Robot Dust Bunnies (Argonauts Book 5) Page 5

  “We could always disable the Skeeters before we leave,” Lui said. “Use our mechs essentially as loader units, and remove the power cores. Those shuttles will be useless until we reload the cores.”

  “I’d prefer to keep the Skeeters on standby,” Rade said. “In case we need them in an emergency.”

  “I still think we should send the robots first,” Manic said. “What if we’re merely tilting at windmills?”

  “The eff you talking about?” Bender said. “Tilting at windmills. Bitch talk right there.”

  “It means imagining enemies where there are none,” Manic explained. “Like Lui said, the exploratory craft might be a diversion. The Phant may have retreated in the opposite direction entirely, with no intention of returning, at least not until we’re long gone.”

  Rade considered their options and then made up his mind.

  five

  We take the mechs,” Rade said. “I’m going to assume that the Phant is lying in wait somewhere in the tunnel system, likely planning an ambush of some kind. I’m not going to risk entry without Hoplites. Presuming the client is okay with the expense...” He glanced at Surus, who ultimately was responsible for reimbursing him for the cost of deploying the Hoplites.

  “I have no intention of sparing any expenses on this hunt,” Surus said.

  “All right, Shaw,” Rade said. “I want you to drop nine of the Hoplites, along with the necessary booster rockets we’ll need to get back.”

  “Only nine?” Shaw said. “You don’t want me to send Nemesis for Corunna?”

  Nemesis was Shaw’s Hoplite; while Rade could have ordered the mech dropped as well, he wasn’t sure he trusted Corunna enough to allow her to pilot it.

  “No,” Rade said.

  “Do you want me to take the second Dragonfly to the cave?” Corunna said. “And proceed inside on foot?”

  “No, that’s probably not a good idea,” Rade said. “It’s best to limit your exposure to the heat, even if the temperature rapidly drops off inside the cave. When the jumpsuit fails, your host body will quickly follow.”

  “What do you want me to do then?” Corunna said. “Surely you’re not going to make me stay behind?”

  “When the Hoplites arrive, you’ll have to share a cockpit with someone.” Whoever did that would have to give up control of their mech to the Hoplite’s AI, as the inner actuators couldn’t properly envelope the pilot when there were two individuals crammed aboard.

  “She can share mine,” Bender volunteered. Behind his faceplate, he flashed that golden grille of his.

  Rade ignored the request. “Shaw, send the nine Hoplites at your earliest convenience, if you haven’t already, along with the booster rockets. Leave Nemesis aboard. Surus, you’ll share your cockpit with Corunna when Sprint arrives. Algorithm and Brat, remain with Shuttle A outside the cave. You’ll stay there in a support position for the duration of the mission. Shuttle B will join you shortly.”

  “Understood,” Algorithm replied over the comm.

  Rade and the others proceeded through the abandoned research station until they were back inside the hangar bay dome.

  After a few minutes, Shaw transmitted: “The comm nodes of the mechs should be within signal range soon.”

  Rade glanced at his overhead map. Sure enough, nine blue dots had appeared overhead, indicating the descending mechs. About a klick to the west of those were another nine green dots, indicating the booster rockets the team would need to achieve escape velocity and return the Hoplites to the Argonaut.

  The blue dots touched down at various spots within an eight hundred meter radius of the base, and bounded across the surface, eventually rendezvousing outside the dome.

  “Argonauts, contact your mechs,” Rade said. “Make sure they’re ready to receive you.” He tapped in the AI of his particular Hoplite: “Electron, do you read?”

  “Loud and clear.”

  “How are you holding up out there?” Rade asked.

  “All systems operational,” Electron replied. “I heard it’s supposed to be hot out here? If so, I certainly can’t tell.”

  “Was that a hint of sarcasm I detected in your voice?” Rade said.

  “Only a hint,” the AI replied.

  “All right, get ready to open up the cockpit,” Rade said. “I don’t want to stay exposed out here any longer than I have to.” Over the general comm, he sent: “Argonauts, assume positions along the perimeter closest to your mech.”

