Beyond Armageddon: Book 03 - Parallels

by Anthony DeCosmo

  …Nina heard the sound of her own breath, and sound of the Reverend’s breath, and the distant hum of the parked Battleship as its engines droned in some type of neutral setting.

  Then she heard the approaching mass.

  A purr and hiss of hydraulic gears accompanied each step of a Golem's leg.

  She knew these robots to be a dangerous lot because the pilots controlling each Golem sat isolated from the battlefield in the floating fortress overhead, facing no more danger than a child playing a video game.

  By the same token, that lack of fear could translate into a lack of caution.

  "Dare I ask, Major," Johnny’s normally loud voice sounded out of place in a whisper. "Have your people ever tried to interrupt the signal between the operators and their automatons?"

  "Of course we did. But this is how they fight, you know? They’ve spent a lot of time getting it right. Scrambled frequencies, encoding, all that."

  The Rev appeared ready to ask another question but changed his mind when he felt a soft vibration as the first wave of Golems walked into the field…

  …"So it’s going sit up there and let its ground troops do the dirty work," Trevor said.

  "I sure hope so," Corporal Brewer replied in a voice that suggested the idea of bolting entered his mind. "They could wipe us out in about thirty seconds if they decide to."

  "Jon, I mean, Corporal, to win this war you have to take chances."

  Brewer wiped sweat from his brow and remarked, "Well, this is a big chance."

  Trevor examined his defenses yet again from the broken window on the top floor of the large home. Again, the primary building material consisted of stone but this particular structure was one of the few 'homes' that stood alone as opposed to sprouting from the mountainside.

  On his right flank, further up the soft slope of the lower mountain and beyond the main house’s back yard, was a kind of guest cottage, a single-story structure with a tall roof. A squad of human soldiers hid there armed with their assault rifles as well as a handful of fragmentation-style grenades and a heavy machine gun.

  To his left flank stretched a front yard then the lake perimeter road. On the far side of that road was a big boat house built on a pier over icy waters. Inside waited another squad equipped with the only surface-to-surface anti-armor weapon in their possession. The weapon could be fired multiple times, but they possessed only a handful of projectiles.

  The last squad joined Trevor and Brewer in the main house, a dilapidated structure lacking any furnishings; just empty rooms most showing signs of battle damage.

  In addition to their standard bullpup rifles, the men in the house brandished a pair of heavy machine guns and several high-yield explosive charges with remote detonators. Trevor had them rig some of those explosives around the perimeter while a they anchored a few more of those charges to rocks to add weight and allow them to be thrown like grenades if necessary.

  "They should be at the Skippers by now," Trevor cocked his ear toward the east as he spoke. "I don't hear anything. That's a good sign. If they had spotted Nina, we'd hear gunfire."

  Brewer did not appear to listen. He pointed to the east and nearly shouted, "Look!"

  The line of Golems and their supporting infantry appeared, moving among the barren winter trees. The eyes of the machines glowed fiercely.

  The closest Golem raised its arm and a volley of explosive shells slammed into the main house…

  …Nina and Johnny had sat quiet while the enemy searched the parked Skippers. The garbled transmissions of the infantry and the bleeps and buzzes of the robots had reverberated all around their hiding spot for several minutes.

  When the Geryons found nothing, their small army continued on its way. Or at least that is how it sounded to the stowaways’ ears.

  A few minutes later, the first sounds of battle sounded: the hollow thoot-thoot of the Golem’s main guns; the recognizable rat-tat-tat of human assault rifles.

  "Well, I say we may—"

  Nina held a finger to Johnny’s lips. She then produced a softball-sized object from her utility belt. Johnny saw tiny circles along its surface.

  She tossed it out from their hiding spot in the starboard landing gear hatch. It thumped to the ground, rolled, and then came to a halt.

  From a pouch on her utility belt, Nina pulled a small monitor which, when she switched it on, displayed a collage of images. She enhanced each and cycled through those images: a close-up shot of a landing gear wheel, a meaningless shot of the blue sky, a rock, and then a picture just outside their hiding spot showing one of the Golem machines and two Geryon infantrymen standing guard among the parked skippers…

  …As the Steel Guard approached the human positions, the attackers split into three distinct sub-groups to deal with each of the three anchors of the line.

