Laura slammed the brake, causing the van to screech to a stop on the side of the road. Bringing up the battle net, at that moment she watched as 1 took several direct hits and erupted into flame. Laura swore as the robot crumpled down, its head toppling from its melting shoulders, Laura watched dumbly, feeling completely numb as all her plans melted before her. And then her spirits spiked again as two more robots burst out of the undergrowth, one leaning heavily on the other, as they barreled down the hill, as they passed where 1 had fallen the one with the bunged leg leant down and scooped up the head. Laura whooped as she yanked the side door open, watching as the two surviving robots tumbled out of the tree line, barely stopping they crashed in through the open doorway, Laura barely diving out of their way. As she scrambled to the driver's seat, a bolt streaked from the trees and skimmed past the windscreen, with a yell Laura drew her pulse pistol and turned the offending bug into steaming paste, her fire was joined by a barrage of fire from the two surviving robots. Jumping into the driver’s seat, she slammed her boot on the accelerator. As the van rattled down the road, one of the robots reached forward, handing Laura the head of 1. Raising the head up almost reverently Laura stared into its dead eyes.
“You did well my friend, goodbye.” With that Laura’s hand glowed, the light breaking down the object into pure mass for storage and downloading, the data onboard integrated into her mind.
Laura’s mouth stretched into a grin, “Light Transport?” Alan chimed in.
“Yeah, that’s true, thanks Alan”
“Wha.” Laura’s head swung around and she found herself staring into the glowing eyes of 7.
“Before you thought about jumping again.” He stated as Garrett scowled at him but elected to not add fuel to the flame.
“We’re coming up on the target, 15 seconds.” The pilot’s voice crackled through the radios prompting the troops to quiet down and give their weapons a final inspection. Swooping low over the trees, the helicopter came in low over the burning wreckage of the unknown aircraft, as far as he could tell they were all thoroughly dead. Dropping his NVGs Garrett scanned the treeline, once again revealing no movement of any kind In some ways that was good, some ways it was bad, and frankly the perfect silence alongside the destruction set his nerves on a razor’s edge. Moving again the helicopter swept low and hovered over the road several kilometres from the battlefield. Almost silently the ropes were dropped and the troops slid down to the gravel below, their forms indistinct against the darkness and the brush.
“1-1 to command, boots on the ground, pushing to battle zone.”
There was a quick double beep of confirmation, and the troops began to disperse and creep forward.
Odin leaned back in his chair, letting his mind collect the shattered pieces of data still filtering in from the battle net. Its biomechanical body was completely still while the various technicians maintaining the hybrid human/ Autowar tech that made up the core did their best to avoid catching his attention, not that such a thing was possible, in his realm none were beyond his vision. And so it infuriated him that the borders of said realm were apparently far smaller then he had believed. With access to security systems, traffic cameras, internet routers and more it should have been easy to pick out, yet the thieving rat that was this ‘Hera’ had completely disappeared along with his data. With an electronic shriek the man-machine leapt up and slammed a fist onto the mahogany table before him, breaking it in half and reducing the legs to splinters. The scientists all leapt and quickly withdrew into the false security of the shadows.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Commander. not that I would ever tell you what to do with your money, but I doubt that desk was cheap. And it looked quite nice.” A low, oily voice trickled from the unlit back of the room. Odin turned his burning baleful eyes towards the source of the voice and its optics narrowed.
“Mr Melnic, how kind of you to show up. Fashionably late I see.” The Commander’s voice dripped with venom as the insolent speaker stepped forward from the darkness. He was an older man, passed the better part of his 50s, despite that he carried himself with a mercurial, almost predatory gait. Coming to a stop he rose to his full 6,2 height and stood at rest. With the brown leather jacket that disguised his muscular frame along with the cargo pants, boots and close-cropped greying hair he struck the appearance of a retired soldier. Of course, ‘retired’ was used quite loosely, considering the purpose of Martin Melnic’s entrance.
