The Genie and the Engineer 3: Ravages of War (20 page)

Ω

A gentle mist hung in the moist warm air, the birds singing
their customary early morning selection of tunes, while to the east the sun
began yet another day, its rays of light only just piercing the very top
reaches of the tree branches. Among the birches, poplars, larch, and spruce,
squirrels were stirring, beginning their daily hunt for food while below, on
the ground, a lone wolf was on the prowl through the undergrowth, attempting to
find himself a satisfying meal before bedding down for a morning nap. Other
native wildlife stirred in the forest southwest of Russia’s capital and largest
city, in preparation for a seemingly ordinary summer morning.

To the west, only a mile from this particular section of
forest, there lay a cleared section of pasture over a mile long and half a mile
wide, just east of the rural community of Zverevo.

Without warning, a number of large portals snapped into
existence above the tall brown undulating grass, disgorging streams of Scotties
into the air. Quickly and seemingly without effort, the cubes floated above the
pasture, gathering together in groups along the eastern edge of the field.

The command section of II Corps, 2nd Division led by Irona
222, had arrived and was even now moving into position.

Paul watched their movements via a microportal.

“Sir,” Daneel 1 said. “Irona 222 reports that they are in
position. 1st Brigade of the 2nd Division under Viral 243 will take the east
side of the M3 highway. 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Division under Caliban 260,” (from
a trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen) “will take the west side. 3rd Brigade under
Andrea 270,” (
Star Trek
episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”) “and
4th Brigade under Lenore 280,” (
Firefly
) “will portal to Vnukovo
International Airport and then head up the M3 highway to Moscow’s outer highway
loop, the MKAD, clearing any Russian Army units they find as they go.”

Paul nodded, pleased that everything seemed to be going
according to plan. “Please ask Irona 222 to proceed.”

In the image display that Paul was watching, the Scotties
dispersed into the tree line, heading for the section of the M3 highway in
front of the leading column of tanks and vehicles of the Russian 4th Guard Tank
Regiment. The plan was to stage an ambush of the Russians tanks east of the
forest. With luck, the Russians would never know what hit them.

With a wave of his hand, Paul’s micro observational portal
instantly snapped to an overhead view of the M3 highway. There he saw the
modern four lane road, which, at the moment was only lightly populated with
traffic. Paul knew that later in the day, more vehicles would show up, but for
now, the highway was barely being used.

The Scotties of 2nd Division, II Corps would have to pass
through more than a mile of dense forest to reach the M3 highway. Even for
Scotties, this would take a little time. Meanwhile, the leading elements of the
Russian 4th Guard Tank Regiment were enroute from their overnight bivouac
further south. Their helicopter escorts of Mi-24PN gunships were already in the
air from their one night stop at the Yermolino airfield near Balabanovo, 45
miles further south along the M3 highway. Soon those aircraft would be overhead
as they began their escort duties of the T-80U and T-90A Russian tanks on their
way to Moscow.

The forest here was ideal to keep the Scotties out of sight
from the helicopters. Oh, sure, the Scotties could have used magic to make
themselves invisible but this was so much sneakier. Also, this section of
isolated highway was well away from any populated areas. Not only would the
Scotties not be accidently seen by a civilian, but no civilian would be in
harm’s way if warfare did break out in this area. And the operation would be
kept low-key. There would be no plasma bolts, and more important, no induced
thermo-nuclear explosions of any size.

But there would be lots of magic used here today.

Paul created a tall frosty glass of lemonade to sip on while
he tried to wait as patiently as he could.

A half hour later, two nasty looking, heavily armed Mi-24PN
helicopters roared by overhead, following the highway. They disappeared to the
north for several minutes, then returned, heading south. Apparently, they were
conducting a fast sweep of the highway, and equally as obvious, they had found
nothing of interest. Paul felt certain that they would be back again.

Another anxious half hour went by. Then, in the distance,
the drone of helicopters could be heard for a third time but now, approaching
far more slowly.

