Resist the Red Battlenaut (9 page)

 

The explosion rocked Scott's Battlenaut but didn't knock it down. Frank, ahead of the game even though he was blind, managed to keep the armor on its feet.

The others weren't all so lucky. Checking the feeds, Scott saw Donna's Battlenaut go down on its belly, while Balko's hit the ground on its side.

"Form up!" Abby was shouting urgently over the comm. "Scott, what
was
that?"

"Some kind of missile!" Scott's eyes locked on the topside feed, looking for more incoming fire--and quickly finding it. Two objects launched from the roof of the structure, flashing toward the squad on arcing vapor trails. "Two more on the way!"

Scott's mind raced. He had split-seconds until the second volley found its mark--not enough time to figure firing solutions and flash them to his squad-mates.

Better and faster to take action himself. "Frank! Retract all projectile weapons! Form and fire shoulder-mount anti-missile missiles at these coordinates!" Using eye control, he reconfigured the topside feed, superimposing a numbered grid over the view. Watching the incoming missiles, judging their trajectories against the numbers on the grid, he barked out two sets of coordinates. He just had to hope that Frank, though sightless, still had enough geospatial awareness to program the missiles to get where they needed to be.

Even as Scott fed Frank the coordinates, he could see from the holographic wireframe of his armor that Frank had already pulled in the guns and grown missile launchers from his shoulders.

The A.I. didn't waste time talking. Scott felt the shock of the two launches, and holo readouts showed the missiles' trajectories as they climbed.

It was going to be touch and go. Scott was good at quickly calculating firing solutions on the fly, but the incoming missiles were moving fast, and his A.I. wasn't a hundred percent.

He did pretty well, considering. Topside showed one of his anti-missile missiles colliding dead-on with an enemy rocket, blowing it apart in midair.

Unfortunately, his second shot missed. The other enemy missile streaked toward the squad, then hit the ground in the middle of the group and exploded on impact, bowling over everyone who was still standing.

Just like that, a squad of elite Diamondbacks and one Marine were thrown in total disarray. Naturally, that was when the next wave descended on them...but it wasn't a wave of missiles.

Seconds after landing on his back, Scott saw them: three figures leaping, not launching, off the roof. Even from a distance, they looked familiar.

When he sat up and threw the feed on maximum mag, any doubt of what they were went out the window. "Enemy sighted!"

"What enemy?" said Abby.

The feed was very clear at max mag. Scott could see pale sunlight glinting off one of the leaping figures, revealing armor of a certain color he knew too well.

"Reds!" Scott's heart hammered when he said it. "Red Battlenauts, three of them, heading straight for us!"

"Everyone up!" shouted Abby. "Prepare to fire!"

Scott was already in motion. "Stand up, Frank!" Glancing at the wireframe, he saw his Battlenaut roll to one side, plant its hands on the ground, and boost itself up on its knees. "Ready anti-missile launchers!"

"Firing coordinates?" Frank's voice was calm, as if this were just another exercise on the Training Deck.

Watching the topside feed, Scott saw the Red Battlenauts dropping fast. They were spread out in a spearhead formation--one on point, the other two fanned out on his rear flanks. They were too far apart for him to take them with one or two shots--not that he really thought it would ever be that easy with juggernauts like those.

"Coordinates, please," said Frank.

"Talk to us, Scott!" said Abby. "Tell us where to shoot!"

Scott took a breath and closed his eyes for a split-second. When he opened them again, he slid smoothly into action. He'd prepared for this situation back onboard the
Sun Tzu
; now, it was just a matter of letting it happen.

"Bearing two-two-niner, angle forty-five degrees," he said, giving the squad a rough direction as he watched the numbered grid. Tracing the Reds' descent on the feed, he picked likely coordinates, typed them on a hovering holo keypad, and flashed them to the rest of the squad. "I'm sending coordinates now!"

"Received!" said Abby. "Fire!"

Everyone who was back on their feet cut loose at the same time, filling the sky around the Reds with slugs, missiles, and laser beams. Only Khalil and García's guns remained silent, as they continued to work their way back to upright positions.

"Keep firing!" said Abby. "Don't let up!"

Scott released his missiles, too, and watched them cruise toward the Reds on the feed. One went wide, sweeping off to the left of the point Battlenaut--but the other slammed into the chest of the right-flanking Red. The missile blew on impact, sending the Red spinning off course--but otherwise unscathed, as far as Scott could see.

As for the other two Reds, they just kept coming, passing through the curtain of slugs, missiles, and lasers as if it were no more than a holographic sky show, intangible and harmless. They quickly dropped out of the field of fire and touched down thirty meters away.

"One direct hit! He's deflected but undamaged," Scott said over the comm. "The other two have touched down. Targets at ten and two o'clock."

"Let's get this party started!" said Trane.

"Fire at will!" said Abby.

Scott clenched his jaw and glared at the frontside feed. Things were about to get interesting.

Back on Chelong III, the Red's superior energy weapons had chewed through Rollins' and Scott's armor like a chain saw through tissue paper. But CORE armor was an entirely different animal with much higher tensile strength and energy dispersal capabilities per square centimeter. The big brains--Rexis, Trane, and Khalil--were confident that the Diamondback Battlenauts would hold up against Red firepower...but there was only one way to know for sure.

