I asked for volunteers for the rear guard and almost everyone stepped forward. I selected a total of a hundred twenty-nine to remain as rear guard, one hundred bots, nine SUBs, and just twenty Bios, but one of them objected vehemently.
"Bullshit! We ain't part of your little army, General." A large powerful-looking man about thirty years of age stepped forward.
"What's your name, sir?" I recognized the man who spoke, he had made himself de facto leader of the Bios.
"Hartly, Jim Hartly. I was chief foreman for the installation of the water recovery equipment."
"Well, Jim you just volunteered to be my POC, that's point of contact, for the surviving Bios—the humans."
Susan interrupted me. "Matt, we are all human. You mean those without cyberneticly enhanced functions."
"Cyberneticly enhanced—bullshit," Hartly said. "You mean the robots. Okay, General, you take charge of the robots and the soldier boys of the LC double Ds and I'll take the real people. And let's remember, there's a difference!"
I looked again at Hartly. "Get this straight, before his death my colonel made your survival our mission. All the members of the LCDD, the SUBs, and bots that have died so far…have died for you."
"Yeah, well, that's their job, ain't it? Just do as programmed. I ain't gonna risk my life or the lives of any real people for a bunch of machines. You just program them to fight and get us the hell out of here."
"You listen to me, asshole. You'll fight from the hospital or you'll die there—I don't have enough bots left to save your worthless hide. I'll not use any of you in the rear guard, because as you reminded me, you Bios are the mission, but you will defend at the hospital.
"You wanna be the leader of the real people, okay—now, you've got the job. One other thing: these robots get angry just like you do, so if you go spouting your bigotry aloud, one of them is likely to take offense."
"Like the little lady android behind you? Is she your wind-up doll?"
I stepped in real close to Hartly and spoke slowly and low. "Insult her again and you'll be among the walking wounded. Fail to do as I tell you with the Bios, and I'll render you inoperable. The only reason you have this job is that, as a foreman, I know you can produce results, and I've seen the others look to you for leadership. But don't cross me, Hartly. I don't need you that bad. Are we clear?"
He stared at me a moment, contempt dripping from his face, and then he turned to leave. He was stopped by Sanyo. "Here," Sanyo said to him, "this was McGregor's RT-135. I've checked it over, it's clean, no bugs. I've changed the frequency to Colt. Susan, you do the same to yours and we'll have COMs."
"Sanyo," Susan said, "you're a treasure."
Hartly gestured in my direction; I could tell by the look on his face that the responsibility was already heavy on his shoulders. He headed off to organize his people, but bumped into Sanyo. "Watch where yer going you …robot."
Susan whispered in my ear, "He doesn't know you're a SUB."
"No, and for now, that's fine. I have enough trouble."
Hartly gathered all the Bios, bots, and SUBs that were to head east and, together, they collected all the wounded, medical supplies, spare parts, food and water, and started the journey to the far end of dome two.
I then turned toward Susan. "Someone has to stay and orchestrate the defense here."
"Well, it's damn sure not going to be you," she said.
"But—"
"No, no. You've been at the forefront of every effort so far. The initial defense of the Alamo, the assault on the landers, you went up and destroyed the one that got away, you went after Colonel Wayne. You've done enough. Besides, you're the commander here, now. Pick someone else. That's an order."
I smiled at her. "I don't know that I can handle ninety plus years of you giving the orders," I responded.
Susan leaned in close to me and, again, laid a fingertip gently on my right cheek then slowly drew a line down to the corner of my mouth. Looking into my eyes she said, "You'll get used to it."
Walker came up and cleared his throat. "Listen, you two love birds, I've been thinking. I have a pretty good guess what information McGregor sent to the bad guys. I noticed him hanging around our group, but I thought he was too far away to hear. Being a SUB, he must have heard every word we said as clearly as you two heard his COMde ring.
