Raiders (24 page)

Veliosa responded with a frown. “I was unable to locate an alloy anywhere in the City that can be used to coat them. Making them by hand would only be a lesser solution than printing them. These parts have to be resilient enough to handle the torque the super-servos impose upon them.”

“Thank you Veliosa. Venusia what about the deployment solutions for our defense?” General Berg asked.

A large semiclear rendering of the entire City rotated in front of the sisters. Venusia spoke. “I have inserted three hundred and twenty-five auto-guns to supplement the auto-cannons. I have placed them at intervals of fifty meters on the Wall's City-side face. They will be pointing toward the City in general. The auto-guns are predicted to be much harder for the enemy to take down.”

Excellent work Venusia. Anything else?” Berg asked.

“I have placed alternating auto-gun batteries near the Gates. They will be assisted by the manual nests.”

General Berg said, “Thank you. Venusia, have you run a theatre-wide emulation for us?”

“Well General,” Venusia paused and then looked down to her semi-transparent legs for a second. “No. It is difficult for me to synthesize how effective our defense will be.”

Murmurs and whispers washed across the Situation room. General Berg raised his hands and waved them down to quiet everyone. “Can you tell us why?”

Venusia looked at her holographic sister then turned to Berg. “Yes General, I can. We don’t know how well our defense will be because we do not accurately know nor can we predict how many Coilguns the Raider enemy will be carrying. We know that they are concealing the weapons but it is impossible to know how many with any degree of certainty.”

The General asked, “Can you show us a run if say half the Raiders have Coilguns?”

“Of course,” Venusia responded. Venusia and Veliosa’s avatars disappeared from the table and were replaced by a large overlay of the City. “The Raiders will probably attempt to attack all the entry points that is to say the Gates split up into groups of twenty thousand per Gate.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Berg said.

The three dimensional wiregraph of the City blinked with tiny bursts of light to simulate the auto-cannons as they fired away. Small orange and green squares represented the ground troops and smaller ordnance. Thousands of tiny red dots each signified a single Raider as they swarmed into the choke points.

Venusia continued her narration. “With ten thousand Coilguns per entry point the auto-turrets will probably go offline after about three hundred hits to the main linkages. By then their numbers will be reduced to about six thousand Raiders per Gate.”

“What about the soldiers on the line out there?”

“We will have to pull them back just before the auto-turrets fail. A window of about six minutes. The Raiders will fire thousands of Coilrounds per second at the auto-turrets but only three hundred have to penetrate the armor. The hit rate will be about a thousand failures to one successful penetration. But with three hundred hits any of the turrets will mechanically fail,” Venusia explained.

“Okay so six thousand Raiders left per Gate. Now what happens?” Berg asked.

“The Gates will be breached but only after some time and effort on their part. But the Gates were never engineered to hold off so many at once so they will mechanically fail after one hour to three hours, I estimate,” Venusia said.

“Okay so now they’re inside the City. Everybody following this?” Berg yelled out to the room. Everyone nodded and responded in the affirmative. “Now it’s up to the batteries and troops, right?”

Venusia expanded the City hologram so only one Gate and its ingress was rendered. “Yes General. The Raiders will overwhelm the batteries after about ten minutes. The supplemental troops will have to fall back or fight, but by then there will only be between five hundred to a thousand surviving Raiders per Gate.”

“Five hundred. Okay. Continue, and remember everyone, this is only a best guess emulation!” General Berg said.

The holograph display of the City disappeared and then Venusia and her sister reappeared over the tabletop. “After the final stand the remaining Raiders will have to be engaged by the Citizens.” Venusia looked to her sister.

Veliosa took a deep breath of air she couldn’t possibly inhale and said, “The ratio will be two Raiders to one Citizen. While this sounds statistically good it actually isn’t.”

“Because?” Berg asked.

“Because General, they are not trained soldiers. They are ordinary people. Remember, three weeks ago most have never thought about shooting a gun.” Veliosa looked straight to the General, paused and then said, “It is one thing to pick up a gun but pulling the trigger against another human is something else entirely. But you already know this to be true, sir,” she explained.

