Burnt Ice (39 page)

After a feverish hour of finding
big holes for the equipment, the AIs, their weapons stores, then the tugs and
the Hogs, the last thing they did was send one of the Gunbuses out, covering
the Hogs’ tracks as best it could. Everyone knew that it would not do the least
bit of good, but it felt right to do it. Then the long, boring wait began.

Every seventy-six standard
minutes, the accelerator at the facility would launch a multi-tonne ingot
skywards for collection. Marko wondered how many they would see and hear leave
before the circus would be over.

They paired off and took turns at
sleeping, which was not at all easy in a full combat suit, still maintaining
their comms links. Every four hours the AIs checked the suits as thoroughly as
possible. The most disturbing discovery was that many of the seals had started
to deteriorate. The AIs put it down to secretions from the flies and gave a
best estimate of twenty-eight standard hours before things became critical.

‘Shit.’ said the major, ‘that
means we only have until midafternoon tomorrow to sort this out, one way or the
other. Nail, can you get any sort of signal out by boosting through the AIs?’

‘I am sorry, Michael. We have
tried everything. The shipments are continuing as normal, so there is no reason
for anyone in the Administration to suspect anything out of the ordinary and
Rose
probably saw nothing as she would have been over the orbital horizon. The wreck
of the lander is inside a building, so nothing physical will be observed,
either. Any engagements, so far, have been made undercover. I believe that
orbital control has been compromised, as nothing has occurred since we were
shot down. If a response had been forthcoming we would have seen it by now.’

‘Shit. Shit, shit. OK.’ said the
major. ‘If we don’t get any developments this afternoon we go kick in some
doors at the Administration building tonight.’

The day dragged, hour after hour.
Nothing was sighted.

‘Marko! Heads up, mate. We have
company By the way, there is a fucking big snake coiled up under you, asleep.
Don’t kill it. I quite like snakes.’

Marko slowly rolled over and
stood up, looking down at the snake. He could not help himself — he took some
images of it for later study. He switched his HUD into Glint’s feed and could
see three of the facility’s armoured exploration vehicles, with what looked
like large hives on their rear decks, moving purposefully across the sand
towards the
Basalt
crew’s position.

‘As soon as they’re within range,
fire through the driver’s viewports. Use the diamond fragmentation rounds.
Engage at will,’ the major commanded.

Except for the major, they each
had one of Jan’s 14mm semiautomatic long-barrelled rifles, with sturdy folding
bipods attached. It was difficult to sight properly through the scopes by the
usual method because the faceplates on their helms were sealed. So each had
decoupled one of the small cameras from their own suits and socketed them up
against the telescopic sights, allowing them to view the targets through their
individual HUDs. When the vehicles were within two kilometres the crew started
firing, the big rifles roaring to no observable effect, apart from that on the
windows in the cabs of the trucks, which all blew out.

‘Those units are under remote
control. Fire a couple through those hive-looking things.’

The rifles boomed again and
again, with no real response, although one hive had thousands of flies come out
of it, then go back inside.

‘The rounds are going right
through the hives. They must be a soft housing.’

‘Yeah, I see that, Harry. OK,
everyone. Switch to the right-hand vehicle — the front left road wheel. Its
left, Fritz, not yours. See if we can knock out the centre of it. Two rounds
each. Fire when ready.’

The lead-jacketed diamond rounds,
travelling at twenty-two hundred metres per second, shredded the road wheel,
jamming the track and slewing the vehicle into its neighbour, slamming the
right-hand track of that vehicle off its centre. Both vehicles came to a stop,
with black clouds of insects above them. The remaining vehicle kept advancing
until the crew switched targets and destroyed the idler wheel on that machine
as well. It started describing circles in the sand, before stopping a few
moments later.

‘Jan, go get ‘em. Harry, you’re
wingman.’

