The original gate that Harry had intercepted had been launched from a wrecked town square in a place wrapped around what used to be a well. That had been destroyed when the xenos had run rampant and killed everyone they could.
The buildings had holes in their walls, ripped down doors, broken windows. Some had been struck from the air by the living bombers the xenos used.
The first hive had landed in the lee of the massive well that had fueled the town. It waited for its first protector to come to life before building the next. And the other bees firing into the gate from the other side allowed it to create a handful more of the bees.
They started clearing out the area around the square, sending information back to headquarters. The xenos lost grunts to the small intruders, but they ignored it at first.
They had to get to Earth to carry out their plan.
They stopped ignoring the damage when hive five came online, and started adding to the bee army. Concentrated fire erased the smaller aliens, and sliced through the bigger ones in moments. Some of the bees dug in to the soft ground, and the roofs and walls of the town and used them for firing posts. The rest flew as an army of hazing monsters.
And every tenth bee came with a hive to be dropped just outside of the ring of control set up by the hive. Eventually the bees started clearing the buildings and holding them from the xenos so the flying monsters couldn’t get at them so easily.
The signal from their creator had been a surprise. They checked the vector of his flight path. Mana signatures showed more of the strange creatures coming up behind him. They knew their smaller particle guns would not scratch the bigger signatures unless they got inside.
They had practiced their craft for some days. They knew what they could do to achieve their goals of eliminating their targets. And they shared files with the new versions that were on the field with their creator.
The bees arranged themselves in line, signaling readiness as they waited. The dug-in bees waited for the new super bee carrying their creator to fly over before firing at the same target. Beams of accelerated particles focused on the lead flying creature.
The xeno turned to drop small creatures on its attackers. Such a volley could not go unanswered. As soon as it opened its mouth to launch its troops on the mechanical menaces below it, a swarm of bees entered and began firing inside the star whale, frying everything they could as they worked their way down inside the alien.
The second whale rolled so part of its armament pointed at the ground it was passing over. Shells the size of Buicks crashed down as it fired all of its side cannons at the bees’ holdings. Some of the buildings blew to pieces, destroying or burying the hives inside. Craters formed as the ground was thrown up into the air.
One of the drones closed on the star whale. It latched on to a cannon spike with its legs. When it felt the cannon ready to fire again, it leaned forward and fired its particle gun down into the constrained barrel. The shell blew up inside the organic breech, spraying blood and internal mechanisms back into the body of the beast.
The bee entered its forced opening, and began cutting things up. It hit a rack of shells and blew itself up, while creating a major hole in the side of the whale. Smoke drifted from the wounded beast as it turned around to leave the field. A missile through the hole in its defenses sent it into the ground.
“That’s what we’re talking about,” said Harry. “Can anyone make sure that one whale is dead. We can’t let it get back into the air now that we got it down.”
A small swarm of commando bees pierced the hole and started chopping into
anything within reach. The star whale blew apart under the burning touch of the plasma torches.
“Reform up,” said Harry. “Are you guys still at fighting strength?”
The swarms gathered together and gave each other electronic fist bumps as they shared files. The amount of numbers flowing back and forth was blipping streams as they compared notes.
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“We think they are going to keep trying to take Earth,” said Harry. “So we want to keep building our forces and clear the xenos. We also need something that will reach into space and try to clear the fleet from orbit. Once we have that done, we can worry about taking the next planet back from them.”
One of the bees buzzed at him.
“Yes, we’re talking about a long job,” said Harry. “All of us could get killed trying, but if we don’t do something, the xenos can render every contractor everywhere useless by taking the Bernies’ home world. If that happens, people like me will have to resort to using guns with no way of building robots like you.”
The bees buzzed angrily at that. Building robots like them was the dream of every self respecting contractor. To be denied that privilege was a horror.
“Harry,” said Nick. “We have a few hours if we are right about them keeping to
staying on target. The next gate for Earth should be about here.”