General Berg smiled at Veliosa and said, “Yes, yes I do.” He stood up and addressed the room. “This is the basic logistical framework we are going to go with, people. We will tweak some of the minor details and add a Gantry to the City Center. Can you make that happen, Veliosa?”

Veliosa said, “Yes. I have now ordered the Gantry components to be fabricated. It will be fully assembled and railed in two days. Battle-ready in three.”

“Outstanding. Okay any questions folks? Now’s the time to ask.” A quarter of the room raised their hands.

And then they came. The Raiders the approached Polar City Three’s protective Wall from all directions. They surrounded the City even from the waterside North, a thick and necklaced ring all-human.

Cautious and still they quietly stood in formation, just beyond the auto-cannons hittable range or about three-quarters of a kilometer away. They had drones too, an unexpected surprise for the Polar City’s Intelligence team.

“Don’t know sir but they got ’em!” Sergeant Matthew reported. “Damn things are drawin’ a line ‘round the City so they know when to stop marchin’! Auto-guns can’t get at ‘em!”

“Thank you Sergeant,” General Berg said into his radio. “They're probably gonna take down a few of the cannons from a distance like Venusia predicted.”

Venusia cut in while she produced her transparent two meter tall avatar next to the General in the Command and Control room. “Yes they will. It is the only option they have even at these numbers.” She looked across the pano-vis screens. There was no need for her to observe the video since her holographic eyes were merely for show. But then again Venusia insisted that she present herself as an actual person to them.

The General sighed. “Gonna have to engage ‘em manually Sarge. Send your shield units forward in an arc to protect the squads behind 'em. Well send out a couple of drones to keep ‘em occupied. Got it?”

“Copied sir. Okay.” Sergeant Matthew said. “When they engage us though? I only have five hundred men out here on the line!”

“The plan is you kick the beehive so to speak and then fall back. We’re gonna kite them in. Otherwise they’re gonna knock down the turrets,” The General responded.

Sergeant Matthew yelled out with his radio key still opened. “Alright you heard the old man! Shieldmen! One through twenty! Formation five now! Infantry sixtee…” General Berg shut off the radio channel.

Venusia said, “Switching pano-vis to drone seven now, General. Right ahead of the kiting team.” The screens which surrounded Command and Control showed a viewpoint about one hundred meters high. It faced the Raiders head on. “Enemy now preparing to fire at auto-turret twelve sir!” The drone zoomed three of the forward screens to get a close-up shot of the Raiders. It showed about two hundred Raiders or so all armed with Coilguns, ready.

General Berg keyed the radio back on. “Sarge how close are you?”

“Two hundred! We’re hoofin it! Standby sir!” The Sergeant was out of breath. Two minutes later, “Hold here! Hit em now boys!” He yelled. A massive volley of Coilrounds shot over their heads. Thousands of rounds traveled to the auto-turret behind them with a shrills and shocks as if the Coilrounds carried a black mange spirit maligned and possessed.

The pano-vis showed the Kiting team from the rear screens as they shot against the Raiders from a distance. A few Raiders were hit and collapsed into their crowded line but the ominous stream of Coilrounds continued without diminish. The Raiders ignored the Polar City soldiers altogether and continued to focus on their singular objective.

“They’re not takin’ the bait sir!” Sergeant Matthew yelled into his radio integrated into his facial combat band. The Raiders stopped their assault upon the distant auto-turret. A Raider dressed in a battlesuit similar to Kama’s stood in front of the mob and waved her hands. She waved toward the Sergeant and his men although she was too far away to be heard. The message was clear, though. The Raiders focused their Coilguns against the Sergeant and his Kiting team but did not advance. Not so much as a single step closer to the City Wall.

“Matthew get your men outta there! NOW!” A redfaced General Berg cholerically ordered into his radio.

The Sergeant did not respond and his bodyworn radio went dead as a sheet of Coilrounds plowed into his team all at once. The forward Shieldmen shuddered and fell as their defenses were rendered down to a leveled discordance. A monitor drone hovered fifty meters above them as it and focused its pano-vis camera on the soldiers who ran in fast retreat. As the Sergeant fell back the Raiders ceased their fire on the luck-blessed few who remained alive while they ran for their lives.

“They stopped!” General Berg looked at Venusia.

