July, Tuesday 21th, 2048
Despite the possibility of more Emergences, my helipad remained my highest priority. I wanted to complete it before the weather changed for the worse. By noon I had completed the ditches for the foundation and the repair drones started laying said foundation. It had required some fiddling with their code as they were normally only supposed to do minor repairs. Even so, the drones were much faster than I could do by hand.
In the meantime, I used Herbie’s fabricator to build an oversized omni-cutter for Herbie. With that I started cutting loose rocks into building blocks of a few hundred kilograms each.
July, Thursday 23th, 2048
I had laid the first course of blocks, but now it was time to get back to Victoria for business. I had instructed a dozen Type Four guards how to deal with intruders, and the repair drones were programmed to finish the floor on the ground level of the helipad tower. Two freshly printed cleaning drones from the Mack library of drone blueprints had started to clean the rooms I was regularly using. It would take them a while. A small army would be needed to handle all the dirt and soot quickly.
Later that day I arrived at Victoria International with my little air taxi. It was annoying that I could not land closer to my shelter, but there were only so many traffic violations I could afford to commit. Eventually someone would lose patience.
For now I had some printing to do, by the end of the month another mortar delivery was due. HANAF really liked the things. With the latest batch, they would have a three digit number of them.
July, Tuesday 28th, 2048
The mortars were ready, and with those HANAF would be at target strength for now. I was on my way to the HANAF depot that would receive the delivery, my van loaded to the brim.
Afterwards I had an appointment at SHOCKS with B.S.O.D. and Major Allen to talk about more potential weapons deals. I had two engineering samples to show them: a Spectracopter and an Avian Eliminator.
Once I arrived, they awaited me with a somewhat harried expression on their faces. B.S.O.D. greeted me with “Good to see you, but we need to keep this short. We expect another Emergence soon, and I might need to leave the meeting then.
So we grabbed my wares and hurried into SHOCKS headquarters. There I gave a short presentation. First I pointed at the little turret that looked much like the top half of R2D2.
“Here we have something called the Avian Eliminator. Used as point defense on my van and on my logistics Mack. Not my choice of name, that is what it is called in the Protectors’ catalog. It is programmed as an automatic anti-drone turret, specifically against the Model Six.”
Major Allen asked “What ammunition does it need, and can it be used against other targets?”
“5.7x28mm, and it could be programmed to handle the Model One too. But so far I have preferred to give the more dangerous air threat priority. Against armored units like the Type Four or the Twenty-One it would be a waste of ammunition. Ultimately, this thing is meant to take out fast but fragile kamikaze drones.”
Next, B.S.O.D. wanted to talk about licensing terms. I answered
“I’m thinking about the same deal as with the mortars. Building and delivery by me under normal circumstances, but also blueprints in escrow in case I buy the farm somehow.”
Both B.S.O.D. and Major Allen made approving noises, then B.S.O.D. answered “I think we can accept that, provided we can agree on a fair price. But what is the other thing you have brought us?”
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I opened the box of the Spectracopter.
“This is a stealthy recon drone, functionally comparable to what HANAF has now but with better endurance.”
I lifted the transparent little helicopter out of its case and showed it to them. “With the sky as background, it is typically invisible to the naked eye at eighty meters distance. Exceptions apply if the sun hits at certain angles, then reflections may be visible.”
From Major Allen came reserved approval. “This looks quite impressive, but HANAF already has decent recon capabilities and our budget is not unlimited. I will… ” We were interrupted by an alert.
B.S.O.D. looked at me and said “Duty is calling. If you stay quiet and do not interrupt operations, I invite you to the command center to observe.”
That was an unique opportunity I could not miss. “Great, I’ll come along of course!” We marched to the operations center, while Major Allen went a different way.
At the OP center, B.S.O.D. pointed me at a seat in the rear where I was out of the way but had a good overview. I got comfortable and focused on the large screen on the wall. Across the south of Victoria, all the way to Sooke, scores of red icons dotted the beaches.
One operator mouthed “Oh shit” to the disapproving stares of his colleagues.
Blue icons already moved from HANAF bases towards the south. Some all the way to the coast. Others stopped a few kilometers away from the beaches. I could only admire how fast they reacted, history books showed maneuvers as a much slower affair.
Palace Athena, the commander of SHOCKS, conferred with a middle-aged HANAF officer that had lots of tinsel on his uniform. I recognized him as Colonel Briggs, the brigade artillery commander for the southern Victoria area.
Twenty minutes later, the units from both sides had settled in place. A number of windows on the big screen showed concentrations of Macks, Type 21s surrounded by a handful of Fours each. A few Ones moved inland but were mowed down by rifle and machine gun fire.
Palace Athena (a nice way to mangle the name, I noticed) talked to Colonel Briggs again, then the Colonel spoke into a telephone. I could hear “...fire!”
Half a minute later, grenades came down on the Twenty-Ones like a rain of fire. I had done some Mack-shooting myself, but now I witnessed what professionals could do with my toys. Once the dust settled, most of the Macks were dead. Briggs talked on the phone again, probably organizing the next round of fire missions.
Two minutes later, the next firestorm arrived. This time only some of the grenades were targeted at the Twenty-Ones, the majority went for the Type Four mecha-squids.
Few living Twenty-Ones turned into almost no living Twenty-Ones. A large part of the Fours was also annihilated, with tentacles ripped off and shaped charges punching all the way through their steel bodies.
While Colonel Briggs organized the next salvo, I noticed a swarm of red icons moving quickly across the city, straight towards the Advent weapons platform Sanctuary where SHOCKS was located. The command center I was sitting in was in the communications superstructure of Sanctuary, the only place where humans were permitted.
Unfortunately, Sanctuary’s weapon systems were either wrecked or not usable from the ground, so the enemy units could approach unhindered. Almost unhindered. As the red dots had almost reached Sanctuary, some of them winked out. I could faintly hear explosions. Then most of the red dots reached the platform, and those explosions sounded a lot louder. Like sharp hammer blows against the hull.
One of the drone feeds switched to observing Sanctuary. Four hostile stragglers arrived at Sanctuary, and they looked really small. Could that be Type Six kamikaze drones?
Two of the attackers came in low and passed through the vicinity of my van, which was parked near the foot of Sanctuary. There was a little wisp of smoke from the turret on the van's roof, and those two drones exploded. As the Type Six was the only target currently programmed into the turret, I had my answer.
Almost simultaneously, the two remaining drones reached the hull of Sanctuary. Explosions flashed, and two more hammer blows rang through the hull.
A hubbub went through the operators in the room.
“Quiet!” Palace Athena (snerk!) commanded. Looking at one of the operators, she asked “I was not aware we had installed point defense. Explain!”
The somewhat confused operator replied “We have not. Whatever caused the two drones to explode prematurely was either a technical defect or a third party intervening.”
Then B.S.O.D. looked at me. “Miss MacCallan, did you perhaps leave the Avian Eliminator on your van armed?”
“Well, it did thin out the incoming drones!”