A few moments later the two
Gunbuses charged out of their concealments, looped around the back of the mesa,
gained height, and descended upon the stricken vehicles. Knowing that the
dicyanoacetylene burnt at just on 5000 degrees Celsius, they were very keen to
see what would happen. The little tugs made two fast passes, hosing the cloud
of insects and vehicles with the clear fluid, without encountering resistance.
Jan laid a long trail of the material in a line leading away from the
stationary targets. Harry peeled off, racing down to ground level and away from
the targets at speed, as Jan’s tug swung hard around, climbing, then diving
across the targets — accelerating the Gunbus to its limits. She lit the
flame-thrower, which burnt with an intense, hard, white flame. As it touched
the outer edge of the line which she had laid down in her last pass, it ignited
and flashed back against the trucks, resulting in a most spectacular fireball.
After a few seconds, there was a thumping boom. Jan and Harry orbited the area
for a few moments, but there was not much left. The aluminium and titanium
uppers of the vehicles burnt fiercely. Of the insects there was no visible
sign.

‘That should get someone’s
attention. Harry, Jan — good skills. Land, refuel, and we’ll see what else the
afternoon brings.’

Just on dusk, Glint watched as
four of the huge robot dump trucks started out towards the mesa. They appeared
to have large generators on them; the rearmost one carried a much-altered
gimbal-mounted laser rock drill.

‘Oh bugger. They’ve brought the
laser out to play. We must have pissed someone off very seriously.’ the major
said. ‘I don’t think they want to capture us any more. They’ll also have worked
out the range of the rifles. Everyone get behind the mesa. We need to stay away
from that weapon. They’ll need a few minutes to couple up the power supplies
each time they fire it. So long as we keep them moving, we’re OK. Move it.
Glint, can you get a couple of shots into the aiming array on that laser? I
know it’s a stretch, but give it a go. A few shots, then leg it.’

Glint gave the section a few
precious minutes as the laser’s aiming array disintegrated under a stream of
linear rifle rounds and the trucks quickly retreated a few hundred metres. Back
in convoy, they moved around the back of the stone tower and into the night,
keeping just out of the laser’s range, the speed of both groups almost
perfectly matched.

‘Everyone stop. Grab your
cannons, take cover behind those low rocks. Go to ground. First vehicle seen,
plug the engine compartment, then move out. If successful, we’ll do it again.’

As soon as the lead vehicle
appeared from behind the jumble of rocks, the rifles boomed, then boomed again.
The engine covers of the target truck exploded off as the diamond rounds
shattered the radiators and the injectors along one side of the engine. An
electrical fire from the destroyed leads then set fire to the fuel lines and
the front of the huge truck was engulfed in flames. At its rear, the robots
dragged the generator off the low deck of the truck, obscuring it from the
section, and hooked it up to the laser, allowing a robot-aimed retaliatory shot
to hit Marko’s Hog-walker parked out to the section’s far left. The superheated
walker exploded, with debris raining all around them. The cockpit shield spun
above them, landing with a thump in the sand close to one of the tugs.

‘Pull out, people! Chop chop, don’t
piss about! Right, we’d better start coming up. with a plan. Where did Glint
disappear to? Hey, where’s Flint? Nail, you bloody well stay put. Have you got
comms with them?’

‘I am sorry, Michael. They’re not
responding.’

‘They’ll be on the move again
soon,’ Harry said. ‘Boss, you’d better get on one of the trailers — the trucks
are speeding up. That Hog’s just too slow. Actually, lay it down in that small
ravine, there.’ Harry pointed to the right of the group of rocks. ‘We’ll pick
you up.’

‘Will do, Harry.’

Marko swung up to sit shoulder to
shoulder with Jan in her Gunbus, manning the flame-thrower. On the trailer
behind Fritz, the two AIs had bolted themselves down in the protection of the
destroyed Hog’s salvaged fold-down shield. The major was standing behind them.
They sped up, around the side of the mesa, trying to engage the trucks from the
rear. Whatever was controlling the trucks had had the same idea. Watching the
three trucks converge, with power cables being lifted across by the attending
robots at full speed, Jan increased power to the maximum, weaving and dodging
to the best ability of the little Gunbus.

