Mission Origin View (Final Days Trilogy) (35 page)

T
he initial volley of mag rail projectiles pushed back areas of sandbags around the perimeter, but the sandbag walls held. The sandbags would soon give way if the already-hit areas were hit a few more times. At least the czar mag rail weapons didn’t generate the amount of potential energy as the MPB-92. After a minute of continual fire from both sides, the czar assault stalled as the czar troops began seeking cover behind rocks and even lying in the small craters created by the impact of the marines’ mag rail projectiles fired from the MPB-92s. Several czar soldiers lay dead or wounded at the base of the hill, and a few prisoners fighting alongside the marines lay wounded. The force of the impact of czar mag rail projectiles or laser beams, which had pierced their environmental suits and flesh, had thrown them from their position behind the sandbags.  

“
Cease fire!” Gideon ordered.

“
Sir, permission to help the prisoners patch up their environmental suits,” Joseph said over the platoon channel. “I can’t fix their wounds but I can save them from the heat and no air”.

“
Is Doctor
Qasim
okay?” Gideon asked.

“
Yes, sir,” Joseph said.

“
Permission granted. Help as many as you can, but when the firefight starts again, go back and protect the doctor,” Gideon ordered.

“
Yes, sir,” Joseph said and then crawled to the closet prisoner, who was struggling to cover a hole in his environmental suit with his hands. Sipes pulled a small patch of
flexible, self-sealing
plastanium from a belt pouch and placed it over the hole, which a laser had caused. The patch automatically bonded with the suit, and the suit sealed in seconds. Joseph then crawled to the next casualty.

Gideon pe
eked over the sandbag wall toward the enemy. The czar troopers did a good job of concealing themselves, given the lack of cover that the bottom of the hill provided, but Gideon could still see them by switching to his thermal-imaging visual mode. Normally in this mode he could see people behind objects such as walls and rocks because they were hotter than their surroundings, but on this planet he saw them as cooler areas surrounded by the heat from rocks and the ground. He was tempted to fire on their positions but decided to wait until they attacked again, because the attack would simply be more effective. He switched back to normal visual mode and continued watching and waiting.

“
Something’s happening over here,” Kindle said over the platoon channel. “Looks like they’re releasing a cloud of gas or acid agent.” At about that time Gideon saw the same type of cloud, colored red, being released down the hill from his position. At first the cloud was thick and then began to thin as it spiraled upward. Gideon noted the winds blowing from the approaching storm didn’t affect the cloud.

“
That’s not a cloud of gas or acid,” Xia said over the platoon channel. “Magnify it and take a look.”

Gideon magnified
his view and could make out the details of the cloud. It looked like a swarm of red insects, flying in formation as they continued their spiral trek upward. Gideon took a quick glance over the mound of sandbags that surrounded the building and counted eight individual red clouds rising skyward.

“
There must be thousands of those things in those clouds,” Manelly said.

“
Anna, what’re those clouds?” Gideon asked and allowed the question and answer to be transmitted over the platoon channel.

“
I don’t know what it is,” Anna said.

“
Okay. Take a guess at what it is,” Gideon requested.

“
Undoubtedly it’s some type of weapon. Not gas or acid that would be used to eat through our armor. Probably a weapon based on s
warm robotics, where large numbers of mostly simple physical robots work together to achieve a common goal,” Anna said.

“
And the goal might be what?” Gideon asked.

“
To kill us,” Anna answered.

“
Sipes, stop what you’re doing and get Doctor Qasim into the entrance room of the building along with the prisoners who’re wounded and who don’t have weapons. Stay with Doctor Qasim until otherwise notified!” Gideon ordered.

“
Yes, sir,” Joseph said without hesitation.

“
I thought I’d seen it all!” Kindle commented to himself and accidently broadcasted over the platoon channel.

Gideon watched as the clouds spiraled to a height of
one hundred yards, leveled off, and began a circular motion like a cyclone. One of the clouds suddenly stopped this circular motion and moved like a stream of red smoke toward the marines and prisoners on the hill.

“
Here it comes,” Gideon transmitted over the platoon channel. Then he ordered, “Manelly, fire one mag rail projectile into that approaching cloud and then one blast of widespread particle beam. The rest of you, keep your eyes on the czar troops. They may try another assault when the cloud reaches us. Anna, record and analyze the attack on the cloud.”