"So I figure he told them everything he heard us talking about—like our plan to hole up in the hospital. He overheard the report about our strength, and the number of combat ineffective wounded we have. He must have told them Matt was no longer in uniform, and told them about the Susan-Freya-Ava thing; which means he told them that Susan can see them through Ava and monitor their COMs over their RT-135s.
"They know we saw them relocate their log dump. Hell, they probably know we discovered McGregor, and know he's dead. Basically, we've lost every advantage we had. Oh, one other thing—they know we haven't broken their code, or McGregor would not have used it."
I looked at Susan. "You don't know this code?" I asked.
"No, Freya was allowed to know that her commander on the Avenger, the mother ship, had spies down here, but she was never made privy to any names or to any codes."
I looked at Walker and said, "Damn, Walker, that's pretty good thinkin' for a guy shackled with a regular, old-fashioned meat brain."
"Meat, eh? Just remember the old-fashioned brain figured it out before you two high tech Romeo and Juliet types." He smiled broadly.
Susan's eyes got that distant, faraway look all of a sudden. I recognized it. She was seeing something.
"What is it, honey?"
"Back at the Alamo. An enemy soldier with a backpack is climbing down the elevator shaft. He's at the vault door into Ava, and he’s opening the pack. Matt, he has a number of breaching charges. He's set a time delay fuse and is climbing up to the floor above."
"What do you think they're up to?" I asked.
"It's obvious, Matt. Walker was right. They are going to destroy Ava in order to sever my contact with her."
"How will that affect you?"
"I'll be blinded throughout JILL, and there will be no Ismay."
"But you're not just going to fall over or anything?"
She tossed me a weak smile. "No, Matt, I won't just fall over. I am connected to Ava, but I am entirely autonomous.
"The breaching charge has detonated." Her tone changed. "The enemy soldier is entering into Ava's mainframe. He has moved to section 134B of the chamber. He's opened the pack again, now he's setting several charges along—Matt, they are going to destroy that part of the router that permits me remote access." She suddenly recoiled as if someone had thrown an object right at her face.
"Susan, what is it?" I said, grabbing her.
"Matt," her voice was low and she slowly shook her head, "he blew himself up. I'm blind and deaf throughout JILL now."
"The SOBs have free range now, and they know it," Walker said. "The only advantage we have left is in numbers. How long will it take the others to reach the hospital?"
"With all the rubble, the equipment, supplies, and the wounded, I should think another three to four hours, at least," Susan said.
"They have a head start on us. We better get going," I added.
As I spoke, I glanced over Susan's shoulder. There was Dolph, directing the continued improvement of the barricades and obstacles. He was checking fields of fire and individual bots' and SUBs' cover and concealment. I heard him offering words of encouragement to those who were frightened, while, at the same time, showing no fear himself.
"Wait here," I said, then took Susan's RT-135 and went forward.
"Hey, Dolph! Can I talk to you a minute?"
"Ja, Matt, a sure thing."
We met some fifteen meters behind the northern barricade. "Dolph, I'm going to ask you to volunteer."
"Of course I volunteer. For what?"
"I need an experienced man here to command the rear guard."
"Experienced? Surely then you want—"<
br />
"I want you Dolph. You are experienced now, and better yet, you're a natural born leader."
"Thank you, Matt."
"Dolph, this is not a DIP mission. If it becomes untenable, you get your people and get out. We can't afford too many losses; I can't afford to lose you at all. You understand?"
"Ja, just one question—what is a DIP mission?"
"It's what this is not—a Die In Place mission. Are we solid on that?"
"Ja Matt, we are solid."
"Here, take this RT unit. Mr. Hartly with the main body has the other one. We'll be joining him soon. Keep me advised."
I took his hand. "Glűck Auf," I said.
"Und auch du." Dolph said as we shook.
I turned and started back toward Walker and Susan. I had just given a friend a mission that could get him killed. I'd done it before and it never turned out well. But, hey, we were the four musketeers we'd all make it this time.
I walked up to Susan and Walker and said, "I just gave—"
From behind me, Dolph shouted "Hier kommen sie!—Here they come!"
