Johnny Winger and the Great Rift Zone

by Philip Bosshardt

  ***ANAD engaging now…moving in!***

  Even at nanoscale dimensions, close-quarters combat was still part momentum and part surprise and ANAD had both. The assembler swarm quickly enveloped the bots of Config Zero. Mendez tweaked the imager, trying to get better resolution, but the view was like cats thrashing in a pool of water, all flying effectors and probes and quick flashes of disrupter fire as each side shot electron volt discharges and tore furiously at the other.

  After a few minutes, the DPS1, Corporal Nguyen was bathed in sweat. His fingers whizzed over a keyboard as he sent config changes and effector commands, trying to counter what Config Zero’s bots were doing. It quickly became evident that the enemy bots were weakest around their equatorial ring, where most of their effectors couldn’t reach. The cylindrical barbell bots had multi-lobed heads, top and bottom, each covered with all manner of effectors that could easily slash, tear and slice unwary ANAD bots that approached on the wrong vector.

  “That’s the sweet spot--“ Nguyen muttered. “Right in the middle…but it takes timing. You have to catch ‘em when those effectors are engaged in another direction. Then, blam…you dive in and zap ‘em with everything!”

  The battle was a seesaw affair for many minutes. Mendez checked with Rounds, the sensor tech.

  “We’re slowly losing mass, Skipper. I can see it in the acoustics and EMs, thermals too. Config Zero bots out-replicate us. ANAD disables one, but two more show up right away…we’ve got to put some new configs in there.”

  Mendez was hacking away at his own keyboard. “I’m trying, I’m trying…I don’t see anything in the archive that--“

  Just then, Gopher shuddered again and a loud groan could be heard forward of the command deck. The ship shuddered and slipped and then something slammed them from the starboard. Mendez grabbed a seat back just in time to keep from being thrown to the deck. Beside him, Robles wasn’t so fortunate. The DSO was flung to the floor grate and came up bleeding at the temple; his head had struck a stanchion nearby.

  The geo tech shook her head. “We’re losing it, Skipper!” Rono said. “Seismic signals everywhere…strata shifting all around us! Hang on!”

  Mendez didn’t need to hear anymore. “Robles, get cranked up…get us the hell out of here! ANAD, return to the ship…we’ll pick you up!”