“Yes they are just saving their ammunition,” Venusia responded while she continued to observe the pano-vis. “They will probably start working on the auto-turret again in a few moments,” she added. Even as she said that a splayed cloud of Coilrounds resumed its angered breath over the Sergeant’s head and what remained of his men. They fell back to the Wall and the auto-turrets' protective umbrella.

The General ripped his theatre goggles from his head and tossed them onto a wall desk in anger. “Goddammit!” He yelled and turned around. All seventy-four soldiers stopped what they were doing and looked at Berg in astonishment. “Any thoughts folks? Because now is the time!”

For a moment silence covered the large situation room, console beeps and blips excepted. A single hand raised up from the room’s southeast corner. “Uh General sir, we were talkin’ back here in Logistics about the possibility of…” Lieutenant Lange nervously stalled his speech upon the realization that everyone focused on him.

“Yes Lieutenant. Go ahead son,” General Berg said.

“Well sir the Raiders are holding out of range so the auto-turret can’t engage ‘em, but.” He looked to his peers who sat next to him. “We could try lobbing some rounds at ‘em sir. I mean, we know the guns weren’t designed for that but we think we could make it work.”

“Great! Good work guys, hash it out fast and when you’re done forward your plan to Tactical team. They can dial the turrets in.” Berg looked over to the Tactical table and they all nodded in approval of the plan.

Lieutenant Lange added, “Sir one thing though. We’re gonna burn through a helluva lot of ammo so when they finally get close there won’t be a whole lotta rounds left!”

“We’ll just have to deal with that Lieutenant,” the General said. “Better we knock some of them down than none at all. We’re gonna lose the turrets anyways. So we may as well get some mileage out of them!”

Ten minutes passed and after a flurry of calculations and intelligent guesses the Logistics team circled the Tactical Table and coached them on how to manually set the auto-turret. The monster guns were designed to operate and engage an outside threat automatically without much input. The Logistics men and women decided on using a maintenance mode exploit so they could set the barrels by hand. The Tactical lead Officer announced, “We think we got it sir! Venusia can you verify our calculations?”

Venusia glowed as she announced. “Projected rounds set to engage the Raider line, sir.”

“Good, do it guys! Fire at will!” General Berg said.

“Autocannons perimetric to twelve and thirteen firing now,” Venusia said. She closed her holographic eyes, a strange choice of emotica for a Greater Assistant. A low pitched
thrrummmm
vibrated throughout the City followed by a muffled fang-rattled
ka-blooof
. Her eyes opened. “First rounds hit. Estimated casualties zero point seven percent for that group.”

“Excellent work everyone!” Berg said then looked at Venusia’s avatar. “What about the other cannons? Can you run them?”

Venusia’s hologram froze for a second almost as if she internally glitched. “General my cores will be peaked however I can control half of them. Speculative.”

“Ask your sister to help then,” Berg said.

Before he could finish the word
then
Veliosa shimmered into being to the right of Venusia. “Very well General.” Tiny misted blue strands floated between the sister Assistants. “We will be occupied with the cannons so we will not be available for a few moments.” The two holographs winked out of render.

“All Cannons dialled out!” A voice announced from somewhere in the room. Lieutenant Lange. The situation room resonated with the sustained engagements.
Tthhhruuummm, ka-bloof, tthhhruuuummmm, ka-bloof
. The Polar City was deep underground but the auto-turret sounds traveled through the rock and shook its contents even down to the lower levels. Various video feeds from the drones outside were fed into every screen, even the smaller ones.

The Raiders continued their assault against the auto-turrets even while their fellowmen were pummeled to their death only meters away. The ordnance volleyed into view almost as if some giant unseen hand tossed them onto the massive Raider rings.

“Three percent down sir!” An unidentified voice said from somewhere within the room. “Three point nine sir!”

General Berg waved and then resumed his observation of the tactical map and the visual feeds from the drones. The Raiders were clearly resolved to continue. A large fifty centimeter shell, one of the auto-turret rounds skidded into the dirt and exploded. It kicked up so much smoke and dust the air drones could hardly visualize the battle scene, even in the infrared. The Raiders ignored the drones altogether. They probably did not care who watched them nor with what apparatus simply because they believed in their hearts that it didn’t matter. The City would be theirs anyways, and quite soon.