Nanotroopers Episode 3: Deeno and Mighty Mite

plans, the staircase tunneled down deep into the bowels of Lions Rock, connecting five levels with a vast open complex in the very heart of Shih Ho Mountain.

  "Where is everybody?" Gibby asked. "I'd have figured Red Hammer would be shielding every possible entrance."

  "Maybe it's a trap," Reaves said, uneasily.

  "Let's go--" Winger gave the order. "Down the stairs."

  A moment later, Reaves saw an instrument twitch on her wristpad. "Uh oh--pressure pulse. Somebody…or something's ahead."

  "I see it…"Winger steered the formation ahead cautiously. "Big spike…moving a lot of air molecules. People, most likely. More than one--"

  "Disperse, sir?" Gibby asked.

  Winger shook his head. "Guard detail, most likely."

  "They may have detected us…" Reaves suggested.

  And they had, for at that very moment, the visual lens was disrupted and the view was lost. Four guards had swept up the stairs, mag guns drawn, scattering the formation for a moment, notified of a breach at the northwest service entrance. If they got there--if they saw the MOBnet--the whole place could be alerted--

  "Execute a clampdown!" Winger yelled. "Smother 'em so they can't breathe!" He signaled DPS to get ready in case the camp came under fire. "Replicate max rate…carbenes and radicals at the ends…blanket the place!"

  Gibbs was manning the config controls. He sent the command, silently praying this version of ANAD would perform the clampdown properly.

  In seconds, the air itself burned with the pressure of exponentially dividing ANAD replicants; a heavy, searing weight pressing down on everything in sight.

  Deeper in the tunnel, a small force of Red Hammer guards tried to scream.

  The defenders, unable to react, clawed at their lungs and faces and staggered back from the service entrance, pitching backward, ears and eyes bleeding from the pressure, suffocated by ANAD.

  It was all over in less than a minute.

  Winger waited until the clampdown was lifted and, on command, ANAD began to disperse. "Put the MOB on 'em," he told Mighty Mite. "Keep 'em secure right there. I don't want any more alarms going off."

  Corporal Barnes tapped the commands on her own wristpad. "Done, sir.”

  "Form up again," Winger told Gibby. The sergeant commanded trillions of ANAD assemblers to swarm into formation again, a faint coruscating iridescence pulsating through the air. "Let's move on--"

  "Transiting, sir…transiting in motion. I have the formation…visual element up…" he squinted at the grainy image on the viewer, tweaked it a bit--"…looks like big doors ahead…"

  "Very well." Winger checked his eyepiece. "SOFIE says it’s the growth complex. The scope works. If she's right, we could be in for a scrum, right here. DPS, SDCs, front and center!" And here's my chance to duke it out with enemy mechs. He had to remind himself they had come to get intel, not create mayhem. "Where are my coil-guns?"

  "On the way, sir," Barnes said. She was running her own defense force behind and around the ANAD group…a team of coil-gun microbots hovering all around the assembler swarm. "I'm bringing up a whole battery…."

  On her hand signal, Winger commanded the bots to fire. Barnes crossed her fingers and prayed.

  Deep below them, Shih Ho Mountain had a fire in its belly.

  The riveted polysteel doors ahead cracked open, dissolving in a spray of flame and splinters. Inside the huge cavern, sporadic small arms fire erupted but Winger had done his tactical homework. The shooters had nothing material to shoot at.

  Reaves pursed her lips. "So much for a covert entry. I guess the neighborhood is awake now." She felt her neck hairs tingle. Combat did that to people, even when the enemy was a billion times smaller than a human being.

  ANAD poured into the cavern. Winger ordered a portion of the swarm detached for perimeter guard, securing all ways in and out. "Let's you and me part company, Gibby."

  Gibby acknowledged. "Executing swarm division now, sir." With a few commands, the ANAD horde divided itself into two groups, one piloted by Gibby, the other by Winger. The Lieutenant took a seat next to the sergeant, flexed his fingers, ready to joystick the troops into battle. He massaged the visual element a hair, taking a look around the complex.

  The place was a vast cave, hewn right out of the bowels of the mountain. Rows of growth tanks lined the floor, wall to wall, with huge leafy plants suspended in each tank. It was the scope works, all right. The mother lode and Red Hammer's main bank, all in one. At the far end of the cavern, a pocket of Red Hammer technicians struggled to get up, stunned and gasping for air from the clampdown.

  Gibby saw them first. "Enemy ahead…three o'clock…I count four--"

  "Weapons?"