  Brewer saw bullets bounce off the Golem armor and shouted, "We can't put a dent in them!"

  "We don't need to," Trevor replied. "This is about slowing them down. Do that and the rest of the plan will come together."

  Of course, Trevor thought, the entire plan is based on an assumption. A likely assumption but an assumption nonetheless.

  Brewer warned, "In coming!"

  Stone, the Corporal, and the two other soldiers in the room scattered. A small missile—not much larger than a firecracker--smashed through the window and exploded in the ceiling with a shower of sparks. Trevor felt hot splinters pepper his battle suit as he dove for cover behind the remains of a large pot, perhaps a planter.

  Smoke spread through the room causing gasps and coughs, but it quickly dispersed as fissures and cracks in the walls and roof brought in a flow of air from outside.

  "Incendiary charge!" Corporal Brewer spoke the obvious; the missile had erupted in heat and smoke instead of shrapnel.

  Trevor found his feet again and observed the battle once more. He saw three Golems and a couple of Geryon infantry men march toward the boat house.

  A trail of gray and white smoke shot out from the boat house to meet them. At the head of that contrail, an anti-armor rocket. It slammed into the lead Golem with a solid clang, like a hammer striking an anvil. The impact caused the upper half of the remote-guided robot to twist and it stumbled back a step…then righted itself.

  "Damn," Trevor muttered as the Guard raised its arms and fired exploding shells into the boat house. Big splinters of wood fell off and part of the outer wall sagged, threatening to collapse and take his left flank with it.

  Trevor raised his radio. "Third squad! Status report!"

  One of the Geryon infantrymen raised his crossbow and let a shot fly. A red bolt arrowed into the besieged boathouse.

  At last a radio response from third squad in the form of a panicked voice, "Two men down! Shit, the missile didn’t stop it! Shit!"

  "Relax, Pickering. Trust me, that bad boy is hurting; just take another poke at him. Stay focused on the mission."

  The portable rocket launcher fired again from the boat house and scored another hit on the exact same Golem. This time the warhead found a critical system. The war machine went limp and then tumbled over, its eyes glowed no more.

  "Whooeey! That did it, soldier! Keep up your fire!"

  An excited trooper radioed back, "Shit yeah! That did the trick!"

  The enemy force moving to engage the boat house paused, no doubt having second thoughts about storming the dock. Instead of moving forward, they stood off and traded pot shots with the defenders.

  Perfect.

  "Our right flank is in trouble," Corporal Brewer warned.

  Trevor raced across the top floor of the main house. He felt a shudder from somewhere below, the result of missiles and shells pounding his command post.

  From the south-facing window he saw the remains of a back yard complete with some kind of rock garden and patio. In that split second he thought of how much he had in common with the people of this Earth.

  They had summer cookouts, too.

  Further up the hill, fou
r Golems and a half-dozen enemy infantry approached the cottage. The Geryon foot soldiers tightened their formation, using the metal bodies of the robots as cover the way Trevor’s home world soldiers might huddle behind tanks.

  "First squad, you copy? Answer me, first squad! Use your grenades. Aim for the enemy infantry, forget about the Golems. Hit the infantry."

  Despite heavy suppression fire from the Geryon machines, first squad soldiers bravely broke from cover long enough to lob grenades at their enemy. Trevor heard a scream above the rip of bullets and the clap of explosions; someone paid a price for their courage.

  The first grenade fell far short of the enemy, its deadly shrapnel wasted on open air.

  The second hit in front of a Golem which merely stutter-stepped from the concussion.

  A third exploded in a halo of carnage encompassing a Golem and two foot soldiers, barely scratching the paint on the former but tearing into the latter. Instead of dying immediately, the two Geryon infantrymen writhed on the cold ground crying in their alien language as blue-red blood streamed from sliced veins.

