She shuddered at the sight.
“Flying lemurs,” Mwate explained, as he readied ANAD for launch. “We have something like them in Nigeria back home. They can glide for hundreds of feet, just like that.”
“Samoya, was that your heat source?”
The DPS tech wasn’t sure. “I don’t think so, Captain…I’m still getting something
from ‘Fly…and it’s getting bigger.”
There was an audible whoosh as the ANAD master exited the containment cell and into the humid morning air. Moments later, an expanding ball of light speckled and blossomed into view, as ANAD tore atoms from the air and replicated itself rapidly. Soon, a shimmering cloud formed over the lagoon, as the swarm ballooned outward, forming a defense barrier around the detachment.
At that same moment, the first fat drops of a tropical downpour splatted into the lagoon.
“Here it comes!” said Samoya. He was glad, for once, to be encased in the laminated armor of the hypersuit, even though footing rapidly became treacherous in the wet sand.
“Head for the trees!” said Tallant. “That’ll give us some cover. Samoya, best bearing to the heat source—“
“Now two five oh degrees, Captain…and its expanding too. No longer a point source. Whatever it is, it’s getting bigger…and coming this way.”
A reception committee, Tallant thought, as she slogged forward, revving up her leg servos to gain better traction in the beach sand. The tree line was sixty yards away, said her ranging beam. She remembered how Johnny Winger and ANAD had triggered off a thunderstorm at the Hunt Valley range, and how it had shredded her own defense swarm in the wargame.
As the detachment headed for cover in the forest, Tallant knew she didn’t want that to happen again. “Jeff, let’s get ANAD tightened up ‘til we get deeper in the forest. I don’t like the looks of this rain.”
“Hunt Valley all over again, huh, Captain? I had the same thought.”
The senior interface controller was Sergeant Chen Liu, a slightly built, gnomish Chinese national. As IC1, it was his job to run the ANAD formation and drive the assembler through its paces, even in combat.
“Chen, bring ANAD down to ground level…contract the swarm and have it form up in a minimum radius. I don’t want any trouble from this rain.”
Liu complied, sending the commands through his acoustic link with the master. “ANAD re-deploying, Captain….minimum swarm.” Training and doctrine had given them plenty of practice at this maneuver, where the swarm compacted itself to a shimmering ball of light barely two feet across.
They made the tree line and plunged into the dense cover of the jungle. It was dark and thick with brush, long vines of strangler fig and tapang roots making their footing slow and treacherous. The hypersuits both helped and hurt in the jungle. The boosted exo-skeletons had the raw power to smash through steel buildings, if needed. But they were cumbersome and slow, though the protection was surely welcome in the mosquito-infested, drenching humidity and rain of Kurabantu’s marshy woodlands.
The unit slogged and hacked forward for a few minutes, grunting and sweating even in their ceramic cocoons. The pulsating, flickering sphere of the ANAD swarm followed along, bending and flowing around trees and stumps like an unearthly fog.
It was Samoya who sounded the alarm first.
“Captain…dead ahead…’Fly’s right on it…expanding thermal….it’s a swarm all right and a big one…I got thermals all over the place, every bearing, expanding fast, rolling this way—“
Tallant was almost relieved to engage the enemy…waiting and probing and not knowing was the worst part of these missions.
“Okay, troops, this is it…spread out and make sure you’re buttoned up! Chen, kick start ANAD and let’s get in the game!”
“I’m on it, Captain,” said Liu. He fingered a few keys on his wristpad, sending new commands to the swarm. In seconds, the ANAD formation erupted like a miniature nova, swelling through the trees and the canopy of limbs and leaves like a slow-motion explosion. “Porting acoustic link to your viewer, Captain—“
“Acknowledged—“ Tallant came back. She wondered briefly if Johnny Winger was right. Maybe implants and coupling was the way to go…you could get ANAD launched and ready for action a lot faster. But for now, she’d have to do it the old fashioned way.
The collision, when it came, was a noiseless seam of light speckles, like a streamer of light cutting through the trees. Rain pounded down on top of the jungle canopy, but little of the shower made it to the ground. In the twilight gloom of the forest, Tallant and her Detachment saw only the lights, flickers and flashes and iridescent sparkles as the two armies collided overhead.