And here it came. As soon as the two Reds hit the ground, the forward cannons on their chests surged to life, glowing with bright golden energy. They were about to fire the same weapons that had destroyed Scott's old Battlenaut and killed poor Captain Rollins.

"Incoming!" Scott's pulse quickened. "Chest-mounted energy cannons about to fire!" Everyone was on their feet now--including Khalil and García--and they were all blasting away with slugs and lasers. Half the squad fired at the ten o'clock target, while the other half focused on two o'clock...though they all maintained a loose formation around Scott. Protecting him was more crucial than ever, now that the A.I.s were blind.

Not that Scott planned to hold back any. As the squad pounded away at the Reds, he was right in there, cranking off rounds at both enemy war machines--firing with his left arm gun at ten o'clock while his right arm fired at two.

Suddenly, the Reds' cannons flared and fired. Each Battlenaut unleashed two streams of searing golden energy, sending them blazing over the silver ground toward the Diamondbacks.

Scott sucked in a breath and held it. One of the beams was coming in from two o'clock at an angle that would lead right to him. Even if his squadmates or their A.I.s could have seen it, they wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop it in time.

Scott was about to find out the hard way if CORE armor measured up to Red weapons technology. The same kind of beam that had blown his armor to bits on Chelong III was streaking straight for him and would make contact in a heartbeat.

 

*****

 

 

The beam from the Red's cannon slammed into the upper body of Scott's Battlenaut with shuddering force. Bright light drowned out all the camera feeds at once except the backside view. The comm went dead, and the cockpit filled with a high-pitched, piercing whine.

But the armor didn't blow apart. A moment passed, and the CORE Battlenaut held together against the searing assault. It was still standing, ready to fight back, long past the point at which Scott had ejected from his old armor during a similar attack.

"Now that's more like it." Scott smirked and checked his holo readouts, which showed that all systems remained nominal. His Battlenaut wasn't anywhere near being ready to explode. "You're not getting off easy
this
time."

"Excuse me," said Frank. "Could you provide me with a firing solution for one of the Red Battlenauts? I am unable to see or detect either one."

Suddenly, Scott's Battlenaut lurched back a step, shoved off balance by an increase in the beam's power. Frank quickly restabilized, but Scott realized the armor had its limits.

Time to switch off the weapon at its source. "Red Battlenaut at two o'clock, Frank. Height 12 meters. Form and fire biofilm cannon."

"What size payload?" said Frank.

"Maximum possible."

"The requested strike will severely limit additional use of biofilm and other mass-hungry applications," said Frank.

Scott already knew that. In a live fire situation, resource hogs like biofilm should be used sparingly, when other means had failed...but the Reds were coming on strong. Maybe some up-front shock and awe could take the wind out of their sails. "Fire ASAP!"

The wireframe figure showed a shoulder-mounted cannon forming and firing a bundle. The cockpit wrenched back as the payload launched, propelled toward a target only Scott could see.

The biofilm pod leaped the distance and burst against the Red's head. Watching the topside feed, Scott saw the lumpy green slime spread fast, expanding over the gleaming red skin of the monstrous enemy Battlenaut.

Seconds later, the energy weapons on the Red's chest cut out, taking the pressure off Scott. That was when he finally had a moment to survey the status of the rest of the squad.

The camera feeds told the story. Scott's six teammates were still standing, but they were taking a pounding and firing blind. A single Red Battlenaut was holding them all at bay, beating them up with blasts from his forward energy weapons. Apparently, the Diamondbacks couldn't even see the actual fire and use its path to determine firing trajectories of their own.

As Scott took it all in, the comm suddenly reconnected, filling the cockpit with the sound of shouting Diamondbacks. Abby was louder than anyone, cursing up a storm when she wasn't bellowing Scott's name.

"I said
come in
, Scott!" She cursed some more. "Wake up, you
mother
-
fluxer
!"

"I copy, Lieutenant!" said Scott. "My comm was down, but now it's back up!"

"Who gives a scudge!" snapped Abby. "Tell us where to
shoot
!"

Scott double-checked the numbered grid overlaid on the image of the attacking Red on the feed. "Ten o'clock, thirty meters out, twelve meters high."

Abby didn't bother discussing it any further. "Everyone fire on those coordinates
now
!"

All six Diamondbacks--and Scott--swung their weapons around at once and took aim where he'd said. Without hesitation, they all cut loose, filling the air with a stream of projectiles, laser beams, sonics, and missiles.

Though six of them were shooting at what appeared to them to be thin air, plenty of ordnance connected with its target. Scott saw a high percentage of slugs, lasers, and missiles slam home, mostly in the Red's head and upper torso region.

The concentrated fire seemed to have an effect. The Red Battlenaut jerked back, and its energy weapons disengaged. Something sparked on its abdomen, then sparked again, brighter. A puff of smoke filtered from one of the cooling vents on its back, curling up toward the sky.