  "None that I can see, sir."

  Winger checked the time. Fifteen minutes. They'd made better progress than he'd hoped for. "MOB 'em. Secure the whole cave. Let's go hunting."

  From her station behind the ICs, Barnes acknowledged the order. With her own wristpad, she took control of a small portion of the ANAD force, accepting replicants as fast as the master could slam atoms together and churn them out. She detached the force and tapped out a command sequence…in seconds, the swarm under her control had reconfigured itself. A fine smoky mist formed overhead, oscillating in and out of view. Barnes took a fix on the Red Hammer techs and fed the coordinates to her brood. The smoke pulsed and throbbed like a thing alive, then floated over and descended on the enemy, forming a Mobility Obstruction Barrier around the helpless group. ANAD assemblers interlocked into an amorphous gel, cordoning off the technicians in a flexible prison cell of tightly bound assemblers. Several techs clawed at the MOB, to no avail. They were steadily forced down to the cavern floor and immovably secured there by the ANAD screen.

  "MOB in place, Lieutenant."

  "Very well…Gibby, what's up?"

  Gibbs had caught sight of something, a twitch in one of ANAD's sensors. "Sounding pressure change. Uh-oh…sounding heat pulse, big time heat pulse…looks like the cavalry's coming--"

  Even on the grainy image of the visual element, the throbbing mass forming in one corner of the cavern was evident. It boiled out of the shadows like a thing alive and swept forward, closing fast to engage the ANAD swarm, Gibby's swarm.

  "Stay with 'em! Hold your position--"

  Gibby's force took the full brunt of the assault.

  "Oh, Lieutenant….looks…like…I…GOT…MECHS!" The sergeant's fingers flew over the keyboard and control sticks. "Making a cage…all effectors out max…I am in automaneuver…" He punched out commands, setting up his group of assemblers with full shields of fullerene arms, each one bristling with sticky molecules, juiced with torqued bonds, ready to zap all comers. Even as he configged the swarm, Winger piloted his own group away from the melee, trying to flank the enemy, pinch off the assault from both sides, a pincer movement at atomic scale.

  The boiling swarm of Red Hammer mechs closed with ANAD and flung themselves with fury against Gibby's shield.

  Gibby's fingers flew over the controls, managing config, pulling more atoms to add shielding, all the while fighting off thrusts and slashes from the enemy mechs.

  "Change config!" Winger yelled. "Do it now…Tactical Two--"

  Gibbs sent the command, ANAD trying to confuse the enemy swarm by shedding outer atoms in one big puff. They'd wargamed it before…it didn't always work--

  Twenty meters in the air, trillions of ANAD assemblers received the same instructions: alter configuration to this design…grab atoms…cleave this group…fold here…build lattice here…the air churned with furious activity. The cavern was suddenly bathed in an unearthly pale blue light as vast but unseen armies collided. The gotterdammerung pulsed like a flickering aurora as the swarms clashed head-on.

  "What the hell?" Gibby frowned as he fought the controls, tickling propulsors, spinning ANAD, managing effectors…"I can't grapple the damn things!" Sweat broke out on his forehead, in sp
ite of the cool night-time air rolling up the mountain side from Victoria harbor. "It's like I'm too short! Sluggish. Lieutenant, check my config…what's wrong with my effectors…what the hell am I doing wrong here! I've got no probes, grapples, it's like my pyridines are minus a few atoms--!"

  A voice behind them--"Lieutenant Winger, we got trouble." Corporal Nguyen had jogged back to the interface control station. "MOB net's wearing off. DPS1 just has enough for one more discharge. I'm out."

  Winger looked at Buddha. "What the hell…those canisters were loaded full before we embarked. Deeno…get over there…see what's going on?"

  D’Nunzio's eyes never met Winger's. "Right away." She bounded up the staircase and off toward the edge of the camou field outside, and dived into the lifter, rummaging for fresh MOB charges.

  "And we got company," added Mighty Mite. Corporal Barnes was tweaking a grainy image on her eyepiece, taking a feed from the scout mechs circling the top of the mountain. "Superfly says enemy force is outside the Rock, on the mountain top, closing on our position."

  Just friggin' wonderful. "How many?" Winger asked, swearing as he fought the stick to free ANAD from entrapment.

  "At least a platoon, sir. Moving across the top of Shih Ho from the southwest. Must be an exit we didn't map."

  "Bots and HERF guns?"

  "Already moving up, sir. We're strengthening our behinds too, just in case."

