Invasion from Uranus (15 page)

MUST BE REVENGE FOR KILLING THEIR BOSS.

"But he's not dead."

TELL THEM THAT.

"He's not dead!" I bellowed over Hobart's speakers at maximum volume. The words echoed down, but became lost in the steady roar of the water rumbling through the sluice gates.

THEY'LL NEVER HEAR US THIS WAY. SHOULD WE FIRE THE MISSILES?

Nervously, I chewed a lip for a precious minute. "No good. That might only set off all of their explosives. We have to get down there and stop them in person."

MIND TELLING ME HOW WE'RE GOING TO DO THAT? LAST TIME IT TOOK US TWO HOURS TO REACH THE BOTTOM.

I grabbed the thickest length of ivy and gave a gentle tug. It broke apart in my gauntlet. "Blast, we are far too heavy for the ivy to support."

WE COULD USE THE CABLE.

"No time. And turning off the sluice gates would only make the water flow over the top again. They still wouldn't hear us." I glanced at the unconscious men. Hobart and I could simply run away, but when the dam went, they would die. I may talk big to try and scare folks out of a fight, but when push came to shove, I simply could not murder anybody in cold blood. Even thieves. Only one choice then.

"Geronimo!" I shouted, and jumped off the dam.

WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS?

Down we plummeted. Seconds later, Hobart fell through the rushing water of the sluices, the flow pushing us away from the dam, but also slowing our speed considerably. We emerged into the open air, falling even faster.

"I'm going to aim for the pool!" I said, spreading my arms and trying to angle our descent. "The water will cushion our impact."

AT THIS SPEED THE WATER WILL BE LIKE CEMENT, Hobart corrected. DO NOTHING, AND GO LIMP. THAT'S AN ORDER!

Before I could respond, Hobart reached out with both hands and we jerked to a violent halt, then brutally slammed into the side of the dam with ringing force. Disoriented for a moment, I dimly realized that Hobart had grabbed the rim of the blast crater. If I had tried that, the force would have ripped my

arms off.

As my vision cleared, I saw stacks of mines in the ragged hole directly in front. Fat disks with blinking green lights. Some sort of mining charge, not military grade C-10. That gave us a chance. I reached in and crushed the nearest one in my fist, then grabbed the next and simply threw it over my shoulder. The third went flying, another followed, then all of the blinking green lights flashed brilliant red.

Hobart shoved us away from the hole and we were still airborne when the rest of the C-10 HE plastic detonated. Instantly, I was encased in silence as he cut off the audio receivers, but the rumbling detonation could be felt through his armor and padding, the strident roar bellowing through the tiny hole in his chest plates. We went tumbling away, as a terrible crackling and crunching followed and for a brief second on the aft monitor I saw a small section of the dam break apart and a rod of water lance out like a lased tidal wave. The column of water shot across the valley ripping trees from the soil and blowing apart a stone wall on a small hillock.

"Tree!" Hobart warned, and everything went black.

I must have passed out for a while, because when I came to Hobart was stumbling across the ground, the water level in the valley at our knees and rising.

YOU OKAY?

"Not dead yet," I muttered, trying to ignore the terrible pounding in my head. The colossal concrete embankment rising majestically into the sky, I could see that the dam was ruined, the water rushing through the hole returning to its natural source, blocked off for half a millennium by the handiwork of

Humanity. The face of the dam was a spiderweb of cracks, the hole itself larger than a school bus. Any attempt to affix repairs on such a scale would be useless. There was no way to fix the damage.

"It's dead," I said in an emotionless voice.

I CONCUR. THE STATISTIC PROBABLY OF US RETURNING THE DAM TO WORKING CONDITION WITH THE MATERIALS AVAILABLE TO US IS... CALCULATING....OH HECK, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE.

"All that work, all of our plans, snatched away by a bunch of Swiftian yahoos in tin suits!" I tried to control my temper and discovered that I really didn't want to.

"Where the hell are those knights?" I demanded, feeling angrier than I ever thought possible. Okay, maybe formerly I couldn't kill in cold blood, but now...

Hobart swiveled his head. THEY WENT IN THERE.

Across the valley, the rushing torrent had washed away a whole section of the landscape. Under the hillock was now exposed a concrete dome with an armored doorway larger than a movie star's ego. The structure resembled the dome that I escaped from when my cryogenic freezer broke down. "Some sort of a prewar military lab," I guessed.