  This bought more time for both the cottage's defenders and the entire line…

  …Reverend Johnny bolted into the open with his machine gun blasting away. His shots killed one of the humanoid sentries instantly. The other dropped to the ground in search of cover.

  Bullets bouncing off its metal exoskeleton, the Golem targeted the pesky intruder. Somewhere high above in the confines of the air ship the Golem's "driver" watched a video feed and moved a joystick to take aim.

  As the mechanical creature reacted to its operator's inputs and lined up a shot on Reverend Johnny, Nina took advantage of the diversion, raced in behind the remote-controlled machine, and deposited an explosive charge among the gears and servos of the beast.

  Muffled among the metallic innards, the explosion sounded in a soft pop that belied its power. Gears, wires, and chunks of armor flew away, nearly catching Major Forest in her retreat.

  A secondary explosion announced the breech of the Golem's ammunition cache and served as the final act of its destruction. As the cloud of shrapnel dissipated, two machine legs stood in the field supporting nothing more than a lonely steel rod.

  Nina admired her work while Johnny shot the remaining Geryon soldier dead.

  "Okay," she said. "Let’s do it."

  Two human soldiers emerged from hiding spots in empty external fuel pods. They joined Major Forest and the Reverend as they boarded a Skipper…

  …With the flanks holding for the moment, the Steel Guard unit concentrated on the main house at the center of the defensive line, sending four Golems to assault while the remaining infantrymen stayed in the rear area with the supply wagons.

  Explosive shells and missiles came with renewed concentration at the house. A slab of wall tumbled like an avalanche of rock but failed to cause a general collapse. A small fire started on the first floor but stamping boots quickly extinguished the flames.

  Blast after blast, round after round peppered the defiant home, suppressing human counter-fire and emboldening the Steel Guard to close in to point blank range. From there they fired through broken windows.

  Suddenly one of those Golems flew into the air, its rigid form looked nearly comical as it pin wheeled like a toy robot tossed across the playroom in a tantrum. The boom of the remote-detonated charge followed, shaking more stone loose from the house.

  The machine returned to Earth hitting with a heavy thud. One of its "eyes" flickered and ceased to function; one robotic hand twisted and broke. Nonetheless, the Golem struggled to its metal feet, still operational.

  Then a second explosion detonated along the main home. A Golem fell on its side, another one staggered. While the beasts worked to regain their balance and bearings, a soldier leaned out a second floor window and dropped a package toward the attackers. That package detonated chest-high on one Steel Guard. The severity of the explosion cracked both eyes, spun the head entirely around, and blasted the torso area. The Golem shimmied in a mechanical seizure then fell.

  From his position above, Trevor saw the entire Steel Guard assault hesitate. Apparently the operators decided the price in valuable machines might be too high, particularly when they could eliminate human resistance in one quick stroke.

  It seemed Trevor's assumption would prove correct…

  …Nina sat in the pilot’s seat, Johnny kept watch at the rear ramp, and the other two soldiers hurriedly opened supply crates and worked controls.

  "I say! Major Forest! It appears their dirigible is on the move!"

  Nina heard Johnny’s report. She moved faster. A discussion erupted between the three working to prep the Skipper.

  "Arming missile warheads."

  "Opening fuel tanks and flooding lines."

  "Shutting down fire suppression systems."

  "All power systems on line and functioning at one hundred percent."

  "Ammunition crates are open."

  "What about these frags? Leave em’ here?"

  "Leave them."

  Reverend Johnny boomed, "The battle ship is approaching! It’ll be upon us momentarily!"

  "Releasing engine safety locks."

  "Charging power cells to maximum."

  Nina stood and turned to access an overhead power regulator.

  "Hells bells, Major, the beast is upon us."

  "Calm down, just calm down. We can't do anything yet," she said. "They know they lost a Golem at the landing site. They may be expecting us to go airborne."

  Johnny countered, "Or they might blast us right here, on the ground."

  "We pose no threat on the ground. Well, unless they give it some thought."

