’s almost like the kind of robot someone would make if they got their hands on the tech but didn’t really understand it. Like they didn’t have a manual on to how to put it together properly, nor the training. There are a bunch of extraneous components whose placement makes no sense. And the layout is super inefficient, requiring larger than normal heat sinks, among other problems.”
“Thank you, TJ,” Facehopper sent. “The mystery deepens, people.”
“That mystery is going to have to be moved to the back burner real quick,” Tahoe transmitted from his position outside. “Got more incoming. Apparently those roaches were only the first wave. And these newcomers, well, they’re not like anything I’ve ever seen before.”
thirteen
Rade immediately turned his attention to the jungle. The land was completely dark by then, and he observed the scene via the thermal band.
True enough, a black swarm had once again emerged from the foliage. He thought at first Tahoe was mistaken and that those were hammerheads, but when he zoomed in and digitally enhanced the image, he realized he was looking at mechanical legs, not biological. It seemed their hidden enemy had sent another variant of mech or robot at them: these were four-legged walkers that reminded him of scorpions because of the long tails that curved over their bodies.
“TJ, recall the HS3s,” Facehopper said. “Secure them in the tunnel.”
Rade had been about to issue that very same order but the chief had beat him to the punch.
“They didn’t fully commit the first time,” Bender said. “Those initial thirty robots were throwaways.”
“They were testing us,” Fret agreed. “Probing our defenses to prepare for the real attack.”
“This isn’t the behavior of SKs,” Manic said.
“Probably not,” Rade said. “Because in theory, the SKs would have known the full capabilities of our Hoplite units already, thanks to their moles in the manufacturing plants. If these were SKs, likely they would have committed everything they had from the get-go. Including their bioengineered weapons. They wouldn’t attack piecemeal like this.”
“Unless they had to relocate their robots from some other location,” Lui argued.
As the HS3s returned from below, zipping past into the tunnel, Rade zoomed in closer on the enemy and activated tracking to study a single incoming unit. He didn’t think those scorpions had missiles launchers. In fact, as far as he could tell, the new mechs only had laser units, judging from the small mounts at the tips of their tails.
“Are those lasers?” Rade asked no one in particular. “On the tails?”
“I’m definitely detecting laser fire!” Trace said. “It’s weaker than the previous mechs had. Our shields are holding up nicely, at least at the current range. Even when they combine their beams. But when they close, we’ll definitely have to fall back. There are too many of them.”
“That’s fine,” Rade said. “The tunnel will serve as a choke point. Ever heard of the Battle of Thermopylae?”
“Um,” Fret transmitted. “Didn’t the three hundred Spartans and six thousand Greeks defending the pass of Thermopylae perish?”
“Bad example,” Rade said. “Pretend I didn’t say Thermopylae. You only heard choke point. Because inside this tunnel, we can fend off an army. We can fight here all night if we have to.”
“The survivors of the John A. McDonald probably thought the same thing,” Fret said. “And look where it got them.”
“But you forget they didn’t have Hoplites.” Rade cleared his throat. “Front ranks, link your cobras to mine.”
Rade aimed down at the plains, targeted a mech, and fired. The scorpion split in two. He switched to his left laser and fired another round.
“Front ranks, swap out!” Rade said.
He moved back, allowing the next group of Hoplites to surge to the front. They assumed the same pattern as the previous rank: three down on their knees with shields raised, three standing right behind them.
Rade continued cycling the platoon in that way, swapping out the front ranks so that they could fire at the enemy with cobras at full capacity every time.
“You know, when those scorpions get closer, we won’t have to combine our beams,” Manic said. “Nor wait until full charge.”
“I know,” Rade said. “Get ready to employ the avalanche strategy, people.”
About five hundred meters from the base of the rock formation, and two hundred meters from the outer edges of the avalanche matter, the incoming scorpions began to move upward in spurts. He heard it then: the sound of a thousand jumpjets firing in random bursts. Because there were so many of them, that thrust-like noise was nearly continuous, and growing in volume. The resultant heat smears overwhelmed the thermal imagers at first, until the AI turned the sensitivity way down.
Now that they were airborne, each enemy unit had begun to move in a coordinated, seemingly random zig zag pattern on the way to its destination—the cave. They employed their lateral thrusters judiciously like that, making them extremely difficult to target.
Rade switched to the visual light spectrum, and realized he didn’t need the thermal band anymore, not with the flames from all those jumpjets brightening the scene.
“So much for the avalanche strategy,” Bender said. “Damn these bitches.”
“External Hoplites,” Rade sent. “Return from your hides! Get the hell in here!”
