Harry took a moment to find cover. Something was shooting needles at him. The bees flew off to deal with it.
“Did you have a plan before doing whatever it is we’re doing?,” asked Nick. “This looks like a quick way for you to die and putting me back in the rotation for another contractor.”
“I just need to take a minute to think about the next move,” said Harry. “Do you happen to know where the first hive planting is from here?”
Nick put a picture of the continent in his head. He put a mark where they were, and then another where the other bees were.
“That’s a lot of miles,” said Harry. “So the first thing we need right now is cover fire so we can build a vehicle. The bees are doing a good job, but we need something a little more devastating.”
“Nothing we can have sent to us will challenge a star whale from the outside,” said Nick. “The skin is too tough.”
Harry decided he needed another beetle with a gun on its back. He summoned one after checking all the toggles. He pressed the release on the box and tapped it awake. It looked at him sideways.
“I want you to follow the other one and keep it from being overwhelmed,” he said, pointing at his earlier creation.
The beetle started walking and shooting at anything that came close to it.
Harry whistled for his bees to come in close so he could brief them. They buzzed around him, taking sizzling potshots at any of the xenos that got too close to the huddle.
After they were done talking, they would be shooting in earnest.
“Give them the location of the other platoon, Nick,” said Harry. He waited for
confirmation that the information had been sent. “That’s where we are going. The object is to leave the new hives behind and have the new guys dig in to protect them while we clear a corridor to our older brothers. Any questions?”
One of the bees buzzed at him.
“We’re not going to leave anyone behind,” said Harry. “The goal is to pacify the planet, force the xenos to retreat if we can. If we can’t, it’s going to be us versus them. And we can’t let them take Earth. I have already decided to kill as many as I can to save the world. You ready?”
The bees buzzed in agreement.
“Spread out, start pushing, team on one if you can,” said Harry. “I’m going to try to get us a tank we can use against these guys.”
The two beetles poured shot after shot into the horizon. He hoped they hit what they were aiming at from the way they lit up the sky. Some of the aerial xenos decided to investigate. Bomblets and missiles blew one of his beetles up as it took one of the fighters down. The other kept trundling forward.
Harry decided he couldn’t let the xenos swoop down on him and stop his one mobile artillery. He had to do something about the fliers before he started his long march across the planet.
He created a selfloading missile battery. A fabricator like his hives created
ammunition for the rest of the device to shoot. He smiled as some of his bees buzzed around the thing until it shot. They quickly got out of there as the thing sent a volley of missiles into the sky.
He created another a few feet away and let it shoot the other way so that both sides of the circle could be covered. He knew the devices could be destroyed if the xenos put some effort and numbers into it. The fabricators weren’t that fast building new missiles, and anything fast or tough enough could swoop through the cover thrown up by the bees to smash either launcher to uselessness.
On the other hand, the barrages tracked the excessive energy thrown off by the xenos and exploded when they were close enough.
New bees appeared from the hives he had thrown down. They added to the confusion as they protected the launchers.
Harry looked at the bleak landscape. The closest he had seen to what he was looking at was the deserts of Iraq. He didn’t see any settlements anywhere. Didn’t the people who used to live here use buildings?
Maybe he was in the wrong part of the world.
He supposed he should get moving, but his settlement needed something added to it to give the launchers and bees more protection. He knew the xenos were smart enough to rip up the hives if they could get to them.
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He set up walls around the base of the launchers. They would still be able to shoot at will, but the xenos would have to climb, or break through, the summoned barriers. That would give the bees time to cut through anything they could to save the launchers.
On the other hand, if something showed up that was impervious to their particle guns, he told them to flee and catch up with him if they could. The hives would have to keep spawning soldiers while the rest of the swarm provided a distraction.
It wasn’t ideal but he didn’t want to lose all of them if he could help it.
“There is a road to our right, about three fifty five,” said Nick. “The enemy haven’t torn it up yet.”
Harry focused his helmet reticle in that direction. He nodded. There was something there that looked like a strip in the cascade of slightly red dust and scrubs all around. He could use that to try to get to the rest of his bees.
“All right, guys,” said Harry. “I’m going to try for a blue beetle. We’ll be able to ride in style.”
He checked his quartermaster. He had so many catalogues open at this point, he couldn’t sort through them all. Still, it only took a few minutes for him to select features and enhancements. His bees and launchers bought him that time.
He told the quartermaster to send it.
