Their arrival was heralded by then a hum that slowly got louder and louder, becoming a booming, resonating hum that Laura could hear all the way from her base, swearing Laura started looking through various recon drones, trying to find a view of whatever was making that noise. Finally, three blips came up, dwarfing every other blip besides perhaps the spider moth, and it was moving fast and high. Laura swore.
The transports powered over the trees, their ducted fans beating the bush flat underneath them, the stretched and skeletal tri-copter design bristling with the hanging forms of dozens of war bots their skeletal frames swaying and rattling in the wind. Reaching a crescendo the transports swept down upon the roadway, hovering a few meters above the ground the magnetic locks released, dumping their payloads onto the ground. For several seconds the robots remained still before jerking upright, red eyes bursting into cold red light as they raised their weapons at the ready. Tens of kilometres away the Commander smiled, not that anyone could see, with a mental command the bots surged forward, their monowheels humming as the robots sped into the underbrush.
“All personnel report to rally areas, we have multiple unknown airborne contacts. Aircrews get the choppers in the air. This is not a drill.”
Laura swore as she watched the veritable horde of new robots enter the field.
“Alan what am I looking at?!”
Laura’s eyes widened. “But we don’t even know what they want, what if?” her question was cut off by Alan’s voice.
“Ok.” Laura said, trying to reason with the irate voice in her head. “I’ll contact them. But we can’t be certain if the other Commander is actually on our side, so how about I handle meeting them MY way, ok?”
Choosing to ignore how humanly curt the AI sounded, Laura turned her attention to the issue at hand. “002 take two of your squaddies and head to the designated coordinates, I need you to make contact with the new guys, lets see what they want.”
The Commander watched through the eyes of his drones as they banged and rattled through the trees, wheels crushing brush and churning up mud as they pounded through the underbrush, weapons raised, eyes scanning the surroundings for movement.
Their advance suddenly halted, ahead of the group stood a bot, by the look of it a standard model. The Commander frowned, he couldn’t command this one, it wasn’t one of his, another Commander? The robot stepped forward, each footfall echoing in the dying light as it drew closer, its glowing blue eyes against the crimson of his soldiers’ the silent standoff continued until the machine was standing just a few meters from the head of the group. There was an inaudible click and a connection was established.
A woman’s voice crackled into his mind “This is Commander…” there was a pause. “Hera, who am I speaking to?” The Commander grinned, then he spoke.
“This is Commander… Odin.” He replied, his voice coming through as a slow, hissing growl. “Why are you here?” The woman hesitated before replying. “Grabbin’ the warchive, you can have a copy when we’re done with the bugs, ‘Odin’ considered it, just for a moment. It could work, he would have to dispose of this competitor later, but such ideas were crushed by a not voice, a feeling in the back of what was left of his skull. “A good offer, but I have a counter.” He replied, and his robots opened fire. The effect was immediate the robot before them being immediately cut down in a hail of fire, only for a response to come in kind as blue bolts rained down from the tree line, striking his bots in a barrage of highly accurate fire, his own troops were significantly less accurate, Odin cursing the decision to remove the bot’s ability to individually designate targets as he directed them to begin firing on the two hostiles, the brainless machines hosing down both positions with iridescent energy. Even more infuriatingly the enemy was beating a rapid, organised retreat, one putting down fire while the other bounded back to another position before switching roles. Growling angrily, he directed half his force to head off the retreating bots while the other half drove forward into fire.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Laura swore, a long barrage of curses as she ordered her robots back, “Alan you better have a REAL good explanation right now!”
“Great well until you figure that out, I’m gonna beat this prick into the ground, sound good?”
“Thank you.” Laura snapped as she turned to focus on the battle.
“Ground team, we got some bad guys heading your way. Make sure the data is recovered, then DESTROY the warchive.” Her order was confirmed with a single affirmative beep. As she turned to the airspace battle, she could see the bugs were en route, the spiders scuttling back into the scrub and disappearing. Laura frowned, chances were that they were regrouping for a counterattack, not that she could really do anything to stop them either way if they did. With that in mind, Laura directed her drones in the direction of the new threat. Meanwhile, the robots were struggling, 003 tried to break for the next point of cover, one of the enemy robots finally managed to land one to many clean shots, the armour finally surrendered to the fire, its servos melting, circuit boards curling and blackening and dying. 007 Dropped back as the drones turned their full might on its position. It came to a conclusion. it was going to be destroyed. It would not be able to complete the Commander’s order to retreat though it had succeeded in delaying the enemy. That fact did not calm it, nor did the previous fact upset it, they were facts. 007 Rose to fire, only to take a direct hit to the chest forcing it to duck back behind its barricade of roots. Its health was in the red at 25% one or two more direct hits and 007 would cease to function, assessing its situation the robot peaked over the barricade. Over a dozen hostiles fanned out across the entirety of its field of view with more probably moving through the tree line. 007’s ammunition was down to 14 shots and at 4-5 shots per hostile the numbers simply did not add up, which meant 007 was soon to be subtracted from the equation. Popping back up 007 put two bolts down range, pinning a hostile and sending it crashing into the scrub, three more taking its place and pushing 007 back into cover. Just as 007 coiled up, preparing to make a final stand, its sensors picked up a low hum, jerking its optics up it watched as a wave of drones descended upon and over its position, their arrival coinciding with a sudden reattachment to the battlenet,”007, move and regroup with the main force.” The Commanders orders echoed in 007’s skull, the command compelling the machine to rise on heat-weakened legs and begin to lumber up the hill whilst the drones pummeled the enemy into the ground.
‘Odin’ bellowed as he watched his robots go offline, their fire overwhelmed by the drone’s fire. With a mental swipe he directed the main force to retreat whilst the flankers pushed forward with renewed speed, the voice in his mind blaring at him to destroy the enemy.
Stumbling back into the clearing 007 observed the rest of the unit that had now dug themselves into more defensible positions, several robots had even dragged several pieces of lumber to the side of the hill to form a barricade. Meanwhile, 001 was still attached to the side of the pod, according to the readouts it was up to 80% download. Looking up 007 watched impassively as a looming shadow descended upon the clearing, the shadow belonging to the frame of a combat drone with a large metallic box hanging from the underside, as the drone drew close to the group, the subspace link opened, allowing fresh energy to flow into the bot’s systems, refilling its ammunition and extending its operation time. Rising slightly 007 stepped up to the barricade, resting its rifle upon the barricade. Meanwhile, Laura once again sat in the idling van, breath caught in her throat as she waited for something to happen, either for the bugs to attack or for the enemy commander to make his move. Unfortunately, no one got a chance to make their move before the newest party’s transports erupted into flame to the symphony of a gunship’s beating rotors.