The acoustic view wasn’t much better but Tallant wanted to get a glimpse of the enemy ‘bots. Maybe it was a config she’d recognize…they’d done assembler recognition drills all the way from Singapore base.
She deployed the Detachment in tighter to give ANAD a smaller perimeter to defend. On her eyepiece imager, the first grainy view of the enemy mechs materialized. It was like squinting through a sleet storm, as weird shapes and polygons and snaking chains of molecules whipped by. She changed the perspective. “Drive in closer,” she ordered Chen Liu, who was manipulating the assembler master from a small joystick on his wristpad. “I want to get a closer look—“
As crackles of light exploded all around them among the trees, Liu piloted ANAD in for a better look. Sure enough, an enemy mech hove into view, bristling with peptide chains and carbene grabbers, a small icosahedral sphere festooned with tools. Its propulsors churned in a blur as it maneuvered to grapple with ANAD.
“I’m sounding now, Captain,” said Liu. He sent acoustic pulses at the mech, reading off distance and config, letting ANAD’s computer calculate likely weak points. “Bond energy maps not showing much…maybe up top, where those phosphates are jiggling…I might be able to punch through there.”
Even as he spoke, ANAD was quickly surrounded by more of the mechs, gathering for the kill.
“Bugger replicates like hell,” said Claudia Rialto. The CQE1 was hunkered down beside a huge tree root, watching the show on her own eyepiece, while she fiddled with the commo link to Charioteer still orbiting overhead. “Snip…snap and shazzam! It’s like the bastard’s optimized to replicate.”
And it was true. Even as they watched, the tiny ANAD force was enveloped by a swarm of mechs, all gyrating and throbbing, circling like hungry sharks nosing in for the kill.
“Chen—“
“I see ‘em, Captain…” Liu toggled his own rep command and ANAD blurred, as it grabbed atoms and churned up a froth, dividing and multiplying structure as fast as it could. “I’ve simplified config—dropped off a few chains, so ANAD can keep up.”
“Keep at it, Chen,” Tallant told him. “Ten to one this ain’t the main show. Probably just guard ‘bots, keeping nosy visitors like us away.” She checked their position, scanning around with her helmet sensors.
The Detachment was deep in a tangled mass of jungle vine, more or less sheltered from the torrential downpour that made visibility back across the lagoon impossible. Even the lifter was nearly invisible. Hope she’s buttoned up, Tallant muttered to herself. That’s our ticket home from this hellhole. Chen Liu was on point, driving the ANAD master into the enemy swarm, which crackled and sizzled in the air over their heads like frying bacon. The rest of the Detachment was defiladed among the trees and roots of the jungle floor, wherever shelter could be found: Jeff Collin was right on her tail, following Chen’s config changes closely, ready to butt in if he stumbled, or got swarmed. So far, ANAD’s barrier over the detachment had held, but you couldn’t be too careful. One breach and they’d be in a world of trouble fast.
“I’m going for the phosphate link on top,” Chen announced. “Nothing else to hit. I need a burst of HERF, Captain. Slam ‘em a few times and that’ll give ANAD a better chance to close and enga
ge. Priming electron lens, activating enzymatic knife now—“
Tallant agreed. It was all by the book. That’s the way she’d trained them: hard and straight-up. None of this quantum collapse and fancy maneuvering for her. She’d leave the hotshotting to Johnny Winger. Close-quarters combat in nano-war: you probed and feinted like a wary boxer, getting structure on your opponent, looking for a weakness, looking for a way in. Then when you had ‘em mesmerized, you slammed with RF and stunned the bastards long enough to close and bash the bejeezus out of them. Hold ‘em by the nose and kick ‘em in the ass. And snatch off a few polypeptide chains while you were at it.
A strong gust of wind slashed through the trees, blowing rain squalls into the jungle and Tallant ducked her helmet down, letting the dirt and leaves fly past. The rain was annoying and potentially a threat to ANAD, but beneath the dense canopy, the jungle floor was mostly dry, as dry as it ever got, covered with moss and mulch and decaying branches. With any luck, Chen would smash this force right here and they could be on their way.