“So we should keep disrupting their operations?,” said Harry. “I like it, but it’s a long haul from here. Should we go for it?”
The bees buzzed their affirmation.
“What happened to the wheelson I gave you?,” asked Harry.
A few bees pointed him to where his mobile turret had been blown apart during an airstrike. The shell of the chassis remained in place. The rest had been scattered across the sand.
“Okay,” said Harry. “I had hoped for more but we can work with this.”
He decided that he needed more mobile artillery to attract attention while he made his way across the planet. The beetle guns and wheelsons could be his tanks while the bees were his infantry. Maybe he should think about building a dedicated air force.
The problem was time. How much time did he have before the whole planet tried to stop him. The grunts had no fear, and didn’t stop coming at you no matter how many losses they took. The bigger ones were immune to his man portable weapons as long as he had to shoot them from outside.
On the other hand, he had the means to create a self serving army as long as the bees and beetle gun could hold out against the xenos.
He decided to use this as his home base. He just needed to link to the other outpost. It was a bigger area to defend, but it forced the xenos to keep trying to disrupt him while he was disrupting them.
If he had more fabricators for other forces, that would be even better from his
perspective.
That third gate still needed to be protected when it opened. He wanted to keep the xenos from this planet from getting to Earth. Box and the other contractors would have to handle the gates from the other planet he had identified.
There was nothing he could do if they moved forces to open gates from space.
“We need a big distraction to keep the xenos thinking we’re going to let them open that third gate tomorrow,” said Harry.
“What are you thinking?,” asked Nick.
“I’m glad I put a food and water dispenser in the big bee because I’m going to be here longer than I thought,” said Harry.
“How long did you actually think you were going to be here?,” asked Nick.
“A couple of hours at the most,” said Harry. “Now I’m thinking a month.”
“A month?,” said Nick. He didn’t ask the obvious follow-up question.
“Let me put a plan together,” said Harry. “Where do you think the next gate to Earth will open?”
Nick marked that on the navigational map in the bee. It was in a valley between two mountains. The distance was not that far in a straight line, but Harry knew he would be dogfighting with flying xenos the whole time.
“All right,” said Harry. “They’re going to want to keep us out of that valley while they do their business. I can see a ton of forces are on the way to stomp us down. I wonder if we can cut off gates supplying xenos to this planet to attack other planets. That would break their chain enough to give people a break.”
“We know Marques was right,” said Nick. “I have confirmed incursions on planets with line of sight to this planet, not just Earth.”
“Can’t do anything about that except clearing the planet so they can’t use it,” said Harry. “I think I have the distraction we need. It’ll take a little doing.”
“As long as they control the orbital space, we are sitting ducks,” said Nick. “One bombardment will ruin things for us.”
“That’s why we have to be able to knock things down from the ground,” said Harry. “Once we start doing that, they’ll have to come to us to stop us.”
“Do we really want that?,” said Nick.
“We need to keep them busy until our side can do something,” said Harry. “I know you’re sharing everything with the brass.”
“Some of the contractors want to do what you’ve done,” said Nick. “They don’t savvy the constant fighting we’re doing here.”
“If you can get some guys who can clear the orbital space, that would be good, but we have to work with what we have here on the ground,” said Harry. “Let’s get started.”
Harry stepped outside the bee and took a bearing to the second outpost. He drew three lines on the ground pointing that way. He nodded. He opened up the quartermaster menu.
His points had dipped when he had created the big bee, but they had maxed out again during his trip across to the ruined town of the first outpost. He had enough to burn up on what he wanted.
And what he wanted was more fabricators.
He placed the first fabricator on the first line. He nodded when it started making his weapon. He walked twenty five yards to the second line. He placed the second fabricator. He walked the next twenty five yards to the last line. He placed the last fabricator.
He stepped back. He had one more fabricator to put down but he couldn’t put it down close to where he had his other fabricators at work. He found an open space between two buildings and set the fourth fabricator down.