"I'm okay, Dee."
Sir, I cannont evade these things forever.
Don't give up, BIL!
Yes, sir.
"Motorcade One, Motorcade One, bank hard right!" a female voice came over the com-net.
"Do it, BIL!" The president could see the blue dots in his mindview forming rapidly on the red ones. The marines were coming.
Through the visual sensors, Alexander could see one of the marine mecha fighters screaming through the pine trees, going to guns and splattering two of the amusement park airplanes. Then it turned nose-up and accelerated into a transfiguration, flipping over into bot mode, never missing a shot with its directed energy weapon.
Several of the planes took aim on that one marine, who was running and jumping and flipping and firing its weapons in a flash of maneuvers that left many of the enemy attackers in flaming pieces. Three more FM-12s flashed by firing guns at the things. With hindsight, Moore realized that the first marine had been bait to draw the enemy planes onto her, while the other marines formed up on them, taking them out.
At one point, the bot-mode mecha ran directly toward BIL at very high speeds. The bot-mode feet pounded the Florida sand, flinging dust in a rooster tail behind it. Then it leaped forward in a skyward roll over the limo so close that Moore could see the armored helmet of the pilot in the sensors and could read "Lieutenant Delilah 'Jawbone' Strong" painted just under the canopy.
"That marine deserves a promotion," the president said to himself.
Chapter 11
October 31, 2388 AD
Sol System
Oort Cloud
Saturday, 6:15 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
Separatist drop tanks poured in seemingly infinite supply from the north and both sides. Warboys pressed the Warlords forward, deeper and deeper into the line. The red dots in the colonel's DTM were thick in front of him, but not insurmountably thick. The Demon Dawgs had softened the line all the way north to the first tower of the teleporter complex. Mason was certain that his tankheads could create a corridor in the enemy position and push the AEMs behind the front to wreak havoc as only the AEMs could do.
Brenda, plot the best vector for the Robots in the DTM, he asked his AIC Major Brenda Bravo One One One Mike Hotel Two.
Yes, sir. I'm on it. The AIC began running wargaming scenarios and simulations at blinding computer speeds. A few seconds later, she had several solutions and chose one. The vectors highlighted in green across Warboys' virtual battlescape.
Thanks. I'll pass that along. Maybe they can use it. Warlord One dropped to a knee and took up a firing position with his DEG. Enemy tanks were everywhere, giving him plenty to shoot at.
"Two, watch your right flank!" Warboys warned his second, Major Glenda Freeman. An Orcus drop tank pounced from above and to the right part of a squad of bot-mode enemy tanks running down the side of a crater rim. "Shit, guns guns guns!"
"I've got him, Two!" First Lieutenant Sam "Warlord Five" Cortez responded from tank mode, blasting one of the enemy with his DEG. The directed energy beam tore through the enemy mecha at the knee, spinning it off balance and flailing backward in an uncontrolled spin in the low gravity. In response, Warlord Two leaped over Five into a swan dive and tackled the mecha beside it, punching a mechanized fist through the cockpit and tearing out the pilot, tossing him aside like a dead rag doll and making him fall limp in the low gravity against the icy planetoid forty meters away.
Colonel Warboys serpentined through the terrain with his cannon firing auto, his AIC controlling it and using it to spread out the advancing line, forcing them to either duck and cover or turn and run. This gave Mason time to target individual enemy tanks with his DEG. He picked them off like an experienced sniper. The blue-green DEG blasts punched across the desolate Oort Cloud planetoid, punctuating the dust clouds and debris scattering from the battle.
"Move, Warlords! Keep pushing through this line!" They would get the Robots through the line. But Warboys knew that once they did, the Warlords would be on the wrong side of the enemy, with very little support.
"Move, Robots! We have to stay with the Warlords." Major Roberts dove for cover behind what appeared to be the edge of an impact crater that had probably been formed during the joining of the four little planetoids with the Seppy hauler. The crater was fairly new and didn't look anything like an astronomical phenomenon. The marine major spent little time contemplating the issue.
"Major." McCandless slid belly-first up beside Roberts. "This is a hell of a storm, sir." Tanks were going at each other on the ground and taking the occasional shot at mecha in space, and vice versa. The AEMs had yet to see any Seppy ground troops and were glad of it. "QMs got no sign of foot traffic."
"I noticed that, Gunny. Bother you at all?"
"For the moment, no, sir. You think that means that they didn't detect us in the tubes with tanks?"
"I was thinking the same thing." Roberts checked his team vitals and placement in the DTM. All ten of his forward unit were accounted for and in good shape. And as far as he could tell, the Seppies had no idea they were there. Major Roberts liked that element of stealth. After all, they were a forward recon unit, and they didn't need to get in the mix just yet if they could avoid it.
Carol, have you found any other points of entry yet?
Still looking, Major, his AIC, Carol Eight Eight Mike One One Hotel Lima, replied. Colonel Warboys has sent us some possibilities.
Keep at it and keep me posted.
Yes, sir.
"Sir," Lieutenant Johnny Noonez buzzed in.
"Go, Johnny."
"The line seems to split around this crater and then over that mooring point at the crater's two o'clock position on the other side of it. The crater is about six hundred meters across, and the southern tower is on the mooring point between the six o'clock and nine o'clock planetoids." Noonez paused for a breath.
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, sir, if we split off from the Warlords at the crater's nine o'clock and then take to the inside rim of the crater, we might be able to slip into or onto the moorings. If we can slip around this crater to that mooring point, we might be able to get into this thing and make our way to the south tower."
"A lot of ifs, Lieutenant, sir," McCandless said.
"Yes it is, Gunny."
"What the fuck, we got no better plans, sir," Gunny replied, shrugging her oversized, armored shoulders.
"I like it," Roberts nodded.
Carol, this sort of matches what Warboys sent. Connect with him and tell him to support us to the nine o'clock on this crater rim.
Yes, sir.
And tell him thanks.
I will, sir.
"Suez, you're up!" Tamara ordered the rookie lance corporal over the net.
"Oorah, Gunny!" Suez bounced over the side of the crater rim, covering a good seventy meters in the low gravity of the planetoid facility. The AEM landed in a belly slide across the surface to absorb his bounce and to take cover. Dust flew behind him, making a slow, falling arc to the ground.
"Bates! Go!" Gunny's voice continued.
Tommy crawled up behind an outcropping of concrete, steel, and other rubble surrounding a giant guy cable. The cable was a stranded material that looked like a cross between steel and some composite and was more than seventy centimeters in diameter and several kilometers long, stretching from one planetoid to the other. There were other smaller cables running from the ground up to the wall of the octagon.