  "Very well…stand by." Winger glanced over at Gibby. "Sergeant, any replicants working?"

  Gibbs threw up his hands. "I sent the right command. Enemy caught me right in the middle of a rep. It's a friggin slaughter, sir…I'm losing signals everywhere--red across the board! Most of 'em didn't get fully assembled!"

  Winger was growing more frustrated by the moment. Gibby needed help…but his swarm was falling apart faster than he could close the pincer. "I can't explain it either. No electron lens…no enzymatic knife…hardly any effector control. It's like ANAD's becoming crippled."

  "Lobotomized, sir. I can't hold at all. I'm showing propulsor failure, major bond breaks, shielding's gone…main structure being disassembled…we've got to withdraw now--"

  "Not yet!" Winger was determined, his face set in grim concentration, fingers flying over the keyboard. "Gotta close the trap…got to get in and get data…probe the bugger, get some structure on him…if I can just get my pyridines stabilized--"

  "Lieutenant, look out!"

  Across the base camp, a squad of Red Hammer guards had breached the camou field, slicing through the mesh in a flurry of arms and legs and shouts. The muzzles of laser carbines flashed in the faint light. Beam fire erupted across the ground.

  Winger and Gibbs ducked as the first volley narrowly missed the IC station, carving out a seam in a boulder field behind them. Rock and debris exploded, flying everywhere.

  Sheila Reaves and An Nguyen dove for cover behind the boulders. Reaves rolled, found an opening between the rocks and squeezed off a few coil-gun rounds. The programmable kinetic slugs slammed into the lead Red Hammer guards before detonating. The concussion was deafening as smoke and body parts scattered.

  "Keep 'em pinned down!" Winger shouted. "I'm trying to help Gibby out--"

  "Nothing left to pin down, Lieutenant," Reaves called back. Her aim had been true, sighting in the rounds after slaving the slugs to her tracker.

  "Superfly's got nasties all over the place," Buddha Nguyen watched the remote infrared take on his own eyepiece. "All over the top of the mountain…they'll be on our perimeter in no time, unless we get some help from ANAD."

  "ANAD's busy, Corporal." Winger told him. He brushed himself off, climbed back to the IC station and grabbed a joystick, maneuvering his force closer to what was left of Gibby's. The sergeant was still skirmishing with the remnants of the force. Good man…hang in just a few more seconds…."--got to map this sucker and fast, before he chews up ANAD for good. Just keep those Red Hammer scumbags off my back, will you?"

  "Yes, sir…we'll sanitize the area right now." Nguyen and Reaves grabbed Mighty Mite to set up HERF guns covering every direction. With enough warning from Superfly, they could hold off a sizeable force for awhile using the radio frequency stun fields. But only for awhile.

  Winger piloted his own swarm right into the heart of the melee.

  "Whatever you are," he muttered to himself, "you act one helluva lot like ANAD." He worked the config controller, at the same time pulsing in and out of contact range with the main enemy group, slashing and weaving, scrunching up atoms and twisting bonds to zap the bastards with their own electron charge.

  Keep coming, you atomic assholes…keep on coming…right into my hands--

  He bored right into the heart of the enemy horde, slashing left and right.

  Winger drove ANAD deep into the formation. He cruised in at flank speed, propulsors whining, and seized a phosphor group off the nearest mech, twisting atoms until the bond broke. Liberating thousands of electron volts, ANAD's disrupter zapped the mech and shattered its outer shell, ripping off probes left and right. The Red Hammer assemblers shuddered and spun with the pulse, then re-engaged to fight off another bond snap. Throughout the cavern, trillions of ANAD replicants duplicated the same tactic.

  The air burned with furious combat.

  Gibbs was exultant at the maneuver. "Eat my carbene effectors, you jerks!"

  Winger grinned in spite of himself, deftly steering through the floating detritus of shredded assemblers. "Gotcha…" He changed config, realizing he had to grab one of the mechs before it was completely disassembled. "…right with your pants down."

  Like a backhoe scooping up dirt, he closed on the nearest mech and extended his cage effectors to grapple. This command was not duplicated by the rest of ANAD; Winger wanted his army to finish off the enemy formation for good, while he grabbed a mech for analysis. He armed the ANAD master's carbene fingers and set to work, folding and tucking the enemy device neatly into a scaffold nestled in its base.