A few moments later:
“Coming through!” Bender transmitted.
The Hoplites at the front moved aside to allow Bender entry.
“I was getting roasted alive out there!” Bender said.
“The lasers are starting to cut real grooves into our shields,” Lui said from the front line. “More and more of th
em are combining their firepower as they get closer.”
“How long can you hold out?” Rade asked.
“I think this is the last time I’ll be on the front lines,” Lui said. “Those lasers will pierce right through my shield in about five seconds.”
“Make way!” Keelhaul said, returning from his hide.
The mechs at the entrance made room for Keelhaul. Skullcracker followed just behind.
“Front rank, swap!” Rade said. He took a step back, and the next line of Hoplites moved forward to take his place and the positions of the others.
Rade waited impatiently as those at the front opened fire. All of the external Hoplites had returned, save Tahoe.
“Cyclone, where the hell are you?” Rade said. He glanced at the overhead map, and noticed that Tahoe’s blue dot hadn’t moved from his hide.
“Coming,” Tahoe said. Finally his dot started moving. He had kept firing until the last possible moment, apparently.
“They’re almost through my shield...” Mauler said.
“Clear the opening!” Rade said. “Everyone, get back and stay back! And Tahoe, get your ass in here on the double.” In his haste, he realized he had accidentally used Tahoe’s real name. Not that it mattered.
Rade held his position against the tunnel wall as the others squeezed past him and cleared the opening.
“It looks like we’re going to have to put our choke point to use, blokes,” Chief Facehopper said.
Rade glanced at his overhead map. Tahoe was still several meters from the opening. “Cyclone, where are you...”
“It’s a shit-storm out here!” Tahoe said. “Fuck!”
Tahoe never swore. When he did, it meant he was really in trouble.
Suddenly worried that his friend had been injured, Rade pulled up Tahoe’s status indicator. His Hoplite’s shield contained multiple perforations, and he had laser damage all over the mech. His cockpit had been penetrated, too, but so far the jumpsuit he wore underneath remained unscathed, as far as Rade could tell.
Tahoe’s mech abruptly diverted course, plunging downward rapidly. His mech passed by the opening five meters to the left, and continued down.
“Cyclone!” Rade said.
“They got my jumpjet feed!” Tahoe sent. “Can’t... jet... up... going to eject... use the jumpjets of my suit.”
“No!” Rade said, running forward. He held his shield out in front of him, toward the incoming enemies, and leaped over the ledge. As he plummeted, he continued: “You go out there in your unshielded jumpsuit, the enemy will burn multiple holes through you in seconds.” Rade muted the comm and told his local AI: “Smith, fire corrective thrust. Line me up with Cyclone’s mech. I want my right hand in position to grab him. And keep my shield arm directed toward the enemy at all times.”
“Firing corrective thrust,” Smith responded.
“What are you doing?” Tahoe sent. “Get back to the men.”
“I’m coming for you, my friend,” Rade replied.
The rock face moved past at a blur beside him under the dim light as Smith made the necessary trajectory changes. The Hoplite thrusted dorsally once, too, to prevent the mech from careening off the cliff face.
Rade checked the stats on his shield; though much of the incoming laser fire was reflected, the surface was still taking a battering. It didn’t help that the mech’s fall was predictable. As soon as he collected Tahoe, he planned to shake things up a bit, trajectory-wise.
Facehopper spoke to Rade over a private line. “Rage, we talked about this. You’re an LPO now. You can’t put yourself at risk like this.”
“I’m sorry, chief,” Rade replied. “But I couldn’t ask anyone else to do this. Feel free to make TJ the LPO.”
“I’m not making TJ the LPO,” Facehopper said. “Because you’re going to get through this. You and Cyclone both.”
“Thank you, Chief.”
“Don’t thank me,” the chief replied. “You thought I made you do a lot of push-ups before...”
“I’ve lined up with Cyclone,” Smith said.
“Fire off a good solid burst, Smith,” Rade said. “Help me grab him.”
“You do realize we don’t have enough fuel to carry both mechs back to the opening, right?” the AI asked.
“I didn’t think we did,” Rade said.
“But you jumped anyway...” Smith said.
“I did.”
“Firing downward burst,” Smith said.
Tahoe’s Hoplite came up fast in the dim light. Smith took control of Rade’s free arm and latched on to Tahoe’s torso.
“Got you, Tahoe,” Rade said. “Smith, fire lateral thrusters randomly. Make us a harder target for these bastards.”
“Now what?” Tahoe said.
Because of the darkness, Rade couldn’t see the ground at all. “Smith, how long before impact?” he asked.
“Imminent,” the AI answered.