‘Jan, it’s been great so far. How
about we give them something to taste?’

She nodded and swung back towards
the trucks, skimming just above the sand. Marko was about to ignite the
flamethrower when the laser barrel rapidly swung on them — a robot astride the
barrel acting as a targeting mechanism. Jan was weaving as fast as she could,
but it was only a matter of time before the laser found its target. Both had
their hearts in their mouths, waiting to be seared to oblivion. Suddenly there
was a tremendous flash at the rear of the laser as it vaporised part of itself.
Jan pulled the Gunbus in a tight arc over the trucks, as Marko started hosing
the vehicles with dicyanoacetylene.

‘Don’t ignite until we’re clear,
Marko.’

Marko yelled and pointed, seeing
Glint and Flint sprinting across the sand towards them. Jan saw them and slowed
down to thirty kilometres per hour, allowing Glint, with Flint clinging around
him like an exotic necklace, to jump on board. Accelerating and gaining a
little height, she orbited the huge dump trucks at a safe distance.

‘You pricks will be the death of
me!’ exclaimed Marko. ‘Good work, though.’

‘Don’t blame me, Marko. Flint’s
idea. He needs a new finger. He stuck it into the circuit of the laser
controller. Worked well. We’re a good team. You distracted them and we did the
job. Nail also thought it was a good idea. I was just the transport.’

Marko laughed, ignited the
flame-thrower and flashed a stream of the burning fluid across the trucks,
combusting them beautifully. He smiled as the conflagration also took out a few
more robots.

‘Stop, Marko, stop! Don’t kill
the laser; just had a thought!’

‘Umm, bit late for that, Fritz.
It’s toasty-fried.’

‘Damn, I could have used that to
communicate with.’

‘What, as in a maser? Oh, sorry
about that, you should have said.’

‘Communicate with whom, Fritz?’

‘The carriers in orbit, boss. Hell,
for that matter, the Administration refit base, as well.’

‘Bugger. That would have worked.
We all screwed up on that one. Any other ideas?’

‘Yes, major,’ said Topaz. ‘I have
a small welding laser on board. I have started modifications on it, to tie it
into my communications systems. We have to wait for total darkness, and know
exactly where the carrier is by sighting it. I believe that the one that
transported us here will still be in orbit, loading ingots. I will need the
cooperation of Nail and Marko to locate the carrier, then we can attempt
communication. Fritz, I will need your assistance to make the changes to my
hardware.’

‘Right, get on it. Can we do that
on the move? I want to go across to that next mesa. There appears to be a cave
system at its base. I’m concerned that 27, or whatever is running this circus,
has not used the transport aircraft yet. I’ll leave the Hog where it is. We can
get that later. Let’s go. By the way, Marko, when this is all over, you and I
will have a short conversation about unnecessarily destroying equipment.’

Marko gulped — he had been on the
receiving end of a few of the major’s ‘short conversations’ before, whenever he
had let his emotions make decisions for him.

Moving across the desert as fast
as the slowest tug would allow, weaving all the way like the warships of old,
the reduced convoy made it to the other mesa, then slowed down, as Topaz
located a long, low-ceilinged cave with her sensors. After driving slowly
through jumbled rocks, they entered and parked the Gunbus. Topaz powered up her
AG. With Nail riding on top of her and Marko walking behind, they crept out
among the large boulders until the whole sky above them was visible. Marko
ramped up his optics and began scanning the band of sky where, hopefully, the
carrier was still operating. No one had any idea how long it would take it to
gather an entire shipment of the orbiting slabs of metal. Nail extended probes
from his front paws and linked both to Marko and Topaz. Using his sensors he
took control of the optics, and over the next ninety minutes they searched for
19
Rose Foxtrot.