  Rade weaved between the four remaining shuttles and approached the edge of the dome. According to the map, he stood directly across from the Hoplite labeled Electron that waited on the other side.

  “Everyone ready?” Rade asked.

  He was answered by a chorus of ayes and yeses.

  “TJ, the dome...” Rade said.

  The airlock hatch sealed on the far side of the compartment and Rade heard a soft hiss—he knew the air was evacuating from the hangar. In seconds there was only silence.

  Above, the dome split down the middle and the two halves began folding open. The heat rose rapidly; Rade waited impatiently for the curved door in front of him to lower.

  Halfway down, a temperature warning flashed on Rade’s faceplate.

  Rade took several deep breaths, doing his best to ignore the warning. Harlequin had said there was only a ten percent chance of failure in the first few moments of exposure. But a ten percent chance compounded among ten people meant a higher overall chance that one of their suits would fail. Rade wasn’t liking this, not one bit.

  When the dome half reached a quarter of the way down, Rade had enough. He activated his jetpack and arced over the remaining segment. The black landscape appeared before him; below awaited a mech with a hull the same color. It stood out because of Rade’s Implant, the bulky humanoid shape outlined in blue.

  “Here I come, Electron!” Rade sent.

  The cockpit hatch opened and Rade landed inside. The inner actuators enveloped him as the hatch sealed. The warning indicator faded as the temperature dropped.

  The camera feed piped into his vision as Rade gained control of the mech. He looked down on the lights of the research base from the height of the Hoplite. He saw the blue outlines of the other mechs standing around the perimeter of the open dome. The other Argonauts were all embedded within the cockpits: like Rade, they had jetted over the rescinding dome halves to enter their Hoplites ASAP as well.

  He stacked the vital signs of his companions into the upper left of his display. All green. Corunna and Surus shared Sprint’s cockpit. He checked the mech status indicators next: all systems operational.

  “Ah mechs, my old friends,” TJ said.

  “Nine Hoplites,” Bender said. “We’ll outnumber the bitch nine to one. Should be a breeze.”

  “Be very careful not to underestimate our opponent,” Surus said. “I’m sure by now you’ve learned that Phants are a crafty, clever bunch.”

  “Un nemico è troppo o cento amici non bastano,” TJ said. “One enemy is too many, and a hundred friends too few.”

  “What is it with you and the Italian proverbs today, dude?” Bender said. “Have you been reading up on quotes or something? Or you just want to remind everyone you’re Italian?”

  “Guess I’m just in a reflective mood,” TJ replied.

  “Headlamps on,” Rade said.

  Lights activated across the mechs, illuminating the rocky terrain beyond the research station. There was no point proceeding forward in stealth mode, as their enemy no doubt possessed technology of an equal tech level. Rade and the others would readily show up on a LIDAR band, for example, regardless of whether they used their headlamps. If the Hoplites were equipped with LIDAR blurring tech, he might have considered it. Unfortunately, that feature wasn’t available to the current model of mech.

  “Tahoe, take us to the cave,” Rade said.

  Tahoe organized the squad into two fire teams and had them proceed toward the destination in traveling overwatch. Rade was part of the sec
ond team, which followed fifty meters behind the first. The cautionary formation probably wasn’t needed, but then again, it was possible that some proxy of their prey watched from the nearby crags, ready to attack.

  Rade instructed Electron to maintain the Hoplite’s position in the zigzag formation, and he switched his point of view to the scope of his cobra. Using illumination from the focused beam of the weapon light, he scanned the terrain suspiciously. The stabilizing super-gimbal allowed him to carefully study the nearby columns of basalt just as if the weapon were mounted on a bipod.

  “Surus, let me know the moment you detect our prey,” Rade said.

  “Trust me, I intend to,” Surus replied.

  The minutes ticked past. The Hoplites bounded silently over the terrain of the temperate zone. Rade kept an eye on the thermal and radiation levels, but both remained constant.

  The first fire team passed the waiting Shuttle A, and proceeded past it to the cave entrance, where they halted. Surus, who was part of the first fire team, announced: “I’m detecting the presence of the Phant.”

