Asterion (28 page)

In a warehouse, a private looks around at the near empty building and sees his buddy hunched over one of the automated battle robot. Walking over, he looks over his shoulder and watches him paint on the robot’s shield. He paints a grizzled hardnosed soldier with a cigar sticking out of one side of his mouth clenched in his teeth.

“What are you doing, we have to get this last one loaded on the delivery vehicle.”

The hunched over soldier puts the finishing touches on the drawing and writes something under the painting. The other soldier only sees, “Sgt.” before hearing a noise. He looks around and sees nothing. “Come on we got to get this done before a real sergeant comes around to see what’s going on. I don’t want to peel potatoes or pick up trash with a bag and nail stick.

“Okay, okay, I’m done.” Admiring his handiwork, he smiles and mumbles, “Sarge leads the way.”

They load the unit in its harness, close the hatches and they walk off to their next task.

The delivery vehicle drives off into the distance to join up with the convoy.

Asterion leads the way of his army. Centurions, with their increased capabilities closely watch their best troopers drive the vehicles toward the South Central Province. He smiles, as he can almost taste victory over the rebels. His troopers huff and bellow in anticipation of the battle and the spoils that lay in their path.

Burnsom calls Asterion, “My friend, your progress is fantastic. It may be advantageous to allow the refugees to get out of the way. That may win us some points with the people.”

Asterion burns with anger. Burnsom is meddling again. “Understood, but if they start attacking, I’ll have no choice but to fire back.”

“Got you, do your best.”

Asterion knows that no one will know who fired the first shot. He will execute this war his way. He buys into Trent’s assertions that Burnsom just treats him as property. That is going to change. He understood from history that wars have often resulted in the change of leaders as opportunists took advantage of the situation.

Burnsom goes to the underground war room to see the conflict firsthand. Tom is waiting for him. “Ira, here’s your seat for the slaughter. Asterion and his troops will tear through the human assets in short order. I predict that this will be over before the week is out.”

“I hope you’re right. If we have to escalate this, it won’t be pretty. Speaking of that let the order go out that news if filtered through the bureaucracy first before broadcast. Violations will not be tolerated and breaking the rules will be a jailable offense. ”

“Asterion has one hundred thousand troopers that are armored and equipped with light, up to heavy duty armament. We are backing them up with air assets from Progress and Forward. I don’t see how this can fail.”

“Don’t underestimate Stanley. That calm demeanor hides a determination that has fooled others before. Sanderson is no slouch either. He is technology savvy and we’ll just have to see what surprises they have in store for us.”

“Even so, I think we can overwhelm them and win a battle of attrition.”

“We’ll see Tom, we’ll see.”

Trent calls Burnsom. “Sir, we are in good shape. Training has gone well; they are equipped and trained on the weaponry. We have a numerical superiority over them. Is there anything else you need from me?”

“Report at least every hour.”

“I will be monitoring systems here.”

Burnsom hits the end button and Trent disappears from the screen. He turns to Tom. “Make sure he is being watched.” Tom nods and leaves Burnsom.

Governor Stanley, Sanderson and Cameron address the province at a press conference. Stanley is at the podium first.

“Citizens of the province, we are in a state of war at this moment with the forces of Leader Burnsom. Rumors have swirled for some time as diplomacy held the hope of preventing conflict. Burnsom has decided to cut off that avenue of resolution. At this moment, forces under the command of General Sanderson are on their way to engage the enemy. An enemy no one has ever faced in history. Ruthless and heartless they spare no one and as we have seen, their behavior is nightmarish to say the least. Burnsom no longer cares about the citizens of the nation. He only cares about control of the nation and the absolute mastery of the populace. We are all in this effort together. I call upon everyone to support this effort to preserve the freedoms we have enjoyed. I’ll turn the mike over to General Sanderson.”

“We are moving our forces out to meet the enemy before they reach our borders. We have the resources to mount a defense of the province. No one should panic and we will make every effort to move civilians out of harm’s way. We will contact everyone as the need arises to get those in danger to safety.”

Sanderson leaves the room to go back to headquarters. Cameron walks up to the podium. With a calm smile on his face, he addresses the province. “Dear friends, we face a trial of which most have never seen in this country. We are not used to this amount of turmoil, but we have overcome it in the past and I believe with God’s help, we will do so again. Good will always triumph over evil in the end. To my fellow Christians I say pray and trust God. To those of other religious affiliations, I hope you will do likewise in your own way. To those who don’t believe, we offer these words of comfort. Know this, we are all in this together and we will work together to hold on to what we all agree upon, freedom to pursue happiness. May God bless us in our efforts.” He turns and leaves the stage.

The reporters besiege Stanley with questions. He takes them one by one.

“Sir, what are Burnsom’s terms?”

“He has given no terms, but I would guess they would be turn over everything to him and submit to slavery.”

“What do we have to fight these monsters?”

“We have anticipated this event for some time and have amassed equipment capable of meeting the enemy on the battlefield on equal terms. I can’t discuss any plans, troop strength and weapons the province can wield against the beasts with any specificity. We can’t reveal our hand to our enemy.”

Burnsom adjusts his tie and the crew does a sound and camera check. Standing tall, he listens for the signal to begin. He sees a hand point at him and he begins to address the nation. “Kind, gentle people of the country, we are in a state of war with the South Central Province. Their provocation and subsequent attack on our forces has left us no choice but to retaliate and protect ourselves. I have always strived for peace, but sometimes that is not attainable. However, I have planned for the reduction in human casualties using our engineered soldiers who will take the brunt of the fight. There will be injury and death among our brave men and women in uniform, but it will be less than ever before. I will protect our way of life and make sure the government meets your expectations. Do all you can to support the effort. There may be some shortages or rationing, but they will be of short duration. Shortages are the result of their greed and hording of resources. If not for their deceit, we would not have these shortages. Don’t panic, or our enemy wins. We will keep you informed of everything that happens.”