HOLY MOTHERBOARD, THIS IS WHAT THOSE MEDIEVAL GUYS WERE AFTER IN THE FIRST PLACE. THEY BLEW THE DAM TO UNCOVER THIS BURIED INSTALLATION.

"Didn't they own any shovels?" Now I was really annoyed. Grimly, I started across the valley towards the dome when the armored door rose and out walked the biggest freaking armored war machine I had ever seen. Made Hobart look like an inflatable toy. Built along the lines of a spider, it was twenty meters tall, had six legs, a couple of missile launchers, a turbo-laser, several machine guns, the whole nine yards. The imposing war machine is in pristine condition, with no sign of rust or wear. I could only gape as it strode by without stopping or attacking, its six pumping legs splashing along the reborn river.

WOW. A SOLDIER-BOT, Hobart scrolled. ANOTHER TYPE OF WALKING MILITARY HARDWARE BUILT DURING THE SHADOW AGE.

"So it's just like you?"

NO. THAT MACHINE'S ONLY PURPOSE IS DEATH.

There was no sign of the knights, so we advanced upon the dome, weapons at the ready. As we got close, I could see bodies sprawled on the terrazzo floor and I rushed inside. The moment I crossed the door jamb, dozens of flying ceramic eggs came at us in a wave, built-in needlers spraying us with thousands

of 1mm flechette rounds.

SENTINEL DROIDS. BETTER TAKE'EM OUT FAST.

"No prob!" I hit the first one with the laser and cut it in half, the pieces fell away sparking and smoking. But the rest separated and dove in from every angle. I ducked one and got blinded sided by another, their anti-personnel needles hissed steadily, hosing Hobart all over. As before, he kept a gauntlet

over the hole in his chest to protect me from any possible lucky shots. Without my buddy, I would have been reduced to screaming hamburger in only seconds.

The sentinels spun around us like angry bees, slamming into us again and again, grimly determined to stop us in any way possible. Hobart tried the Screamer to no results. Then I caught one in my hands and turned it around, hosing the others with the voracious stream of flechettes. My prisoner stopped almost immediately, but the others were damaged or dead already. Always turn your enemy's strength against them. I learned that playing AD&D in high school.

I crushed the last sentinel and tossed the sparking ball of rubbish into a corner. Now I could rush to the side of the nearest fallen knight. But it was too late. He was dead, crushed flat. So were the rest, smashed like bugs underfoot by the giant warmachine. Then a low moan caught my attention and I

knelt by the side of an older man with gray at the temples. His leg was bloody pulp from the knee down, so I ripped off his tableau and tied it as a tourniquet around his thigh to stop the bleeding. Then I cauterized the wound with our laser, medium power, maximum aperture. He tried to speak, and only coughed up some dark fluids. Not good. That meant internal bleeding.

Nothing I could do about that.

"We...were wrong," the knight panted, fighting to stay awake from the blood loss. "Found the base...ancient tank-bot... unstoppable war machine...clean the country of all mutants! B-but..." He broke into a ragged cough, and I gave him a sip from my canteen.

"But you couldn't control the machine," I stated grimly.

The dying man reached out a trembling hand to grab Hobart by the shoulder. "Nobody can control the Great One!" he said in unexpected force. "It wouldn't accept any commands. The AI computer...was left on, sentient and thinking.....alone in the dark for centuries."

"It's insane," he exhaled in a ghostly whisper, and slumped to the floor.

Hobart cycled open and I checked for a pulse with my fingertips pressed to his throat. There was none. "He's gone," I said, going back inside.

NOW WHAT?

"We go after it," I said, taking a plasma pistol from the dead man and checking the synergy cell. Fully charged. He never got off a shot. Around his waist was a forcefield belt. Feeling like a grave robber, I unbuckled the device and strapped it around Hobart.

HOW ARE WE GOING STOP THAT THING? GOT A POCKET NUKE YOU'VE BEEN HIDING ALL THESE YEARS?

"The bridge," I said, tightening the belt. "But only if we move fast."

There was a short pause. SAY, THAT JUST MIGHT WORK.

But rushing outside, I found nothing in sight. The giant was gone.

RADAR IS CLEAR, Hobart reported, SCANNING INFRARED...CLEAR. GOING TO ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRUM....AH HA! GOT HIM!

On the main monitor, the scene zoomed into the distance and there it was, the soldier-bot was just a jot in the distance, the big machine was moving fast. Then it paused at the old iron bridge to test the structure with a single leg, then another. It seemed unsure the bridge would hold its awesome weight. That

was my plan, let it get in the middle then hit it with our missiles and send it tumbling into the ravine. Not a nuke, but it should work. Maybe.