  Rade nodded. “All right. Shuttle B, proceed.”

  The team had loaded most of the remaining HS3s into the second shuttle, leaving only two behind to observe the research base from within.

  On the overhead map, Rade watched the craft’s indicator depart the scientific station. In moments, it hovered above the cave entrance, and the ramp opened. The HS3s rolled out, firing propellant to descend into the cave.

  “TJ, I want them in stealth mapping mode,” Rade said. “No hails. Three hour time limit.”

  “You got it,” TJ replied.

  “Also, hold the original HS3 by the vehicle until we arrive,” Rade said. “I don’t want it exploring that path with the footsteps just yet. Same with the others. They are to explore every other tunnel, except that one.”

  “Understood,” TJ said.

  Mapping mode meant the HS3s would spread throughout the cave system, passing beyond signal range, and returning only when they had completed their map, or the three hour limit had elapsed, whichever came first. Beside lack of communications, stealth mode also meant the HS3s would operate without lights, and employ periodic LIDAR bursts to navigate and map the terrain, retreating at the first sign of any tangos. That mode probably wasn’t all that helpful, given the expected tech level of their enemy, but since operating in stealth wouldn’t hinder the HS3s in any way, Rade decided the scouts might as well employ it.

  “Meanwhile, let’s move in,” Rade said. “Deactivate signal pings.” Those were automated pings sent out by communication subsystems in an attempt to link with other nodes to form a wireless adhoc network.

  The Argonauts proceeded into the cave, the second fire team following the first. Those obsidian walls enveloped them with their black, glassy surfaces.

  Downward the team marched, traveling from the hot surface to the cool insides beneath the planet. Rade could almost feel the weight of the thousands of tonnes of rock pressing down overhead.

  Different sections of the tunnel branched off, but Rade and company remained on the main tunnel, heading toward the exploratory vehicle. Many of the HS3s were still in range, and a glance at the overhead map showed him that those different branches were slowly being mapped out. One had already terminated in a dead end, and the HS3 mapping it was on the way back.

  The Hoplites soon came upon the segmented exploratory vehicle with its steel treads. As instructed, the HS3 waited near the tunnel with the footsteps.

  “TJ, open the vehicle,” Rade said.

  A moment later the exploratory vehicle’s entry hatch slid aside.

  “Fast hacking job,” Fret commented.

  “Send the HS3 inside,” Rade said.

  The small scout zipped into the hatch and mapped out the interior. Rade watched from its viewpoint, but there was nothing of note inside.

  “TJ, see if you can remotely access the vehicle’s AI,” Rade said.

  TJ reported in: “I was able to get access. It’s not very sophisticated, unfortunately. Nothing like the AIs we have aboard shuttles. It’s smart enough to run the vehicle’s subsystems, but if you’re looking for data logs or anything of that sort, all I have are its previous travel records. Apparently, the scientists used the craft to visit this cave system often. Likely to collect samples.”

  Rade studied the passage beyond the exploratory vehicle. The black dust on the floor contained several overlapping footsteps. It was impossible to get an estimate of how many had passed that way.

  “So what you’re saying is, they might have entered this cave to get samples many times in the past,” Rade said.

  “That’s right,” TJ said. “There’s no way to tell if it was used recently.”

  “All right,” Rade said. “Send the HS3 into the passage. Hoplites, we follow. Let’s see where these footsteps lead.”

  “Looks kind of tight,” Fret sent.

  “We’ll fit,” Tahoe said.

  The HS3 led the way, and the Hoplites followed in single file twenty meters behind.

  “Shaw, do you still read?” Rade said.

  “I do,” she replied. Her voice digitally distorted. “But not for much longer.”

  Rade nodded to himself. “Looks like we’re going in the black for a while.”

  “Maybe divert some HS3s from their mapping purposes to act as repeaters?” Shaw said.

  “Even if I did, it would only increase our range for a little while longer,” Rade said. “Besides, there’s not really much you can do right now if the shit hits the fan anyway. Last I checked, Hellfires and lasers can’t penetrate five hundred meters of obsidian.”

