Blood and Iron (54 page)

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?’

‘They’ll be ready.’ And, in an uncharacteristic moment of doubt, Kavan added, ‘Let’s hope what Goeppert told us about the whalers is right!’

The human craft rose higher. White flame spurted from its nose, missiles slamming down on the attacking troops beneath. The pulse bombs that dodged and rolled in the sky, chasing the helicopters, now turned their attention towards the rising ship, flinging themselves towards it, running themselves into the needle missiles it fired, exploding in balls of flame that illuminated the grey and black battlefield below. The humans were also bringing new guns into position: mobile guns on vehicles, they poured their fire into the solid mass of troops that crept inexorably towards them.

‘Sixty seconds!’ called Ada.

The ship was turning as it rose, sliding towards the city. Black and gold bands travelled slowly down its length, and Kavan recognized the meaning. It was signalling a warning. Two hatches opened beneath the craft, and smaller craft, very much like Ada’s own pulse bombs, fell from them. Their tails ignited as they fell and with a lurch they streaked towards Kavan, passing over his head in blur of flame. Heading for the Centre City.

‘Get down,’ said Ada. They fell to the ground just as the repeated percussion of the explosions shook the earth. White light glowed so hard it burned into the eyes, dark shadows tore the brightness apart.

‘Atomics,’ said Ada. There was a moment’s pause on the battlefield. Robots looked back to the clouds that rose, dark above the centre of the city.

‘They hit the Centre City,’ said Calor. ‘Wiped it out . . .’

‘Thirty seconds,’ said Ada.

The noise of the battlefield was increasing. Even with hearing turned right down it rattled the shell: the rumble of diesel engines, the noise of trains on tracks, thunder of explosions, chatter of gun shots, the drone of pulse bombs, rippling of human guns, pulsing of pressure, crackle of the first of the Tesla towers discharging. The night sky was alive with dancing devices, trails of tracer, and now, rising higher and higher, launched from the trains, the remainder of Ada’s devices. The ones that Kavan had held in reserve, streaking towards the human craft, each trailing a long cable behind it.

‘Rocket engines,’ said Ada with satisfaction. ‘Harder to build. Harder to manoeuvre.’

They moved fast. But not fast enough. The human ship rippled with light as its weapons picked them off, the guns on the ground turned upwards to destroy them.

The infantryrobots took advantage of the lull and surged forward, breaching the compound perimeter, and the guns turned their fire back to earth again. And so the first of the new devices finally saw a pathway and struck home, piercing the human craft. The long wire trailing from it looped down to the ground.

‘The barbs should extend on impact,’ said Ada. Robots were already running forward, seizing hold of the cable. Pulling at it. To no avail. The craft was rising into the air, dragging them up with it. More devices streaking forward. Piercing the craft. More cables. Storm Troopers took hold of them, other robots gripping their bodies. Bazookas and guns were trained on the craft. The orange bands of light that ran the craft’s extent flickered, the ascent hesitated, halted, and slowly, the black and gold ship began to tilt sideways.

‘Pull!’ called Ada. ‘Pull!’

‘
Pull
,
Pull
,’ came the shout, echoed by all those robots on the plain that dragged at the huge ship.

More devices slammed into the craft, cables whipping across the battlefield, tangling around robots, cutting them in two. Other robots took their place, seizing the ropes and pulling. Robots climbed the wires, adding their weight to the craft. Wires snapped and robots tumbled to the ground. But some of them made it inside the craft itself. The turning point was reached. The craft was descending.

‘Pull!’

They were whaling. Whaling for a craft from another planet. It slid earthwards, it clipped the perimeter of the compound. The lights across its hull winked, once, twice and then went out. With a grinding shriek, the ship ploughed its way into the ground.

Stamp,
stamp
, stamp!

A huge cheer sounded.

‘Now, take it!’ said Kavan, and he smiled.

Spoole

The Generals ran towards the stricken human craft, the last bands of colour fading from its side.

Spoole would have put a bullet through their heads. Kavan was a fool to put them in the middle of the charge, where they could let the other soldiers form a protective wall around themselves and allow better robots to take the flak for them.

‘The guns!’ called Sandale. ‘Aim for the guns!’

Obediently, the surrounding Storm Troopers turned their bazookas towards the turrets that had sprung open on the downed craft’s side and were already rippling bullets towards them.

As they closed on the craft its enormous size became apparent, and Spoole was filled with wonder at just what the Generals had attempted. How could they have been so foolish as to try and make a deal with these creatures? Just how powerful were the humans in comparison? He was reminded of the story of Janet Verdigris, how she had made a deal with the robots beneath the world.

Something screamed like a buzzsaw being crushed by an adamantium snake; something whipped across the battlefield and half the robots beside him flashed and died, their bodies had been sliced in two, the parts tumbling to the ground.

‘There!’ cried Sandale, and Spoole saw something hurtling forward through the crowd.

‘The devices!’ observed Spoole. ‘More of them!’

They looked up to see Ada’s inventions streaking overhead, heading towards the second and larger of the human craft as it rose into the air, seeking escape. Its bulk blocked the sky above them.

‘Idiots!’ screamed Sandale. ‘Trailing cable through the battlefield! Don’t they realize they could hit us?’

He still hadn’t got it, reflected Spoole. He still didn’t see that he was expendable.

An explosion up ahead drew his attention back to the battlefield.

‘We breached it!’ called a Storm Trooper. ‘We blew a hole in the side!’

Spoole looked and saw. The grounded ship was ripped open near the nose. Infantryrobots were already forcing their way in, peeling back lovely long strips of the strange human alloy.

‘We’re in!’ shouted Sandale. ‘Robots of Artemis! Attack!’

The call was unnecessary. What else would the robots do? Spoole watched as the Generals assumed control of the capture of the spaceship. They were back in power already.

Kavan was a fool, he thought once more.

Susan

Susan’s body had been broken when she was hurled from the troop train as it ran off the end of the lines at speed. Two engineers had found her and quickly put her back together again, then sent her on her way. She joined the other infantryrobots heading towards the human compound. And then the air had filled with so much metal that she had dropped, terrified, in a shell hole, and waited for the battle to stop.