“Reroute all units to the area of the engagement, wipe out all resistance.” As he watched the red markers that were scattered across the area began to drift towards the prescribed area. Some moved considerably faster, courtesy of the dropships. Those were redirected, looping around to the flank, deploying 5 kilometres away to the South, well out of the way of any fighting and, more importantly, any defences. Through the eyes of the dropship, he watched as scores of his robots began to roll away. With that, he returned to his experiments.
Laura was starting to regret her choice to repair the dropship. besides the oddly angular flight pattern it had adopted, it was also utterly worthless in a dogfight, not to say her opponents were significantly better but still. Her point was accentuated as another missile exploded, not close enough to be felt through the hull but close enough that she could hear it.
“Dammit.” She hissed. “How far out are we?”
/10 Kilometres and closing/ the gunship AI replied
“About fucking time we.” Whatever she was going to say was cut off by a brief but heart stopping metallic.
“Holyshitwhatthefuckdidwehit!?” the AI took a moment to respond.
/Tree. Sensor and plotting system’s efficiency diminished/
“Fly a little higher then.” Laura muttered as she sank into her seat, trying to ignore the tremor in her hand that definitely wasn’t due to the bunged thruster.
Thoomp. Thoomp. Several more missiles detonated increasingly close to the dropship. THOOM. And one hit, for the second time that night, Laura was ejected from her seat, falling to the floor with a yelp.
/rear turbine damaged/
“I just bloody fixed that!” Laura howled as she held her bleeding head.
/Rear turret offline/
A second missile hit, striking the lower rear of the dropship. Trying to stand, Laura shook her head as the tinnitus took hold. Letting out an unheard howl, Laura writhed on the floor, legs kicking into nothingness. Nothingness? Laura grabbed the deck, yanking herself upward with the dexterity of a ketamine fuelled chimp. Only once she had reached the forward bulkhead did Laura look back, and her blood froze. Where the rear had been was a gaping hole, beyond which was pitch black and howling wind.
/Guidance offline. Rebooting/
Laura was frozen. Silently praying as she became aware that she was riding in what was effectively an unguided missile.
/Rebooting. Guidance restored. Obstruction. Evasion/
Laura barely had time to grab hold of the bench before the dropship effectively pulled a cobra manoeuvre and went vertical. Looking down, Laura caught sight of the off white surface of the dam wall extending out of view to the left and right.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
/Incoming/ There was another lurch as another missile exploded against the topside of the dropship.
/power compromised. Flight systems failing/ the howl of the engines began to die, the lip of the wall slowly slipped by underneath the dying ship. Laura raised her mechanical hand and began to build.
/System shutdown/ the howl of the engines was replaced with the howl of rushing wind. The fabricator beam danced across the interior of the craft, its progress painfully slow given the circumstances. The diminishing field of view was filled by the water’s surface. The interior of the pod went dark. There was a weighty crash and then silence.
“Aah ow.” Laura whined, shifting in the darkness. As she tried to move, she found herself pinned down, with a quick series of jerks she yanked her metallic arm out and raised it. Just as she had been hoping the various nodes along its length released a cool blue glow, revealing the lifeless form of Seven, having apparently rattled loose and fallen on top of her during the course of the crash. Speaking of the crash Laura quickly glanced around, and felt exactly what she was fearing. Running along her ear and down her back was a thin, bleeding trickle. The thought of being stuck there, with water slowly filling her mouth and nostrils immediately had Laura moving.
“Alan!” she shrieked into the darkness.
the AI’s voice as calm as ever.
“Where are we?”
“Thank fuck.” Laura muttered as she opened the battlenet and began flicking through the list of available units.
“Fuck yeah” she muttered as a particular icon lit up. “Now that’s what I like to see.”
/Target disabled. Target destroyed. Cause: combat induced terrain collision/
Odin turned from his ground battle as his fighters pinged his attention. Mentally swiping across screens, he watched as the ripples from the impact spread and faded, disparate pieces of debris bobbing and slowly sinking into the dark waters. In the view he could see several vehicles that had stopped on the edges of the road along the dam, no doubt either calling the authorities or hoping for their 15 seconds of fame. Regardless they were of no concern and he waved off the attack drones. With that out of the way he would have to send someone for clean-up, lest some humans go digging or worst the enemy commander survived. All that would have to wait though
as a significantly more important issue was now on the table, one Odin was quite looking forward to tackling, with the bugs being encircled and the troublesome ‘Commander’ neutralised if not outright destroyed, he only had one foe left to deal with: the human military apparatus.
Switching the screens again, he watched as another one of his experiments was lowered onto the gurney.
“Activate Unit!” the man machine jolted, the movement significantly less violent then the previous experiments. Moving with only a slight tremor, the cyborg stood up. It gave itself a once over, providing its own limited feedback on top of the readouts that Odin was privy to. Seeing nothing exceptionally out of the ordinary Odin commanded the cyborg soldier to the firing line. From several doors along the sides of the hallway came a sporadic stream of drones began to steadily drift and twirl around the hallway like a tranquil ballet. The cyborg shattered the silence, its heavy cannon roaring as it unleashed a wave of fire upon the unfortunate robots, its aim impeccable as it mowed down each and every drone in the room. For several seconds the Commander did nothing but admire the carnage.
“Initiate storage.” Odin said. “Begin production.”
“and what is all this.” The voice was low, dangerous. “Martin, admiring my latest handiwork?”
“Is that what you call that… THING?” he spat the last word, gesturing to the video of the cyborg stepping into a pre made storage container.
“You have failed, you’re men have failed. I have no room for failure.” Odin’s voice was cold and smooth, as deadly as a snake. “With this test, I have rectified the weakness you have brought.”
“that debacle was your own damn fault” Martin growled, stepping forward and jamming his face directly into the monster’s. “If you had given us the equipment, support or just airstriked the place like I told you, this would have never happened!”
“Well.” The machine hissed. “It WILL never happen again.”