Paul spun his microportal to face south, elevating it to 100
feet off the road grade. Magnifying the image, he saw the first Russian
military vehicle in convoy, a GAZ 2975
Tiger
, rolling slowly up the
highway at what he estimated to be a mere 35 miles/hr. Behind it, in the haze,
he could see a double line of T-90 tanks.

He grinned. Excellent. By this time, Irona 222 and her
Scotties would be deployed. Viral 243 and his brigade would have dived into the
ground under the highway to pop up in the forest on the east side while Caliban
260 would have remained on the west side. Both brigades would be lined up along
the highway, strung out for three miles. They would wait until the lead tanks
reached the northern end of the Scottie lines.

Slowly, the tanks moved forward in formation, the noise
level increasing dramatically as they approached. With a spell, Paul lowered
the volume on his end of the portal.

The
Tiger
moved past the position of the microportal.
Paul chuckled at the idea of the traffic jam that was probably growing behind
the tanks, maybe ten miles or more to the south. Many of those civilian Russian
motorists would be upset at the delay but then that was the nature of convoys,
was it not?

Daneel 1 and Paul waited. It would only take six minutes
before the lead tank traveled three miles further up the road.

“Irona 222 reports the lead tank is in sight at the head of
the Scottie lines,” Daneel 1 announced a few minutes later. “She says she plans
to wait until the sixth row of tanks, then launch the attack.”

“That works for me,” Paul agreed anxiously.

The seconds ticked by slowly.

“Ten seconds, Dad. Five…four…three…two…one…now!”

Through the portal, Paul watched uneasily as two long lines
of Scotties swept out of the trees, one line on the east and the other on the
west of the highway. They crossed over the tanks in seconds.

The tanks ground slowly to a stop, a few of them slewing out
of line, to the left or right before all forward motion ceased. A few tanks
nudged each other before coming to a complete halt.

The chatter of helicopter blades could be heard, growing
louder by the second. One of the Mi-24PN helicopters appeared over the tree
line, bracketed by three Scotties as it came to a standstill over the road and
slowly lowered itself into the large grass-lined gully running on the east side
of the highway. Inside the cockpit, Paul could see the pilot slumped over to
one side, his controls maneuvering themselves as if by magic.

Yep. They were too.

The chopper landed, the roar of the two Izotov engines dying
as the ignition switches were cut, the rotor blades already beginning to slow.

The Scotties floated into a hover position above the tanks.
Bodies of Russian soldiers began to float up through the open hatches into the
air. One by one, they were slowly laid out on the ground, each and every
Russian sound asleep. Within a few minutes, thousands of sleeping, snoring
Russians carpeted the grassy slopes on both sides of the north bound lanes.

With a vast sense of relief, Paul opened a portal and
stepped through, emerging in front of a Russian T-80U tank, its gas-turbine
GTD-1250 engine purring quietly at idle. Daneel 1 followed him through.

Three Scotties approached Paul, the one in front, Irona 222,
growing a right arm and saluting him.

“Sir, the attack worked perfectly! Much better than our
simulations predicted,” she reported. “They never got off a shot. No casualties
on either side.”

Paul winked at the Scottie, a huge grin on his face. “Well
done, well done. Pass my thanks along to everyone.”

“What do you want done with the tanks and Russian soldiers?”
Daneel 1 asked.

Paul glanced around at the idling vehicles and then at a
nearby soldier, one of the loudest snorers he had ever heard, louder by far
than the idling T-80U tank beside him.

“Move the tanks off the highway, to the embankment and
medians and clear the highway for the civilian motorists. Then sabotage the
fuel pumps of the tanks. It will take the Russian Army a while to replace all
those pumps. They probably don’t have 900 of them in inventory. And take these
Russians back to their barracks and let them sleep it off. Without their tanks
and other vehicles, they are not much of a threat to us. Let them keep their
rifles and any other portable weapons they are carrying too.”

Irona 222 saluted again. “We’ll take care of it, Dad.”