The producer yells “Out!”

Burnsom leaves the podium and asks Tom, “How was that?”

“Good, it was short and sweet and to the point. If there is grumbling out there we’ll know about it and feed them some more sweet little nothings in their ear.”

“Sweet little nothings are in short supply.” Burnsom huffs and puffs down the hall to take his seat in the war room.

CHAPTER 31 - TOE-TO-TOE

Asterion’s vehicle reaches the top of a gently sloping hill. He halts his vehicle and motions for the rest to stop. He exits and peers through binoculars. He can see the rise of dust in the distance, but can’t make out the vehicles. “Launch the drones.”

Almost immediately, several surveillance drones are streaking through the sky. He radios Burnsom that the two battle groups are near to each other. Burnsom watches as the operators fix on Asterion’s position and move the satellites so that they can see the opposition. Burnsom sees almost no human troops close to the front. He wonders what artillery Sanderson has to throw at Asterion. Asterion motions for the convoy to proceed.

General Foxx is in the forward command center behind the main line. He observes Asterion’s army moving across open territory straight at his troops. “A bold, if not foolish move,” he mumbles under his breath. He radios his senior commanders. “They are eight clicks from your position and closing fast. Get top cover and artillery working them over before launching the automated systems at them.”

Within minutes, helicopter gunships appear over the frontline and target the beasts from a distance. Loud shrieks are heard everywhere as missile batteries fire their salvos at Burnsom’s army. Smoke begins to fill the ranks along with the acrid smell of expended rocket motors.

In seconds, Foxx can see the flashes of missiles from Asterion’s support group flying back at them. Province troopers take cover and hide from the blasts of shrapnel and dirt churned up by the explosives. He gives the command to release the automated systems. Large two story transports streak through the front line. Armor resists the pounding by Asterion’s artillery. The pointed, angular shape of the frontend of the vehicle deflects fire. Rear hinged doors open at a forty-five degree angle along each side of the transport to reveal the battle robots in their travel position. Compressed as much as possible, they have a low profile and enable the transport to launch hundreds from its stores.

The battle robots begin to launch themselves from the transport, propelled by their tracks they fly out with such force that their combined acceleration forces the transport to shutter and rattle to a standstill as the last ones from each flies from its perch. Landing on the ground, the tracks claw at the terrain tossing sand, gravel and grit into the air as the cacophony of moving machinery fills the air. It looks like chaos until you observe how effortlessly they weave in and out of each other. They cross back and forth, as Asterion’s troops try to blast them with heavy machine guns. They are confused and miss their targets.

Forming into a cohesive group, they follow the lead robot. They rise from their compressed position. Two tracks on a base containing the drive motor, they rise on their suspension. They initialize weapons of various sorts and they move through the whole range of motion. They look like gunslingers showing off their handling skills. Their sensing module on top of the main body is a thick disc with sharp corners to resist battle damage. On the front is the thick shield to protect the computer and communication systems. The lead robot rises up, there is the painting of the grizzled sergeant, and underneath it is written, “Sgt. Stryker.” Sarge leads the way as the group goes full combat speed and closes with the enemy.

Asterion’s troops manage to take out some of the robots, but they keep pressing the attack. Twenty-millimeter rounds pulse out of some of the robots ripping through the armor, obliterating the beasts where they stand. The rest duck for cover and return fire. Smaller arms pound the armor and eventually break through wounding some of the creatures. Wave after wave of sweeping attacks by the robots halt their progress. The robots return to rearming and repair vehicles to reload and to have damaged parts replaced. The robots streak into the rear where a high-speed assembly line replaces whole sections of the robots and replace the armament in a blur that causes the vehicle to shake and rock as robots fly through the station in seconds to return to the fight.

At a stalemate, Province forces unleash the newest drone in the arsenal, the Hawk. Its name came from its hawk beaked nose that houses sophisticated sensor that scan and analyze targets and a shielded light beam communication to prevent enemy interference. Streaking into the sky with rocket motors it switches to jet propulsion and with its variable wings extended it rises above the battle scene. With Taylor’s cerebellum module giving greater autonomy to all the automated systems they begin to seek out the enemy. Each Hawk is different in its purpose and armament. Some are purely smart bombs, destroyed when used. Some fly wing for manned and unmanned aircraft providing protection from unfriendlies. Others can launch missiles and mass frag munitions to take out large numbers of troops and equipment.

Commanded to attack the beasts at will, they ignore or protect humans and wait for instructions when unsure of targets. Several of the Hawks go into a steep dive with full rocket motors and wings folded back to maximize speed. The Hawks recognize threats and react with evasive maneuvers and countermeasures. High yield explosives and fragmentation devices decimate Asterion’s front line. Some of the Hawks fly low and fast. They fly through the lines firing fragmentation grenades out of their sides that explode at various distances from the craft, taking out the beasts where they stand.

Asterion calls for help and manned helicopters engage the Hawks with some success. However, the Hawks target the choppers at the command of controllers in central command. From the lab Taylor and Phil modify the programming to create, learning routines so that they don’t have to continue allowing them to attack based upon recognition and hostile intent. Christine, listening from the other part of the lab tests the latest artificial muscles for the suit. These are even faster and quicker reacting than the last. She begins to mount them in the two suits they have built.

Burnsom is leaning forward in his chair watching the quagmire Asterion and his troops are in and calls the commanders at Progress and Forward, “Where is the support for these troops?