NOW? Hobart scrolled, his meters quivering with barely restrained eagerness.

"Not yet. It has to be on the bridge...oh no."

As I watched, the machine withdrew from the ancient bridge and started along the ravine looking for another way across.

Frustrated, I clenched and unclenched my huge fists. There went our best chance for a fast kill. But I refused to admit defeat. My plan to help this valley had somehow unleashed the ultimate killing machine and it was my responsibility to stop the thing.

"Launch our missiles!" I spat.

IF YOU SAY SO.

Flame washed around our boots, and Hobart shook as the four Amsterdam missiles lifted from our backpack to streak away, spiraling across the valley to foil enemy fire, and struck the soldier-bot dead on, the C19 warheads exploding with thunderous force.

However, as the smoke cleared away, there was no visible damage to the mighty machine. Contemptuously, the soldier-bot did not bother to even pause as it launched a full salvo of missiles, HE shells, plasma beams and lasers backwards at us. Franticly, I dove behind a rock and Hobart was only a split second behind me. Hobart slapped a gauntlet over the hole in his chest, and we rolled for safety into the river, going under just as the barrage arrived. The missiles and shells tore the landscape apart in hellish fury, the gigawatt energy beams slicing deep into the ground, melting the rocky soil into steaming lava.

Calmly, the soldier-bot continued on its way, still searching for a convenient way across the deep ravine.

THAT WAS FUN. WHAT NEXT, BOY GENIUS?

"Okay, last try. Get me a radio link," I ordered brusquely, water flowing off us in sheets. "Use every ounce of power you have. But you must make contact!"

AND SAY WHAT? PLEASE STOP OR WE WON'T LIKE YOU ANYMORE?

"Don't talk to him," I snapped, looking at the clear blue sky. "Talk to the Seven Sisters, and pretend you're the soldier bot. Make 'em mad. Say things only another machine would understand. Challenge them to a fight. Act insane."

OF ALL THE STUPID...I'VE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING MORE...OKAY, IT'S DONE, Hobart scrolled. AND YOU KNOW WHAT, I THINK THEY BOUGHT IT.

Scant seconds later, down from the heavens came seven mauling power rays of starkly incomprehensible power, the very atmosphere burning lambent from the passage of the nuclear beams. The searing stiletto rays chewed a path of destruction along the ground to converge on the soldier-bot. For a single

moment, its forcefield held against the combined attack as it launched dozens of missiles skyward. Then the immaterial shield fell and the machine instantaneously vanished in a blinding fireball. The earth shook from a titanic implosion, and a hot wind swept over the landscape as the classic mushroom smoke cloud rose above the focal point of the orbiting weapon systems.

Back in the river, Hobart and I rode out the firestorm, the forcefield belt struggling to handle the awful load.

Slowly, time passed. When the river ceased boiling, we dared to stand and risk a peek. There was only a flat desolate landscape of broken rocks with a steaming lake of molten lava at the center. Nervously, we waited a few more minutes just to make sure the soldier-bot didn't somehow arise again. Then we gave it a few additional minutes just to make doubly sure.

After a full hour, we finally relaxed. The trick had worked. The mad machine was no more.

"You are a very dangerous person," Hobart complemented aloud.

"Thanks," I panted, increasing the air conditioner a notch. "You too, pal."

GUESS WE SHOULD CHECK ON IRON MIKE, ET AL, AND SEE IF THEY SURVIVED TO GO TO JAIL.

"Then we leave," I said, feeling slightly embarrassed. "I think we have seriously worn out our welcome here."

GEE, YOU THINK SO?

"Aw, shaddup."

JUST STAY AWAY FROM ANY GREEN LIGHTS.

"Absolutely," I sighed, and started walking. "I just wish there was something, anything, we could do to make up for this colossal mess."

WELL, NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT, Hobart scrolled slowly, his meters jiggling in the computer version of a chuckle. MAYBE THERE IS SOMETHING WE COULD DO FOR THEM.

A few months later, Sheriff Harrison watched as Iron Mike and the rest of the chain gang put the finishing touches on the new Battle Ground waterwheel. The plans given to them by the Gamma Knight had actually worked. The rushing stream of water from the smashed dam turned a large wheel studded with wooden paddles, which in turn rotated a long leather belt that operated a grinding stone which milled grain, along with a big circular saw to cut wood.