I went up the wall just enough to give myself the right trajectory, then pushed off into a jump and landed on the combat bot’s head. Its cameras and scanners were up there, but the place where it did its actual processing and kept its memory was down in its lower abdomen. (So was Miki’s; it was more protected down there since people always shoot for the head.) (At least, people always shot for my head, so I assumed they did it to bots, too.)
The combat bot knew I was a SecUnit because it sent a pulse through its skin that caused my pain sensors to max out. (I’d anticipated that and already dialed them down, but it didn’t feel good.) The next pulse was meant to fry my armor and my explosive projectile weapon. Since I left both back at Port FreeCommerce, it didn’t do much of anything to me and the mistake gave me the half second I needed to shove the port of the energy weapon in my right arm up against its sensory input collectors. I fired it at full capacity.
I had needed that half second, because just as I fired the bot swept its arm up and slammed me off its head. I hit the floor and slid three meters but the bot staggered sideways, temporarily (and I can’t stress that “temporarily” part enough) blind, deaf, and with no ability to scan for movement or energy, no ability to acquire a target with any of its inbuilt weapons.
Wilken was just rolling over as I shoved upright. I grabbed an explosive pack off her harness and threw myself at the combat bot. From the burst of static in the feed, it had just cleared its sensory inputs, but I’d already hit the spot just above its right hip joint and slammed the explosive pack into place.
It grabbed me by the head and shoulder, big hand gripping me, and I felt the shift in the metal that meant something sharp was about to come out of its hand. I thought, Well, okay, that didn’t work. It could have destroyed me with any one of the many weapons in its chest, but it was mad and it wanted to make me hurt. Then there was a small muffled thump from the explosive pack.
The pack had two charges, and that was the first one, the one designed to bore a tunnel through heavy shielding and would do much the same to a combat bot’s carapace. I still had the channel open to Wilken’s feed and heard the pack’s countdown start.
If the combat bot had been more self-aware, it might have stopped to crush my head, but its defensive mode kicked in and it shoved me away so it could get at the pack.
I hit the floor again and scrambled back as it clawed at the pack. Wilken rolled to her knees and opened fire at the bot’s chest and head. She hit sensors and weapons ports, which granted, was a good idea. It was keeping the bot from targeting us while the charge had a chance to work.
The plastic outer casing came away but the explosive had already tunneled through the bot’s carapace. The bot tried to insert a probe into the hole to get the explosive. Wilken managed to hit the vulnerable joint as it extended. That bought the explosive the extra two seconds it needed. I put my hands over my head, tuned down my hearing, and rolled.
The explosion was muffled but I felt the vibration when the bot’s body hit the floor. I came to my feet, mostly shocked that it had worked and that I was still alive and functional. (That’s how SecUnits are taught to fight: throw your body at the target and kill the shit out of it, and hope they can fix you in a repair cubicle. Yes, I’m aware I didn’t have armor or access to a repair cubicle anymore, very aware, but old habits die hard.)
The bot slumped on the floor like so much salvage. The carapace had contained the explosion, so there was no shrapnel, and the blast had damaged the bot’s processor and the other important bits in its abdomen. But it was still active. I said to Wilken, “I need more packs.”
She was sprawled on the floor, but her armor had protected her hearing. She yanked a set of packs off her harness and held them up.
I took them, armed each one, and dropped them into the bot’s open carapace, then retreated.
Wilken staggered to her feet and backed away, covering the bot.
I reached the corridor entrance as the explosions went off. Each blast made the bot’s body jerk and spasm. After the last one I scanned for activity. The bot still had power, but the charges had destroyed the first and secondary processors. That ought to do it.
Wilken was checking her scan. She made a relieved noise. “Good save. Come on. If there’s one of those things here, there’s more.”
Well, yeah.
I followed Wilken up the corridor to where Miki and Abene waited. Abene had a hand on Miki’s arm, holding on to it almost protectively. As we approached she let go and said, “Whoever activated that thing took Hirune, correct?”
“Has to be.” Wilken tried to stop but Abene started up the corridor, and Wilken had to follow her. I got up in front, and Miki stayed beside Abene without prompting from me. Which was good; Miki might be no help in combat, but at least I knew Abene would be its priority, whatever Wilken told it to do.
I heard Abene in the feed for the shuttle, warning Vibol and the others and telling them again to stay onboard, not to come after us under any circumstances. Wilken sent her camera’s recording of the attack to Gerth, and Gerth sent an acknowledgment. It was more professional than Kader, who was clearly agitated, but reported that they had sent a warning to the transit station and were keeping the PA updated.
Wilken added, “I’ve never seen raiders with access to combat bots, but there’s a first time for everything.”
I was pretty sure the combat bot had been original equipment for the facility. We were talking about GrayCris here, whose company motto seemed to be “profit by killing everybody and taking their stuff.”
Abene didn’t respond. After what I’d told her, she probably didn’t think it was raiders, either. “They’ll know we’re coming.”
They knew that already, I told her and Miki on our private three-way channel. And now the other combat bots would know a SecUnit was in play and adjust their strategy accordingly.
I wish I had a strategy.
[Query: SecUnit active in watch zone.]
I stopped. I did not scream, though I thought about it for .02 of a second.
I was pretty sure I kept my face blank, but Abene and Miki turned to look at me. Wilken kept moving.
I started to walk again, trying to figure out what channel it was coming in on so I could block it.
[Query: respond.]
In my feed, Miki said, SecUnit, what is that?
Don’t answer it, Miki. It’s a combat bot, trying to fix our position. Combat bots can’t hack like combat SecUnits. They don’t work linked to Sec or HubSystems like security SecUnits do. But still. I didn’t want it in my head. Or Miki’s head.
[Query: SecUnit has subordinate unit.] It sounded implacable, and amused. [Query: pet bot.]
I almost had it.
[Objective: We will tear you apart.]
I blocked the channel. I breathed out, slowly, so as not to draw attention from the humans. Miki sent me a glyph of distress. I said, It’s okay, which was a complete lie. I reminded myself a combat bot wasn’t a human, it wasn’t a villain from one of my shows. It was a bot, and it wasn’t threatening us.
It was just telling us what it was going to do.
Combat bots usually needed a human controller. Well, they needed a human controller when you were trying to achieve an objective. If the objective was as vague as “attack everybody who lands on the facility while disguising your network feed traffic with static designed to match the interference created by the storm,” maybe they didn’t. But taking a prisoner, luring us further into the facility, did suggest a plan. GrayCris might have left an operative on the station, hiding out in plain sight with the Port Authority staff, keeping an eye on the facility. They had known when our shuttle left and when it docked with the facility, and had estimated how long it would take for the team to get into one of the pods and start the assessment. Then they sent a signal to activate the combat bots.