“One other thing, Commander,” Paul said. “When you are
finished here, please move up the M3 highway and swing north. The southwestern
sector of Moscow needs to be secured but please don’t engage the Kremlin
regiments downtown. I want 3rd and 4th Brigades to swing down the M1 highway
and deal with the Russian 5th Guard Motor Rifle Brigade. Recommend to them that
they try and use this same tactic there, if they can find a nice forest-lined
section of the highway like this one. Then I want 1st and 2nd brigades to
proceed around the western side of Moscow, securing all entry into Moscow
around to the M10 highway. Got it?”

“Yes, sir!” she responded enthusiastically.

Paul turned back to Daneel 1. “Is 1st Division ready to go
yet?”

“Yes,” the Scottie replied earnestly. “I heard from Roberta
300,” (made-for-TV-movie
Not Quite Human II
) “about an hour ago. They
are in Butovskiy Lesopark, a forested section of real estate just south of the
Moscow Beltway or MKAD, as they call it here. They are ready to move eastward,
taking on what we believe to be the Russian’s 3rd Battalion, 81st Motor Rifle
Regiment, 27th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade at the junction of the M2 and MKAD
highways.”

Paul flashed a smile at him. “Let’s go see!”

Ω

Their command post stood in a small clearing a few yards
from a pond and perhaps fifty yards south of the MKAD. They could hear the roar
of traffic speeding along the highway, the whine of semis as their tires rolled
down the asphalt. The thick growth of trees and underbrush around them blocked
any view of the roadway itself or of the vehicles.

Roberta 300 floated up to Daneel 1 and Paul, extruding an
arm and saluting smartly. A display map magically appeared in front of them,
showing an overhead view of the complex interchange of the MKAD and M2
highways.

“Sir, a Russian battalion, we think the 3rd Battalion, 81st
Motor Rifle Regiment, 27th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade is positioned here, north
of the MKAD highway on the east side of M2, probably to block the entry into
Moscow. They have a tank company; we think the Russian 3rd Tank Company, 1st
Battalion, 1st Guards Tank Regiment in support of their position here, just
northeast of the interchange. Also, there are two Ka-50 helicopters patrolling
the area. But, worst of all, we have detected the use of magic from that
general area.”

Paul jerked his head back in surprise. “Magic? There? You
think portals have been used there?”

“Yes, we do,” Roberta 300 answered. “Probably by Oni but we
can’t rule out the possibility of a wizard in the neighborhood. We also don’t
know how many Oni or wizards there are in front of us. Maybe just a couple of
them. Perhaps dozens. It’s just not possible for us to know.”

Paul rubbed his jaw, deep in thought. “That rules out
stealth,” he said. “Any use of an invisibility spell to sneak up on the
Russians would be spotted instantly.”

Daneel 1 sighed. “True,” he agreed.

Roberta 300 continued. “We propose that our 2nd Brigade will
cross the MKAD here three miles west of the M2 interchange and traverse through
this wooded section to the north, swinging east and then back again to the
south. Hopefully they can catch the Russians from the rear. The 1st Brigade
together with the 3rd will move in from the front. The 4th Brigade will act as
reserve.” Roberta 300 turned back to face them. “Frankly, I wish we could
ambush them like 2nd Division did the Russian 4th Guard Tank Brigade, but these
guys are already too well emplaced.”

“We just need to get close enough to put them to sleep,”
Daneel 1 pointed out.

“Perhaps,” Paul said, his thoughts whirling. “But let’s be a
little sneaky in case there is a wizard there and he can interfere with our
sleep spell. Let’s try something a little different.”

Moscow, Russia

Butovskiy Lesopark

Southwest of the MKAD and M3 interchange

Thursday, 10:43 a.m. MSK

June

O
n a large
display, Paul and the command staff of 1st Division watched as five Scotties
dropped out of the sky on a semi-truck as it barreled up the MKAD highway. As
the floating cubes bracketed the truck, it slowed and pulled over to the
shoulder, its emergency lights flashing. Another similar truck was already
parked on the shoulder a hundred yards further up the highway.