  “No, I suppose not,” Shaw said. “Be careful down there.”

  Rade proceeded forward for another few moments, and Shaw’s indicator finally blinked out.

  “We just lost contact with the Argonaut,” Fret said.

  Rade piped in the viewpoint of the lead HS3. It passed into a wider cavern surfaced by shards of sharp-looking obsidian. The footprints vanished, as there was no longer any soot coating the ground.

  “That floor looks like a jumpsuit grinder,” Tahoe said. “You trip on that, your suit is getting punctured.”

  “If the research scientists came this way, they crossed very, very carefully,” TJ said.

  “The presence of our prey just got stronger,” Surus said. “It’s definitely somewhere ahead.”

  There was only one exit to the cavern, a small opening on the far side.

  “Um,” Fret said. “Our mechs aren’t going to fit that.”

  “He’s right,” Lui said. “If we want to follow that HS3 inside, we’re going to have to proceed on foot.”

  “What say you, boss?” TJ asked.

  “I’ll make up my mind when we reach the cavern,” Rade said. “Hold the HS3 near the opening to that exit in the meantime.”

  Rade and the other Hoplites reached the cavern and spread out. They approached the opening, their big metal feet easily shattering the sharp fragments underfoot. The target cave was about half the size of a Hoplite; it would fit the jumpsuits of the pilots in single file only. Inside, the smooth sooty floor had returned, as had the footsteps.

  “The pussy of doom just got tighter,” Bender said.

  “I thought you liked them tight,” Manic commented.

  “Wrong,” Bender said. “You’ve misread me all these years. The looser, the better.”

  “So what’s the plan, boss?” Tahoe said.

  “TJ, send the HS3 inside, lead by forty meters,” Rade said. “I want the scout to maintain LIDAR burst mode. Everyone else, dismount and retrieved your laser rifles. Tahoe, arrange the marching order.”

  The Hoplites knelt, and the cockpits fell open, allowing the Argonauts to climb down onto the sharp rocks.

  “Headlamps on, people,” Rade said.

  Careful not to trip, Rade and the others opened up the storage compartments in the leg regions of the mechs and retrieved the rifles they had stowed there
.

  Tahoe placed Lui on point, followed by Bender, Rade, Surus, Corunna, Harlequin, Fret, and Manic, with TJ and himself bringing up the rear.

  Rade ordered the Hoplites into guard mode. And then he said: “Lui, lead the way.”

  Lui, on point, stepped into the smooth-floored cave and said: “Who’s up for a little spelunking?”

  six

  Rade kept the video feed from the lead HS3 piped into the upper right of his vision; it was composed of a three-dimensional wireframe, as produced by the LIDAR bursts.

  Directly in front of him, his headlamp illuminated Bender’s jumpsuit, and the obsidian walls of the tight tunnel. Rade could raise his arms only a few centimeters before encountering the obdurate stone on either side. Overhead, his helmet sometimes scraped the ceiling, forcing him to duck now and then. And he thought the presence of thousands of tonnes of rock pressing down over his head was palpable before...

  Rade glanced at the map. Most of the HS3s were out of range now, continuing to map the extents of the cave system. Before leaving comm signal range, none of them had reported anything unusual.

  In a few moments, Fret said: “I’m picking up signal pings directly ahead. Consistent with ten Russian profiles. Should I hail, or otherwise allow comm linking?”

  “Not yet,” Rade said. “Everyone else, maintain signal ping silence. Headlamps off. No point in giving them any advance warning.”

  “But if the Phant is with them,” Lui said. “It already knows we’re here, thanks to Surus and Corunna.”

  “That’s a good point,” Rade said. “Even so, I want headlamps off, because our prey won’t know where they are with any precision. Use the LIDAR map for guidance.”

  The tunnel descended into darkness. Rade switched to the LIDAR map created by the HS3, and continued. Ahead of him, Bender was outlined in blue, thanks to Rade’s Implant.

  The HS3 approached an opening, according to the three-dimensional wireframe. Rade saw a dim outline set upon the floor beyond, and he realized there was an active light source inside.