  A shadow cast over the Skipper, causing Nina to go silent. However, the Geryon Battleship did not open fire but, rather, proceeded toward the battle zone, certainly aiming to obliterate Trevor's forces with its main gun.

  "Excuse me, Major," Johnny said. "Waiting until they have passed us by would defeat the purpose, would it not?"

  Nina glanced at him and ordered, "Every one out!" while she remained at the cockpit controls with the shadow of the armored blimp passing by overhead…

  …"Here they come," Corporal Brewer spoke the obvious.

  Trevor did not respond. Either they would be dead in a few moments or the Geryons would be mortally wounded.

  The Battleship made of one big Zeppelin and—seemingly—two smaller ones slowed its approach. It drifted a few hundred feet above the tree tops east of the defensive line. Trevor felt confident—but not certain—that the craft was still at least partially above the clearing where the Skippers parked.

  The main gun came to life. Conduits running along the undercarriage from the rear engine area to the bow glowed with a soft green light, flowing from the rear end to the hybrid cannon/transmitter-like contraption at the front of the craft.

  A brilliant, thick beam fired from the main battery in one long stream of energy. That energy hit the guest cottage just up the hill from the main home.

  The brilliant light caused Trevor to shield his eyes. It seemed as if the daytime sky added a dozen more suns to its blue canvas. A blast of heat swept across the battlefield. A sound like crackling flames filled the air.

  The beam hit the cottage like a fire hose of boiling water jetting onto a slab of ice. The house and the ground around melted away into tiny fragments, some of which flew up and outward. The building…the men inside…everything, gone.

  When the beam stopped, nothing remained of the cottage. No debris, no burning embers, no melted bodies. Only a deep, black crater surrounded by shiny specks of what resembled glass.

  Geryon infantrymen standing among their Steel Guard raised their fists and cheered.

  The Battleship’s gun pivoted and pointed directly at the main house…

  … Nina glanced out the cockpit glass at the gigantic, three-headed Geryon dirigible floating by and realized that it passed one hundred feet to the port side of the parked Skipper. As she tur
ned two dials on the main control panel, she heard the whir of the rocket positioning gears as they tilted the engines in obedience to a new setting.

  Now comes the hard part, she thought, acutely aware that the designers had never foreseen the need for any kind of timing mechanism for emergency booster activation. She dialed up 'rocket output' to one-hundred and twenty-percent; far exceeding design specifications and, of course, safety parameters but programming the added build up would buy her a split second's delay between ignition and lift off.

  First, she pushed a big red button. Hydraulic jacks began retracting the rear exit ramp. If she did not close that ramp, the ship's trajectory would be adversely affected.

  Nina felt her heart beat. Before it beat again, she slammed the EMERGENCY BOOSTER activation switch and raced toward the closing rear ramp.

  Exploding plumes of thrust melted the frozen ground under the Skipper’s wings. Smoke and sparks of fire danced around the shivering rockets as they nearly split apart due to the overload of thrust.

  Nina jumped through the last sliver of daylight peeking in the closing ramp just as the wheels left the ground. Despite having her wind knocked out, she instinctively threw her arms over her head. She gasped for breath as her world filled with the roar of the boosters detonating in a controlled, focused explosion.

  The Skipper went airborne. Not a flying ship, not a helicopter, not a plane but an impromptu guided missile. Its rotors did not even turn and the angle of its ascent was far from perfect as it raced skyward, aiming for the underbelly of the beast.

  The Geryons’ anti-air batteries fired frantically at the approaching hulk of metal.

  Nina crouched to a knee and watched the ad hoc missile fly toward its target. She saw panic in the Geryon's anti-air fire. No doubt they prepared for the Skippers to take off and make strafing runs but failed to consider a suicide flight, particularly in this manner.

  Nevertheless, a shell from one of the flak guns hit the rocketing chopper in its starboard side. The engine there smashed to pieces; the thrust sprung loose from the containment of its baffle. Instead of funneled to push the craft up, the now-uncontrolled explosion of that rocket spread in all directions. The Skipper tumbled as it climbed. For a moment—a long, hair raising moment—Nina feared the missile would miss.