“It looks like Annabelle 357,” (
Star Trek
episode “I,
Mudd”) “found another empty semi-truck,” Roberta 300 concluded. “That gives us
two of them on the east bound lane, three miles west of the interchange. And
Gort 737 reports that they have two empties on the north bound lane, south of
the interchange, on the M2. The drivers are temporarily under Scottie control in
a light hypnotic trance.” She turned to him. “I think we are ready.”

“It’s Trojan Horse time. Lock and load,” Paul replied, with
a devious smile.

Ω

Each pair of trucks, only a hundred feet apart, swung back
onto the highways and accelerated to a steady pace, heading for the
interchange.

Since the Scotties were essentially computers in their own
right, it was child’s play on their part to calculate and coordinate the timely
arrival of all four trucks to the target locations.

The two east bound trucks exited the MKAD and proceeded
along the south bound ramp which gently curved around to the northeast,
crossing over the M2 and swinging in another sweeping curve to the northwest as
the road began to merge into the north bound M2 highway. Simultaneously, the
two north bound trucks on the M2 crossed over the MKAD and neared the first two
trucks as the pavements merged together.

“And…about…now!” exclaimed Roberta 300.

Paul’s view of the scene, magnified from a microportal fifty
miles above the Earth’s surface, allowed them to easily observe the four trucks
as two Brigades of Scotties spewed forth, emerging through the walls of the
truck trailers, darting outward at high speed, catching the Russian tank
company inside the interchange loop completely by surprise. In two blinks of an
eye, all fourteen tanks were immobilized, their 1V517 fire control computers
fried with sudden intense bursts of focused gamma rays.

From the north, the Scottie 2nd Brigade flew down the east
side of the highway, coming up behind the Russians troops on the tree studded
fields in front of several high rise apartment buildings.

These Russian troops were not caught off-guard, but began
firing almost immediately, first with machine gun fire and then with 30 mm
anti-aircraft fire from a 2K22
Tunguska
self-propelled tracked vehicle.
In addition, plasma blasts could be seen, apparently from Oni hiding among the
Russians.

The Scotties danced and weaved while projecting portals to
catch the shells and bullets fired at them. Paul felt a sudden shock as a
Scottie spun wildly through the air, grazed by a 30 mm round, the cube shape
heading for an impact with the ground. Two other Scotties suddenly appeared by
its side, snagging the damaged unit and whisking it through a portal and out of
further harm’s way. Several grenades, fired from RPG-32 launchers, shot through
the air, most of them vanishing through small portals, but a couple detonated
against the Scotties’ personal force shields.

Around the interchange, cars and trucks frantically swerved
off the pavement past the shoulders of the road and into ditches, culverts, and
onto the grass. Some of the drivers and passengers madly bailed out of their
vehicles to lay prone on the ground. A few others simply pulled to a stop to
stare at the battle, mesmerized by the fireworks and oblivious to their own
safety. A couple of them, in a hurry and blocked by the lookie-lous, laid on
their horns, anxious to be on their way.

Attacked from two directions, the outnumbered Russian
soldiers fought back valiantly, but the Scotties held the upper hand. The
Tunguska’s
two 2A38 canons abruptly exploded, the barrels capped by a sudden magic spell,
trapping the shells and expanding gas inside until the walls of the barrels
ruptured violently under the pressure. Machine gun fire dwindled as three
Scotties used a portal to snatch up a PKM machine gun together with its Russian
soldier. Then two Kord 12.7mm machine guns exploded as Scotties used magic to
first melt and then bend the barrels (and while the Kords were still firing!).

In group lots, the Russian troops quickly disappeared as
portals appeared over their heads, dropping swiftly down over their positions.
Fire from the AK-12 assault rifles died off quickly as the infantry was removed
from the battlefield, in some cases leaving their weapons behind, the barrels
still hot enough to smolder the dry grass under them.

Six forms rose into the air, struggling against unseen restraints.
Isolated and captured by the Scottie’s magical spells, the six Oni tried to
fight back, but were steadfastly ensnared. They too disappeared through portals
one by one.