“While you have been dragging you’re feet we have already lost precious intelligence to some uppity girl and half a dozen robots!” The mercenary smiled stiffly. “With all due respect sir, my ‘feet dragging’ was necessary, neither I nor any of my fellow employees can be expected to fight with out guns now.”
“I can supply you with weapons far superior to anything on the market!” the machine man bellowed. “All you have to do is follow MY orders and get paid.”
“With all due respect.” The mercenary replied coolly. “One should always take the time to get acquainted with the local topography and supply lines. And by the chatter on the radio, you should be glad you didn’t send anyone who could speak.” Martin paused, before continuing. “The local military have the area locked down with operators already inspecting the wreckage, frankly this is the best it could have gone, the military is scared and on alert. If any of my men had been present they would have either been dead and the military would be picking him clean for intel, or even worst, asking him directly. I hate to break it to you but this is frankly as it could have gone.” The commander continued to seethe. “Sir” the man continued “Now we know that there is an active third party and the good news is that we are now aware of her presence. And more importantly, we have some idea of her disposition; she made use of a small force supported by air elements that do the majority of the fighting, she is lacking in resources or industrial bases.”
“So we have the advantage in a war of attrition then.” The commander hissed, finally smiling.
“Correct sir. If I am to be honest, I am slightly confused as to why you even required my services.”
“I have made the decision to centralise control to maximise my available forces unfortunately, that means that my troops are somewhat lacking in the field of general intelligence and decision making. And that is why YOU are here. You and you’re men will be my battlefield commanders. But before that you need to clean up a certain mess.”
“The girl?”
“The girl.” The Commander affirmed. “Find her, get the information if you can… and eliminate her.”
At that the old soldier smiled, a faint one but a smile none the less. With that he turned and strode back into the darkness from where he came. As the footsteps receeded, Odin turned his attention back to the battle net.
“Launch drones, I want full coverage for a 60km radius, Find this ‘Hera’.”
Meanwhile.
“Sweep complete, moving on the detonation point” The radio crackled as Garrett dropped the blackened remains of a robot’s head back into the dirt, where he stood was in the middle of what haf obviously been a firefight, over a dozen of these bots had been dropped over the hillside, obviously with a fight on the rest of the hill being covered in a layer of ash and splinters, the ferocity of the damage in that direction there was next to none back down the hill. Such precision that implied was unpleasant to consider, especially considering Nidi’s visions. Facing back towards the hill he began to hike further up to where another of the commandos was standing next to a smouldering ridge, in his hand he held what appeared to be a thin, futuristic rifle, hopping the rise Garrett took a moment to quickly inspect the ‘rifle’. It’s form was akin to that of a DMR, though significantly sleeker with the end tapering off to a single lens a couple centimetres across, whilst it did have an apparent grip where a rifle would be expected to have one though it lacked any observable trigger or magazine. Handing the rifle back to the Commando he crouched down to inspect the weapon’s user. Unlike the one-armed wheel robots down the hill, this one was quite close to approaching a humanoid robot. Albeit one with a not to pleasant visage that reminded Garrett of a spider with its two bundles of receptors. Unlike the apparent opposition that had been brought down with unnaturally accurate control shots, these ones had been figuratively pumped full of lead, most of its body was blackened and heat warped, leaving most of its electronics completely ruined, though with the opposing scrap heap Garrett figured the brass wouldn’t mind to much, with that thought Garrett moved onto something they would definitely be upset about. Stepping up toward the centre point of the apparent battle he eyed the still-smoking heap of metal.
“So… what have we got?” he asked, almost sarcastically. The soldier shot him a filthy look.
“Another pile of alien scrap.” The soldier snarked, “By the look of it some sort of data storage.” He added as he stood up, holding in his hand something resembling a broken slide of glass, taking the item he noticed the kaleidoscope of colours that danced across its cracked surface.
Garrett let loose a sigh. “Gentlemen, I think we have found what this was all about.”