Recon from Charioteer had said the source of the perturbations was deeper in the jungle, in the direction of the cliffs that terraced up to the summit of the big volcano. She checked their locations, just a couple hundred meters inland from the lagoon beach, and their bearing. Once the guard ‘bots were beaten off, the Detachment would have to head almost due west—two six zero degrees, over rising terrain—to reach the source. Richter was still in touch with his sniffers.
Tallant peered over her eyepiece, looking outside her helmet. The rain was beginning to penetrate the clearing but through the trees, nano-combat was in full swing. Heavy limbs sagged with the growing weight of raindrops but in between them, like fireflies in a fight, ANAD and the enemy ‘bots grappled. Flickers of light popped in and out of view, then erupted into chains and whirls and jagged seams of fluorescence.
Like silent lightning, Tallant had always thought, watching assemblers beat each other’s brains out. Like miniature lightning strikes, as uncountable zillions of mechs stripped atoms from each other, liberating millions of electron volts, ionizing air molecules into visible radiance for a brief second. As the rain pelted down, it was hard to believe a furious battle was unfolding all around them, on a battlefield the size of atoms. The entire engagement could have been held inside a thimble.
“It’s working! Chen Liu exulted, pumping his fist in the air. His suit servos complied with the command. “ANAD’s got ‘em on the run—phosphates all over the place…he’s ripping them apart!”
“Kick atomic ass!” yelled Samoya, manning the HERF gun.
“Give ‘em a blast!” Tallant commanded. “Slam ‘em, Sammy! Full bore!”
Samoya primed the radio pulse weapon. “Charging…charging…charging …weapon is now enabled…here she goes!!”
A thunderclap bolted through the trees and a hot wave of RF energy washed over them. In the monsoon, the sound seemed appropriate but it wasn’t a discharge from the sky.
“Again--!” Tallant told him.
Samoya primed the weapon. “NOW!”
Another thunderclap and rolling wave of heat. Tallant buried herself into the muck of the jungle floor, let her suit servos keep her level and closed her eyes. When the wave was past, she checked her eyepiece. It looked like Dante’s Inferno.
A blizzard of atomic debris streamed past the acoustic image.
“How’s ANAD?” she asked. They couldn’t slap the assembler with RF too often or the tiny fellow would be lost. But he was sturdy enough to withstand a short barrage and the radio waves always shredded enemy swarms, stunning the ‘bots into a stupor long enough for ANAD to finish them off.
“Still holding on,” Liu announced. He checked parameters, keyed a few buttons. “Still got a signal…still got a master. I’m probing…sounding…but I’m not seeing much. The bad guys are on the run.”
Tallant knew they couldn’t waste any more time. “Command barrier down, Chen. Let’s get moving.”
“Captain,” it was Collin lifting himself upright behind her, “there’s still pockets of resistance around here. Is that smart?”
Tallant got up too. “Maybe, maybe not…but the worst of the swarm’s gone. We’ll have to chance it. We’ve still got a mission…and our objective is—“ she scanned around for the SDC1. “Richter--?”
“I’m on it, Captain. Sniffers are high and still sending…still two five zero degrees.” The trooper was twenty meters away, halfway up a massive screw pine tree on hypersuit boost, homing on the signal. “Reading massive fluctuations in air quality up toward the volcano.”
“Okay, Detachment…move out! Tactical two…keep together. Chen…moving barrier...minimum radius. We can take a few hits…just keep a full swarm off us.”
“Copy that, Captain.” Chen Liu signaled ANAD to disengage and form up into a mobile screen ahead of and overhead of the detachment.
Single file, they moved out, away from the clearing, deeper into the jungle of Kurabantu.
And Dana Tallant wondered what else this hellhole had in store for them.
Climbing a steeply pitched path through thick brush, Bravo Detachment was grateful they had their hypersuits, even though it was like walking inside a garbage can. At times, the vine became so thick, that Tallant told Chen Liu to separate part of the ANAD swarm for clearing operations. The tiny assembler became a small horde of disassemblers, chewing a narrow path through the ropy vine. It slowed them down a bit, but the going became easier after ANAD had set to work.