The firing quickly died off. The show now over, the vehicles
on both the M2 and MKAD slowly began moving again. Those vehicles that had left
the pavement slowly worked themselves back into the traffic flow.

The T-80 tanks, BMP-3s, and two GAZ-2975
Tigrs
, deserted
now, looked totally out of place in a residential setting. AK-12s and MP-443
Grach pistols lay discarded around the site. A handful of Scotties, now cloaked
in invisibility fields, gathered up the weapons and shoved them through
portals.

“Do you have a report yet?” Paul asked the Corps commander.

“Collecting information now,” replied Roberta 300. “Nimue 45,”
(from the David Weber Safehold series) “was injured in the fight and has been
taken to Mount Logan, Canada for repair. She is in serious condition. The six
Oni have already been sent to the Azkaban Prison, per your standing orders. All
the Russians have been rendered unconscious, and are being returned to their
barracks at Vidnoye. As best we can tell, no innocent bystanders were injured,
thanks to some fast action by our Scotties with portals and deflection spells.
Most of the bullets and shells fired were portaled to a wooded section several
miles south of here.”

Paul nodded and turned to Daneel 1 with a frown. “When we
leave here, I would like to visit Nimue 45 in Mount Logan.” He turned back to
Roberta 300 and made himself smile. “Excellent job, Commander. Please pass
along my congratulations to everyone. Next, I would like you to please clear
the other MKAD interchanges south of Moscow of all Russian Army units. Please
keep us informed on your results. We will be asking 3rd and 4th Brigades of 2nd
Division to intercept the 16th Spetsnaz Brigade. I plan to go with the 1st and
2nd Brigades of 2nd Division for their next operation. I am going to ask them
to secure the entire western and northern approaches to the city. I want your
Division to take on the Russian 9th Guard Motor Rifle Brigade advancing from
the east on the M7 highway. After that, I want you to also take out the 6th
Guard Tank Brigade on the M7 highway as well.”

Roberta 300 said, with a chuckle, “Thanks, Dad. Don’t worry.
We’ll clear those rascally Russians out of the way.”

Ω

Their operations against the Russian troops outside of
Moscow required two additional days of combat to complete. The 2nd Division,
3rd and 4th Brigades successfully attacked and disposed of the 5th Guards Motor
Rifle Brigade at the M3 and M9 interchanges along the MKAD highway and secured
the southwestern sections of Moscow. Then they turned and moved southward along
the M6 highway to deal with the 16th Spetsnaz Brigade (they buried themselves
in the furrows of freshly plowed fields alongside the road and then popped out
of the ground to spring their surprise trap against the Russians).

After the success of 1st Division at the Battle of M2
Highway, Roberta 300 led her 1st and 2nd Brigades to victory against the 9th
Guard Motor Rifle Brigade in a forest lined stretch of the M7 highway west of
Obukhovo. Then she led 3rd and 4th Brigades in a successful ambush and assault
against the 6th Guard Tank Brigade just east of Vladimir, again using a thick
section of woods to screen their presence.

At the end of two days of combat, all of the outskirts of
Moscow were under Scottie control.

In all the action so far, two of his Scotties had been
injured. Nimue 45 at the MKAD and M2 battle and Omega 69 (from the TV series
The
Flash
) at the MKAD and M9 battle. Nimue was in serious but optimistic
condition at the Mount Logan facility. In her case, she had sustained
motherboard damages, but was expected to recover with a new board. Sadly, Omega
69 had been more seriously injured, including damage to his CPU. The latest prognosis
Paul was given was not encouraging. The attempts to recover the Scottie’s
personality matrix from the CPU were full of data parity errors. Omega 69 might
very well end up being the first to make use of the theoretical back-up plan
for recovery of a lost Scottie. That plan was simple enough. The hardware for a
new Scotty would be assembled and then Omega 69’s data backup files would be
downloaded to it from his portable storage unit stored at the Mount Logan
Facility

It wouldn’t be an ideal restoration of Omega 69 but it would
come as close as they could make it happen. His memories since leaving Mars
would be gone. Still, for all intents and purposes, it would be virtually
indistinguishable from the same ‘person.’