Scott felt a surge of hope. As blind as the rest of the squad had become, it was actually doing some damage. Maybe the Red bastards weren't unbeatable after all.

"How're we
doing
?" said Abby.

"Making a dent!" said Scott. "Recommend we keep pouring it on!"

"You heard the man!" said Abby. "Give it all you've got!"

As the besieged Red staggered, Scott stole a glance at the one he'd tagged with the biofilm. As expected, the green slime had enveloped the armor, coating it from tip to toe. The Battlenaut twitched underneath the film as it tried to break free--then emitted flashes of light from its chest cannons as it tried shooting its way out.

As Scott watched, there was another flash, and a patch of slime burst free. The hole it left was small, but it was a start; it would only be a matter of time until the Red worked itself all the way out of its cocoon. "Can we fire more biofilm, Frank?"

"Not recommended," said Frank. "The first shot consumed a high percentage of usable mass on hand."

"All right then." Scott would wait till the other Red was down, then shift the squad's fire to the one in the biofilm before it could break loose and join the fight. "Not a problem."

Scanning back over the feeds, he saw that the focused fire was continuing to have an impact. The Red taking the brunt of the squad's attack stumbled back and almost fell. The smoke coming out of its cooling vent had gone from a puff to a cloud, and it showed no sign of letting up. The sparks on its abdomen had turned into a constant, flickering blaze, which was spreading.

All it took was a missile to the chest, fired by Trane, to knock it down. The Red collapsed, its backward-bending knees folding up under its falling body. It hit hard, sending a tremor through the silver ground under Scott's armor's feet.

"He's down!" said Scott. "Hold your fire!" Time to turn to the other Battlenaut and let him have it with all barrels. "Redirect fire to target at two o'clock, thirty-two meters out, height twelve meters."

"Squad redirect!" said Abby, though she didn't have to. Everyone except Trane was already turning their weapons to the second target. "Fire at will!"

In a few short moments, the Red had cleared away a large section of biofilm, exposing its forward cannons. As Abby ordered the squad to fire, the Red charged its cannons with crackling golden energy, ready to let loose.

The squad opened up with a vengeance, hammering the Red with every kind of ordnance at hand. The latest bombardment was better focused than the first one had been, as most everything came to bear on a single area--but that area was the cockpit cowling, which Scott guessed would be the best-protected part of the Red's armor.

Better to drop the crosshairs, he thought. "Recommend aiming ten degrees lower!" he said.

"Aim ten degrees lower!" said Abby.

Everyone followed the order, and the stream of weapons fire shifted downward. Before it could strike the chest, though, the Red's forward cannons blew out twin blasts of golden energy.

This time, the blasts were much brighter than before. Instead of running parallel and picking out different targets, they coalesced, forming a single beam that was zeroed in on a single target.

"Incoming!" shouted Scott. It was all he could do as the blazing beam slashed toward the squad. It was moving too fast to avoid--too fast for him even to call out a more detailed warning. Whatever was going to happen when it hit, it was well beyond his control.

Not that that would make it any easier later, when he remembered this moment. When he remembered the sight of the beam colliding with the armor of one of his squadmates, sending it hurtling over the metal plain like a broken toy. When he remembered the sound of Donna's scream before her comm cut out.

"Donna!" he howled, even as he knew it was too late. "Donna!"

"Scott!" said Abby. "What the hell's our status?"

Scott hesitated. One of the holo readouts fanned out in front of him listed vital signs for the rest of the squad. Donna's were blinking red, the numbers dropping as he watched. "Our status is, that thing's firing some kind of high-powered beam merging the output of two cannons. We need to...we need to..." The numbers were still falling. "We need to take out those cannons. Fire right into them."

"Then call it!" said Abby. "We need firing solutions."

Again, Scott hesitated. Donna's numbers paused in their free-fall, holding steady, giving him hope. "Okay." His eyes swung back to the camera feeds. Staring at the image of the Red and the numbered grid superimposed over it, he thought fast, calculating possible solutions. "Bearing one-six-three, angle forty-eight degrees!"

"Balko, Khalil, García," said Abby. "Fire on those coordinates!"

Scott worked another instant, then rattled off a second solution. "Bearing one-six-eight, angle forty-eight degrees."

"That's us, Trane," said Abby. "You, too, Scott!"

Everyone locked on the coordinates he'd given and blasted away. On the feed, Scott saw the squad's slugs and lasers pump into both big forward cannons on the Red's chest, zooming dead-on into the gun's broad muzzles.

Suddenly, there were two thunderous booms as the cannons exploded. The Red Battlenaut collapsed to the ground, chest blown apart and pouring out billows of black smoke.

Scott didn't pause to celebrate. His eyes shot to the holo readouts, going straight to Donna's vitals. When he saw them, his spirit sank like a stone.

Most of them were dark. Heart rate, pulse ox, respiratory rate, blood pressure...none were registering. As for body temp, it was dropping fast.

Scott swallowed hard. He couldn't take his eyes off the readouts. He couldn't stop thinking about what they meant.

Her body had shut down. None of the signs of life were showing up at nominal levels on the sensors installed in her cockpit.

According to the readouts, Donna Perihelion was dead.

 

 

*****