A gold body fell out of the sky and landed on six legs. Antennae oriented on Harry. He ran toward a door in the front underneath the false head. He slid into the captain’s seat. Systems activated. He sent the launchers a code so they wouldn’t shoot at him when he roared away. His bees latched on to spots on the roof as the bee floated off the ground.
“Beetle gun, I have a bay for you to ride in until I need to deploy you again,” said Harry. “Get ready to be picked up.”
The golden bee hovered over the beetle as it paused in its shooting. The surrounding landscape had suffered from the near misses. Harry ignored the burning scrubs and glassed sand as he told the bee legs to pick the minion up and stuff it in the storage bay. He had enough room for another one, but decided to wait until he needed to use it. The bay doors clamped shut when the beetle was secured.
“I’m dropping another beacon,” Harry said. “This is a reminder this is where we came through and started fighting back. We’re going to head out and see if we can pick up our other bees. Maybe we can put up a united front across our small territory.”
“Your small territory is fifty yards,” said Nick.
“We can still expand,” said Harry. “Drop homing beacon. Full offense against
air threats. Send message to bees that we are on our way.”
The air ship completed the tasks smooth as glass. The beacon signal was matched down a line to the other beacon signal. Mana signatures were everywhere. Particle beams and missiles struck out at the closest targets. The sky clouded with the damage he was doing.
Something stirred in the distance. A massive head lifted up. Burning green eyes regarded the bee as it struck around it. A neck bigger than a redwood lifted that monstrous skull higher as it readied to attack the machine in its way.
“All weapons on the giant snake,” said Harry. “Evasive action.”
Nick said something that might have been a curse if Harry spoke the language.
The missiles cycled through the build load shoot rotation as the bee turned to go around the snake. The particle guns threw ribbons of energy out, mildly scorching the target when they hit. The bees on the roof facing the titan joined in with their smaller weapons.
The snake opened its mouth and fire blasted at the bee. It missed as the oblong craft threw itself out of the way.
“We can’t do anything from the outside,” said Nick. “We need a capital ship’s main cannon to kill that beast.”
“We need to drop a plasma lance down inside of it like we did the star whale,” said Harry.
“How are we going to do that?,” asked Nick. “I don’t see a way.”
“I know a way, but it’s tricky,” said Harry. “And we have company.”
The bees at the rear of the bigger bee fired at aerial xenos trying to catch up to the aircraft. Small flares blasted from the rear of the mother ship, diverting some of the pursuers into beams of death.
Harry ran to the back of the aircraft. He held on to handles to keep from falling down as he paused over the loading bay. He opened the inner door. He bought another lance and let it materialize inside the bay. He wondered how that worked but decided he could worry about the targeting from the supply depot some other time. He almost fell as the bee spun and unloaded the main guns on his pursuers.
“All right,” said Harry. “We need to fly over the snake’s head and bait it into opening its mouth. When it does, we need to drop the lance.”
The contractor made his way back to his chair. He settled in as the ship flowed through the air. He looked at the screens, trying to read the dangers all around him.
“We should run, Harry,” said Nick.
“I would, but that thing is right behind us,” said Harry. “I don’t know if we can take a single shot from that blowtorch it’s carrying. We have to try to put it down, or wound it so much that it can’t chase us.”
“All right,” said Nick. “Star whales are coming down to investigate. We might have presented too much of a threat in the skies.”
“Nothing I can do about that,” said Harry. “Commence attack run. We’re only going to have one chance at this. Let’s see what we can do.”
The snake opened its mouth on Harry’s screen. He could see the build up of energy as his bee flew right at the beast. It was big enough to eat his van-sized vehicle and many more in one shot.
“Open the bay door,” he ordered as the flame leapt up at him. He closed his eyes and hoped he wasn’t looking at a crash.
He opened his eyes to several alerts. He had taken some damage, but they were still in the air. He looked at the rear as he flew on. The titan convulsed in the sand, hole through its neck.
“Dead on target,” said Nick. “We’ve lost some power. We’re not going to make it far with the aerial brigade behind us.”
“Release the mechanics,” said Harry. He settled back in his chair and breathed a sigh of relief.
Vents opened on the outer shell of the bee as it sped away. Metallic insects crawled out on the surface of the craft. They began smoothing away any damage as best they could. Some of them went over the small bees that had been caught in the blast of bad breath and brought them back to operational standard.
Small crews started work on any problems on the inside as Harry aimed for the other beacon with xenos in hot pursuit.