Rifle fire erupted all around us. We instantly went prone. The bullets that missed the barricades were zipping all around us, chewing up the walls and ceilings. I looked up to see Dolph firing over the north ramparts, then shouting over his shoulder.
The first explosions shifted my world into slow motion. The north and south barricades bloomed with orange and black eruptions and just seemed to keep exploding as missile after missile hit them. I lost sight of my friend in an enormous and brilliant expanding cloud of flame, heat, and pressure.
"Dolph!" I shouted, and tried to scramble to my feet to run toward him. Susan grabbed me and I fell flat. She pulled me back toward her with one mighty tug. Then, in my ear she shouted over the din, "I'll not lose you both!"
The few survivors fell back to the machine gun position Dolph had prepared in the center. I was shocked how few there were.
A SUB with the identifier "LCDD - CYB - 873 - E4 Nare, William C.", whose synthetic skin was melting off his body, turned to us and shouted, "Go on, we'll hold as long as we can!" When we all just laid there, he screamed at us, "Run!"
The last thing I remembered as we ran away was the sight of countless muzzle blasts and enemy soldiers pouring over the tops of the barricades. I kept looking back. Susan had my hand, pulling me on. "Matt, if you go back you'll only be killed!" She knew me well.
We ran as fast as Walker could, but never let on he was slowing us down. I had lost Dolph, I was not going to lose Walker. It dawned on me as my eyes fell on Susan that I could lose her, too. Why had that not hit me till now? I guess I understood that when I thought McGregor had pulled a pistol. It was sure hitting me hard now. I didn't want to lose Susan again. Not again.
We were soon out of the kill zone and well-concealed between the piles of rubble in dome one. We organized the survivors as best we could and pushed on to link up with the main body.
Looking back, I didn't see the enemy in pursuit. "Where are they?" I asked Susan as we ran.
"I don't know."
I knew we were closing in on Hartly and the main body, based on our speed and time of travel. I thought I could hear them, and then I realized that I was hearing a lot of servos. "Susan, stay with Walker," I said.
"Where are you going?"
"Up there." I pointed to the top of a heavily damaged building. I was on its canted roof in no time and looked out in the direction from which I had heard the noise. From out of the tunnel connecting one to five I could see twenty-eight of those little tracked robotic weapons platforms heading to my left, toward Hartly's group. Some were armed with snipers' rifles and grenade launchers, others with machine guns, but most had those multiple missile launch tubes.
I started too bound with all my might, over and past Walker and Susan toward the main body. As soon as I reached them, I found Jim Hartly.
"Listen, you have enemy machines coming up on your right rear. Give me the nine SUBs and the rest of you make the best time you can!"
Shortly, the ten of us were at the base of a mound of debris. I explained the tactic we were going to use. "Hit and run. Bounding over watch, in reverse. The team under cover fires as the displacing team falls back. Never stay in one place too long. Fire one or two rounds then displace. Armor piercing or armor piercing incendiary only—has everyone got it? Good." I heard the sound of the servos and the tracks crunching through the rubble on the other side of the mound. "Okay, guys, let's go to work."
Chapter 18
The Best Defense
With the enemy drones bearing down on us, we dispersed and headed up the pile of rubble. At the military crest, we all took aim and I initiated the ambush with my first round, the others fired milliseconds after I did. Instantly, four of the enemy weapons carriers exploded, two began to burn, and four others were damaged—two of those became immobile.
Their response was just as swift. Missiles and a hail of gunfire rained upon the top of the mound. We all slid down and moved along their route of advance. Two of my guys stayed, waiting for the enemy to pass so they could engage them from their rear.
We could move much faster than the little tracked monsters, so we rotated. Four of the eight of us would pop up and fire off a few rounds as the others moved. Just as we slid down, the other four would pop up and engage them from a different location. We were having good effect.