  Like a carpenter fitting a door frame, Winger pronounced himself satisfied. He heaved a sigh of relief. Gibby's swarm was gone, nothing but atomic fluff now and his own force probably wouldn't be able to fend off another determined assault. For the moment, the Red Hammer swarm—HNRIV--whatever they were--had been immobilized by the ferocity of ANAD's attack. Working with Gibby, he'd managed to pinch off a small portion of the enemy force and isolate it, then smash it atom from atom.

  But how long would it be before Red Hammer regrouped?

  Behind him, he heard more voices echoing across the boulder fields on top of Shih Ho Mountain. Distant beamfire ripped the air, just over the edge, as bots engaged enemy making their way up through the crevices and folds of the hill. Red Hammer was moving in and remote coil guns were going off all over the place.

  Time to get the hell out of Dodge.

  Winger sent final commands for all ANAD replicants but the master to commit seppuku, disassembling themselves into atomic fluff, and hand motioned Mighty Mite Barnes to get TinyTown ready for a combat extraction.

  "Quantum collapse, Lieutenant?"

  Winger shook his head. "No way, Mite. I've got precious cargo with me…the innards of one of the mechs. We need it to study. Soon as ANAD's inerted, I'm pulling the plug."

  "Understood, sir." Barnes was already off and running, hustling the TinyTown unit into position by the edge of the mountain. In a few minutes, the ANAD master would be exiting Shih Ho's northwest service entrance in one hell of a hurry. It was her job to capture the master and secure it.

  Barnes moved the containment pod into position while Winger readied the assembler for the trip out. Speeding back up from the depths of the Lions Rock, a faint green phosphorescent glow boiled out of the side of the mountain. The green light became a fuzzy patch of fog and drifted upward toward the camp. As it came level with the camp, Barnes readied the pod for insertion, signaling ANAD to configure itself for capture. The cor
uscating green fog intensified in glow, becoming a pearly white, as ANAD shut down systems and sloughed off unnecessary atoms. Deep inside the master's carbene embrace, the kernel of the Red Hammer mech was still imprisoned, still ticking over, ready to burst out at the slightest chance. ANAD would not give the mech the slightest opening to squeeze out.

  There was a breeze around the pod as the pressure pulse cleaved the air. In an instant, ANAD had transited the capture tube and plunged into the soothing home waters of the TinyTown container, still clinging to its prey.

  Barnes capped and stowed the end of the tube and stabbed a button, sealing the tank. "Got 'em, Lieutenant! Safing now…pressure coming up, temps okay, pH in the green. ANAD's sealed in and safe."

  "How about our little guest, Mite?"

  Barnes grinned. "Caught like a fly in a spider's web."

  Winger was already snapping shut the IC panel, even as he powered down. He hung the control pack on a sturdy wire frame slung off Barnes' back, buttoning down the catches. When he was done, he slapped Mighty Mite on the shoulders, then got on the crewnet.

  "DPS1, what are our options?"

  Reaves' voice was breathing hard. She had been sprinting from one weapon site to another around the mountain top, trying to keep the camou-fog up, the weapons trained, and the bad guys off the summit. "More company, Lieutenant. I'm down to a few charges left on the HERFs. Mags and coil guns are okay, but the camou's giving out. Red Hammer's pushing in a dozen places…some kind of mech attack…but so far, the barrier's holding. It won't last much longer."

  "We've got what we came for," Winger said. "All hands…grab your gear…let's exfiltrate like hell!"

  Buddha Nguyen was dismantling one of the HERF guns, to shrink the perimeter around the lifter, as the rest of the unit collected and stowed their equipment. The mission was done; now it was up to him and Reaves and their Superfly scouts to get 1st Nano out of harm's way.

  They scrambled across the rocky escarpment, even as Red Hammer mechs probed the barrier around them. Seconds later, the first breach occurred as the camou-fog generator ran out of steam. A thick black horde darkened the night sky and trillions of enemy mechs poured through the gap.

  "Fry 'em!" Reaves yelled back to Nguyen. Buddha re-sighted his HERF gun and lit off a charge. The thunderclap of the discharge sent searing waves of hot air roaring across the ground. Winger and the rest of the unit flattened themselves against the mountain top, letting the pulse pass. It was like riding out a tornado.

  For the next few minutes, they fought a series of running duels with Red Hammer's flying mechs, all the way to the very edge of Shih Ho Mountain. Below and behind them, night time Hong Kong lay liked a jeweled carpet, Victoria Peak festooned with lights as the din of midnight traffic from the streets below wafted skyward.

  "Bots!" yelled Nguyen as the first of the Detachment made the lifter with their gear. "Here