“Fire braking thrust!” Rade said. “And take cover!” He was anticipating being stunned the first few seconds after impact, and unable to perform the latter maneuver himself.
The Gs of braking thrust hit him hard and the mech slammed into the ground a moment later. As expected, he was completely incapacitated while the inner actuators of the cockpit moved his arms and legs—Smith was navigating the jagged terrain the rockslide had created and bringing him into cover. Hopefully.
When he finally regained his wits, he realized his Hoplite had maneuvered behind a rather large boulder. Tahoe’s mech crouched beside him. They were completely shielded from the enemy. For the moment. Tahoe no longer had a combat robot attached to his passenger seat; he had lost it in the fall, apparently.
“Ernie, you all right back there?” Rade said. That was his nickname for Unit E.
“I’ve taken a hit in the side,” the Centurion mounted in his passenger seat said. “There has been some damage to my power transference unit, but diagnostics report I am otherwise fully operational. I still retain my laser rifle.”
“Good.” Hardy fellow.
Above, the sky possessed the red glow one would associate with a firestorm, thanks to all those firing jumpjets. It was darker down where Rade was, even under the grainy enhanced brightness of the cameras, so he switched over to a combination of thermal and night vision.
“You guys all right, Rage?” Chief Facehopper said over the comm.
“Fine!” Rade sent. “We’ve taken cover behind a boulder. The enemy isn’t paying us any attention at the moment. You worry about yourselves up there. Defend that tunnel!”
“Already two steps ahead of you,” the chief responded. “Take care, mate. Things are going to be getting a bit hectic up here, so don’t mind my lack of communications.”
“Good luck, Chief,” Rade transmitted.
“Luck has nothing to do with it,” Facehopper replied. “As you’re so fond of saying.”
The landscape began to brighten around him and Rade realized some of the enemy were coming down on them.
“Looks like we got incoming,” Rade said, forming a private line between himself, Tahoe, and Unit E. “Prepare to defend.”
Rade covered the ninety degree approach vector from the top down to the right, while Tahoe targeted the opposite side.
Enemies began to drop into sight beyond the peripheries of the boulder.
Rade fired. The target’s jumpjet’s immediately cut out. At that close range, only a single pulse at full charge was needed to disable the enemy, apparently. He, Tahoe and Unit E kept firing sporadically like that, until a scorpion suddenly emerged from the right side of the boulder directly in front of him.
Rade couldn’t react in time, and in moments he found himself grappling underneath the robot. It lifted its glowing tail to his torso.
Rade pushed upward and to the left with all his strength, and shifted his body to the right at the same time. He saw the momentary pulse on the infrared band as the robot fired its tail laser. A hole burned into the rock beside him.
Smoke abruptly erupted from its torso, and the robot collapsed on his mech. Rade tossed aside the deadweight, expecting to find Tahoe standing there beside him as his rescuer, but it was Unit E: the Centurion had tumbled free of his passenger seat during the tussle, apparently.
Tahoe loomed above the crimped remains of another robot that had attacked him in turn.
Rade was about to thank Unit E when two pincer-like forearms wrapped around the Centurion from behind and split it in half. A scorpion dashed forward, its laser pointed at Rade.
He dodged to the right, smashing his shield into the tail, deflecting the laser just in time. That move left him with a crescent-shaped notch in the top of his shield.
From the periphery of his vision, he saw that Tahoe was facing a similar attack on the other side of the boulder.
Another scorpion came in on Rade’s side before he could offer any assistance.
Rade retracted his ballistic shield and grabbed the closest scorpion, which was still active, and he lifted it in front of himself. He advanced toward the newcomer; the first scorpion struggled in his grip, but Rade refused to let go. The second one abruptly fired, disabling the robot he held.
Rade tossed the wreckage at the second mech, then leaped onto them and fired his laser at point-blank range, disabling the second unit. He tore away a large piece from the mess of robot limbs and swung it like a club at the next scorpion that rounded the boulder on his side.
He deployed his shield once more and glanced at Tahoe. He seemed to have everything under control on his side. Rade spared a look for Unit E. It was definitely out of service. Permanently.
Goodbye, Ernie.
Movement drew his eye upward and he dodged to the side as another scorpion came crashing down. Rade swatted it with his makeshift club and broke away the laser on its tail. Another scorpion unexpectedly pounced on him from the side.
Rade struggled: the entire right half of his body, including his arm, was pinned by the scorpion. He retracted the shield on his left arm and pointed his laser at the robot’s head. The precise moment before he squeezed the trigger, the robot dodged and the laser struck the boulder instead. It would be at least another ten seconds before he attained full charge.