Still, Paul’s heart was sad. There was no denying Omega 69
was the first real casualty of the war. Paul prayed that there wouldn’t be any others
but felt uncomfortable, suspecting down deep in his heart that Omega 69 might
just be the first of many more to come.

Paul glanced around the Situation Room. Several dozen
Scotties floated in the air near him, waiting patiently for him to begin the
meeting.

“Fine,” he said, shrugging off his melancholy state of mind.
They had, after all, won a great victory, one that any other army in history
would have been proud to boast about. “Let’s have a map and discuss what we are
going to do about the Russian wizards.”

A map of downtown Moscow appeared in the middle of the large
room, courtesy of a spell from Daneel 2, who added, “We tasked Questor 411,” (1974
made-for-TV-movie,
The Questor Tapes
) “commander of 4th Company, 3rd
Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of II Corps to monitor all of downtown
Moscow for magic signatures.”

Paul signaled his understanding with a quick nod. “Looking
for portal usage. Good. And?”

Daneel 2 zoomed in on the map, focusing in on the area
around Red Square. “In the last 48 hours, there has been a lot of portal
activity in this area, centered mostly on the Kremlin Senate building and the
Kremlin Presidium. There has been some activity too at the Kremlin Arsenal and
even in the Grand Kremlin Palace. Other portals have been observed at locations
we believe coincide with Kremlin Regiment positions. We have tasked Galaxina
404,” (1980 film
Galaxina
) “commanding 4th Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd
Brigade, 2nd Division of II Corps to scan all of downtown Moscow for the
Kremlin Regiment troops.” The map moved again, several flashing red dots
appearing, forming a circle around the center of Moscow. “I believe that they
have identified elements of all four brigades of the Kremlin Guard at various
choke points around the Garden Ring. That’s a string of 17 individually named
streets and 15 squares that forms a 16 mile circumference around the city. It’s
a natural defensive barrier since most of the Garden Ring consists of streets
from six to eighteen lanes wide. It gives the Kremlin Guard good fields of fire
as well as decent mobility, allowing each unit to support neighboring units
around the Ring. There seems to be a second, inner ring of troops surrounding
Red Square and the Kremlin buildings, which thereby provides them defense in
depth.”

Paul gestured thoughtfully at the map. “And there will
likely be Oni supporting all those Kremlin Guard units as well.”

“Which explains the portals we’ve seen around the Garden
Ring,” agreed Daneel 2. “Obviously they are expecting us to make a frontal
ground attack, thus explaining the classic defensive rings in depth. How shall
I say this? The Russian commander is ‘intelligent but not experienced. His pattern
indicates two-dimensional thinking.’”

Paul had to chuckle at that one. “Spock said that to Kirk
about Khan in
Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan
. Very good. So do you also
recommend Z minus 20,000 feet?”

“In our case, I recommend Z
plus
300 miles,” Daneel 2
replied. “Using orbital drop techniques pioneered in Robert Heinlein’s novel
Starship
Troopers
and last used in the HALO video games, books and of course, the
anime series.”

It made sense. “We have enough Scotties to hit all the
important locations simultaneously,” Paul pointed out. “I suggest that we put
together a plan of attack, starting with the Kremlin Senate building. That’s my
best guess where the Russian chief wizard, what’s his name, is hiding out.”

“Oleg Trofim Nevsky,” Daneel 1 reminded him. “And I’m sure
you are right about his location.”

“Let’s use 1st Division, II Corps to hit the Senate,” Paul
suggested. “Then we can assign…”

Ω

Their attack began shortly before midnight, Moscow time, on
the very next day.

Three hundred miles above the Baltic Sea, a series of large
portals snapped into existence, ejecting twelve thousand Scotties, all
streaming forth and accelerating eastward in a path toward western Russia. They
flew forward along carefully calculated paths, each individually designed to put
its Scottie on a ballistic course towards a specific location inside the Moscow
city limits.