Richter monitored the air as they climbed. Soon enough, the terrain had risen to nearly the height of the tree top canopy. Ahead lay the lush foliage and steep escarpment of Tuontavik itself. Above a ring of mist at the summit, plumes of smoke belched into the sky. All around them, a sea of green extended to the horizon.
“Captain…” it was Samoya, just behind Richter up front. “Superfly’s sending something…I’m enhancing now. I’ll put it on the crewnet, visible wavelengths—“
Throughout the Detachment, everyone’s eyepiece focused into view, looking over the tops of the trees at the base of the volcano. A faint shimmer flickered from the base.
“A fire?” somebody asked.
“In this rain…are you nuts?”
“That’s no fire,” said Chen Liu. “It’s another swarm…and there seems to be a cave at the base of the mountain.”
Tallant called a halt to the march. “Dig in and spread out. Chen, detach part of our ANAD group and send them over. “Let’s see what’s cooking.”
The Detachment halted and the troopers let their hypersuits lower them into defilade position, spread out in a semi-circle and hunkered down in the brush. It was open ground from there to the base of the volcano, except for the thick stands of wiry grass. Samoya signaled Superfly to close in for a better look. Ahead of them several hundred meters, the tiny entomopters, not much bigger than houseflies, wheeled about in unison and formed up over the target, sending back imagery to Samoya. The DPS tech ported the imagery straight away to the crewnet so everyone could see.
“I’m detaching a recon element,” Liu announced. He ripped off a few commands on his wristpad. Overhead, unseen but as commanded, a small part of the ANAD swarm that had been flying top cover over them pulled away and sped off toward the shimmering glow at high speed. “It’ll take about ten minutes,” the IC1 announced. ANAD ran on picowatt propulsors, churning like flagella in the air, but their power output was low. At best, the assembler could make about five thousand nanometers a second.
Sergeant Collin was curious, studying the image on his own eyepiece. “What do you make of that, Skipper?”
Tallant shrugged, invisible in her hypersuit. She could switch her eyepiece image from Superfly to an acoustic or EM image from ANAD with a flick of her tongue on the control stud inside her helmet. “It’s a shield of some type, that’s what I make of it. Whoever or whatever’s inside, they?
??ve got protection. ANAD’ll tell us what we’re dealing with.” By the book, she told herself. Scout the enemy and know what you’re up against. “Richter, what about the air around here? Any changes?”
“Big changes, Captain…I just saw it myself...” Richter was in control of a small horde of sniffer ‘bots circling overhead, nearly invisible motes no bigger than particles of dust, tasting the air for toxic compounds, measuring pressure and temperature. “Sniffos are having a time in this rain—“ The downpour had slacked off to a steady drumming of big, wet drops. “—but oxygen’s way down, less than five percent partial pressure. Nitrogen’s fluctuating, plus there’s all kinds of weird trace elements—fluorine, helium, it doesn’t make any sense, Captain…there’s no obvious source. Even the ground pressure’s going up and down like a cork in the ocean…I don’t get it.”
“Could be the volcano belching,” Collin suggested. “Burning off stuff that’s been piped up from deep underground.”
“Maybe,” said Tallant, but she wasn’t buying it. “BioShield said it didn’t look like a natural process. Signatures don’t conform. Eric, can you tell if the disturbances center on that cave?”
Richter did some finagling with his sniffers, checking winds, triangulating fluxes. “That’s affirmative, Skipper. Best fix for the source, if there is one, would be right around that cave.”
Then that’s where we have to go, she muttered to herself. Trouble was, the book didn’t say anything about this.
“ANAD’s got an image—“ Liu reported.
Tallant studied the scene on her eyepiece as it materialized and settled down. Switching back and forth from her own eyes, with hypersuit enhancement, to Superfly and then to ANAD’s view of the world of atoms and molecules was disorienting, to the say the least. The image was blurry, like looking underwater, though dark shapes were present. “What the hell is it, Chen?”
“Our friends from the lagoon…same ‘bots, looks like. Formed up into a barrier around the mouth of that cave.”
“Okay…let’s get ANAD ready for assault. We know what we have to do. Tony, get your HERF gun spooled up too. We’ll slam ‘em with RF, then storm the cave entrance with ANAD. Detachment, on my command, advance—“