The two guys who stayed behind crept up to engage the enemy from their rear only to find that the enemy had much the same idea. About six of the things were coming up the mound at their right flank. As soon as my two exposed themselves in order to take aim, several missiles exploded into them. One was blown to pieces entirely. The other lost his left arm and leg. Regardless, he managed to engage the advancing enemy and destroy one of them before he, too, was killed.
I watched this from my position almost a click away, helpless. It was over in seconds. They took one with them, but more importantly, they alerted us to a threat to our right flank.
We picked up the pace and were soon between the advancing enemy drones and our main body. We continued to engage and fall back to every piece of cover available. Problem was, the distance between the enemy and our civilians was closing. I was worried we were going to have to stop and make a stand. It wouldn't take those drones long to grind our parts into the debris of the dome, leaving a clear path to Hartly and the Bios.
The enemy had now dedicated a large number of missiles to our destruction. This would reduce the number of those hard-hitting pieces of ordinance available to them for use on our main body, but they were hurting us.
I was guessing we had thus far taken out, or rendered inoperable, fifteen to twenty of the little tanks.
Just as I peeked over the edge again, I saw several high explosive rounds from an automatic shotgun detonate among the drones; the last one had hardly gone off when some of the drones fired missiles at the point behind them where the attack had originated.
I knew, of course, it was Walker. I prayed he'd gotten out of there. This meant that Susan had to be nearby.
From this side of the mound of debris, we started taking small arms fire. The bot that had killed my two men who had stayed back, was now within range. Thankfully, this guy was not armed with missiles. One of my men was struck in the calf and left buttock, but suffered no real damage. The bot launched grenades at us next, we were out of range, but it did cause us to cease our attack and displace again.
This bot was quickly joined by two more, and the three of them advanced toward us. I jumped behind a turned over jeep and took aim. I was looking at these things head on where they are least vulnerable. I shot the left track of the lead bot; this caused it to turn hard left exposing its flank to me. I popped three incendiary rounds into it and it started to burn. Just then, the remaining two drones exploded. I looked up from my location and there was Susan. She had Walker's weapon. She had moved to a position on the left flank of the enemy, and as soon as she had a flank shot
, she took them down.
Half-an-hour later, I was reunited with Susan and Walker.
"I just can't seem to convince you to keep your head down, can I?" Susan scolded me.
"My head was down!"
"Oh? You're lucky one of them wasn't a sniper!"
"Come on, we're within two hundred meters of the main body, and they still have close to three hundred meters to go to reach the hospital."
Behind me, I could hear my guys engaging the advancing drones.
As we reached the area behind them, the sound of weapons fire trailed off and stopped. A SUB named Samuel Bixby slid down a pile of rubble and jumped in front of me. "Staff Sergeant, we've stopped them. They have each moved to a position of cover where we can't hit them. And of course, they're not returning our fire."
"Why would they stop?" I asked.
"How many are left?" Susan demanded.
"About thirteen," Sam told her.
"They are waiting for reinforcements," Susan said.
"Reinforcements, how many of them can there be?" I asked.
"Remember the caskets they brought in and relocated just before the attack?"
"Yeah, about a hundred of them, wasn't it?"
"Exactly, Matt. Six of these guys would fit in each casket."
"That's six hundred of these little bastards! Damn."
“Yeah,” Walker said slowly, “but I’ll be we’ve taken out a hundred of them since this started.”
"We know these weapons platforms are drones,” Susan added, “they are not equipped with AI. They are responding to commands generated from some remote location."
"This don't look good," Walker said. "With five hundred, they can whittle down our strength, then mop us up with their hundred and ninety some remaining—what is it you call us…Bios?"
"Walker is right," Susan said, "we can't waste ourselves fighting these drones. Destroy whoever it is that is controlling them and they become moot."
"We take out the controller and his controls and we stop five hundred in one blow," Walker stated.
I looked about, and then said, "Well, let's use this respite in the fighting to get the main body to the hospital."
The Battle of Broken Moon Page 24
