The human compound was coming alive. Lights flicked on, dark shadows moved between them. Helicopters were rising into the air; they turned towards the attacking robots and yellow lines speared the night, connecting with a group of Storm Troopers that had just succeeded in destroying another of the guns. The helicopter fire shattered their bodies in an incandescent explosion. Grey infantry boiled forward and the human craft tilted their noses down and flew towards them, their drone filling the night, their firepower filling in the gaps in the field of fire where the human guns had been destroyed.
‘Sensible,’ said Kavan. ‘Just what I would have done.’
With the additional support of the helicopters, the guns were able to halt the advance. Now two of the craft peeled off and began to fly towards the city itself.
‘What now?’ asked Spoole.
As if in answer, the night lit up in brilliant white once more. More atomic weapons, these detonated beneath the helicopters as they crossed over into Artemisian lines. The two closest craft were destroyed immediately. In the distance, the others fought to remain in the sky.
‘Just as you said, Ada,’ said Kavan.
‘That will keep the others back for a while,’ observed Ada with satisfaction. ‘They won’t know where we’ll do that again!’
The area between Artemis City and the human compound was filling with craters, invisibly glowing with radiation, but still troops and engineers poured forward, running over the bodies of the fallen, turning their fire on the human guns. Everywhere there was movement, light, explosions, dark shapes running in lines this way and that.
And then, to the left, another explosion.
‘Ours or theirs?’ wondered Spoole.
‘Ours,’ said Ada. ‘There are more railway lines being laid over there, hidden by the darkness. They must have got another train close enough to the compound.’
‘They’re being attacked on two sides now!’ called Calor in delight, and she swiped the air with her claws.
‘What’s that?’ called Spoole.
Three lights flared in the human compound. Then three more, then three more. Something bright streaked towards the city.
‘Missiles!’
Three explosions to their right. So loud and bright. It filled the head with static, their vision blurred with white noise.
‘Atomics!’ shouted Ada, and her voice bent as three more explosions came from the left.
‘Launch the first devices,’ instructed Kavan.
‘They’ll take forty seconds to get heeeerrrrr!’
The third set of three explosions was the closest yet. Kavan saw three more lights flash in front of him. They instantly dissolved in a brighter explosion.
‘The Storm Troopers,’ whooped Calor. ‘They hit the launcher!’
The order of the battlefield was breaking down as the Artemisian soldiers charged forward indiscriminately, dropping into shell holes, cut down by guns, shattered by nearby explosions, picked off by the bullets of the helicopters that hung in the distance, afraid of more weapons, but all the time gaining ground, all the time advancing on the human compound. The area before them erupted.
‘Mines!’ said Spoole. ‘How did they do that without us knowing? Do they burrow up from underground?’
‘Ineffective,’ said Kavan, dismissively. ‘A mine can only blow up once. The metal of the soldier that it disables can be used again and again.’
‘What’s that buzzing?’ asked Sandale, and Ada spun to look behind them, her face filled with delight.
‘Here they come!’ she exclaimed. ‘We had to launch them from trains in the end. The engines don’t work unless the device is already up to speed, so we set them on trucks and got the train moving to ninety miles an hour. There is enough of a flow of air into the inlet then to keep the reaction going…’
Kavan wasn’t listening. Ada had to explain everything she saw. All he was interested in was the application. He saw the first of the streamlined devices as it flew overhead, so low Kavan that could make out the eyes set in its underside.
‘… pulse bombs!’ Ada continued. ‘We wove the minds to aim for anything hanging in the air. Look! It’s seen the helicopters!’ Ada’s eyes flashed blue with delight.
First one, then two, then a whole pack of the devices streaked past, heading towards the human craft, rolling through the air to dodge their fire. The first one hit a helicopter and exploded in yellow flames. Up ahead, the robots stamped the ground, three times. Stamp, stamp, stamp.
‘And more,’ called Ada, looking up. ‘And more! Oh, give me more time and I will make you missiles like the humans build! I will build a device that will carry Artemis to the stars! Then Nyro’s voice will be heard across the galaxy!’
The pulse bombs rumbled overhead, the strange buzzing noise of their engines resonating against each other.
‘We had to tune the combustion chambers to a precise pitch for each one,’ explained Ada. ‘Listen, how they each sound a different note. Listen to how they build chords in the sky! The harmonies resonate against each other! We are building a symphony from the battlefield.’
‘Oh yes!’ shrieked Calor, slashing her claws once more. ‘Oh yes! I can hear it!’
Mad, thought Kavan. They’re all mad.
More human guns detonated around the perimeter of the compound. More Storm Troopers moved forward, more bazookas firing. More infantryrobots running forward, closer to breaching the perimeter.
‘Nearly there,’ said Spoole, the excitement in his voice. ‘And then the second offensive begins! Are you ready Sandale? Are you ready, Generals?’
The Generals had scratched wire wool across their bodies, dulling the shiny surfaces. They carried rifles and blades, they wore grenades and determined expressions.
‘We’re ready!’
Kavan was impressed to note the steel in their eyes. They were going to attack, he was sure of that much. After that… he would just have to wait and see.
More of the pulse-bomb devices buzzed overhead. But now white tracer was streaming up from the smaller of the two human spaceships lying there in the middle of the compound. The tracer caught the missiles, exploding one of them overhead, the force of the blast knocking Kavan and the rest to the ground. Some of the robots didn’t stand up again.
‘Lights,’ said Calor, peering into the night. ‘All over the human compound. They are running this way and that. Climbing into vehicles. Coming to meet us.’
Yellow and red flames flared up inside the compound, they arced up and over the perimeter fence to drop down on the infantryrobots just beyond, disintegrating their bodies, flinging shrapnel everywhere, damaging the fence itself.
‘Now,’ said Kavan. ‘Generals! Redeem yourselves!’
The Generals stamped the ground. They began to march forward, they broke into a jog, and then they ran. All around them, shuffling forward through the marshalling yard, the infantry-robots and Storm Troopers and Scouts saw them and began to do the same. A grey and black flood, flecked in silver, was unleashed towards the compound, rolling forward to the accompaniment of the buzzing symphony in the sky.
Kavan and his entourage began to walk forward too, following the advance.
‘Something new,’ shrieked Calor. ‘Can you hear it?’
They all picked up on it. A rising note, engines spinning to life.
‘Something’s moving!’ called Calor. ‘The ship! One of the ships is taking off!’
‘That’s their gun platform,’ said a nearby robot. ‘That’s the one that attacked us back when we first tried to take Artemis.’
A dark shape was rising from the centre of the compound. As Kavan watched, lights moved across the shape.
‘Ada! Bring it down! Bring it down now!’
Ada was speaking into a radio.
‘Ninety seconds!’ she said. ‘We have to bring the next trains up to speed.’
‘Will it work?’ shouted Kavan. He could hear the roar of the diesel engines in the distance.’
‘It’ll work,’ said Ada. ‘Will your troops be ready?’