Everyone chimed an acknowledgment.

Manelly fired the mag rail projectile into the approaching cloud. The projectile produced a momentary hole that was quickly filled. He then fired a particle-beam blast, which resulted in a smaller hole that filled in even more quickly.

“
Anna, report the effect of the attack on the cloud and offer a plan to destroy the devices,” Gideon said.

“
Mag rail projectile destroyed approximately three hundred devices, and the particle beam destroyed approximately seventy devices,” Anna reported, paused, and then continued. “No effective plan of attack against the cloud of devices will destroy them all with our weapons; it’s estimated our weapons could destroy only thirty percent of the devices before we run out of rail projectiles and weapon power packs. ETA of cloud, twenty seconds.”

Gideon
knew he couldn’t destroy the cloud of approaching devices and had only seconds to figure out a way to help protect everyone on the hill.

“
Marines, use your particle beams to slice the top-three rows of sandbags!” Gideon quickly ordered. Then on his helmet speakers he set the volume to the max and yelled, “Everyone in environmental suits, you don’t have time to get into the building. Lie down at the base of the sandbag wall and let the sand cover you! It should protect you and there’s enough air in your suits to breath until the attack is over! Do it now!”

The
marines sliced the sandbags with their weapons, and sand began to flow down the wall. Most of the prisoners lay at the base of the wall and allowed the sand to cover them while others just stood there, confused, or just didn’t want to do as advised. Gideon didn’t have time to explain his orders to them again, so he didn’t attempt to. They’d made their choice.

The red cloud rushed onto the top of the hill and spread over the small building,
the ground, exposed prisoners, and marines.

The devices were about an inch long, red, and shaped similar to a wasp. Using mechanical legs and wings, the devices attacked and began covering the
marines and exposed prisoners. Everyone instinctively started swatting, and Gideon noted a good hit from a hand or stomp from a boot easily destroyed the devices. He also quickly noted the marines and prisoners couldn’t destroy all the devices that way.

The devices that remained on the
marines and prisoners began using micro-lasers to bore their way into the marines’ armor and the prisoners’ environmental suits. The prisoners under the sand seemed to be safe for the moment since the devices concentrated their attack on the exposed marines and prisoners.

The
marine armor slowed the boring process, but the prisoners’ environment suits provided little protection. As the marines and prisoners used their free hands to wipe the devices off them, hundreds of other devices were ready to take the place of a destroyed device and began boring in the same exact spot as their predecessor.

The devices bored through the exposed prisoners
’ environmental suits first. Prisoners began to yell, roll, and run in an attempt to save themselves. As soon as the devices penetrated their environmental suits, the devices began boring into flesh. Gideon was horrified by the sight of hundreds of the red devices quickly tearing the exposed prisoners into pieces after they’d compromised their suits and flesh.

An armor
-breach alarm sounded in Gideon’s helmet as he felt a change of air pressure, and the temperature inside his armor increased. He was also leaking oxygen but not enough yet to cause a problem. His heads-up display showed a small hole in the thigh of his right leg. He swatted at the area, and a moment later the armor self-sealed and closed the hole. The alarm went off for a second, and then another armor-breach alarm sounded. This time it wasn’t only the same place; now there were several other places in his armor that had been breached.

“
Gunny, fire a low-level wide particle beam at me! Maybe it will keep the devices off for a while!” Gideon shouted over the platoon channel.

Without hesitating, Xia fired at Gideon. The green particle beam struck Gideon
’s armor, and even at a low level, it knocked Gideon off his feet and threw him back several yards. The armor was designed to take limited particle-beam hits and distribute the energy from the beam around the surface of the armor until the energy dissipated, which took about three minutes. Gideon’s armor glowed green with residual energy, and the devices attacking his armor dropped off as the energy along the surface of the armor short-circuited and destroyed the simple, unprotected devices. Devices crawling on the ground and on the sandbag wall near Gideon quickly attacked him, but as soon as the devices touched his armor, the energy on the armor destroyed the devices.

“
Manelly, Kindle, fire a low-level wide particle beam at each other now,” Gideon shouted over the platoon channel as he stood. He aimed and fired a beam of energy toward Xia. The breach alarms stopped when the armor self-sealed.

“
As soon as you get another breach alarm, ask for a shot of particle beam!” Gideon ordered over the channel. The marines chimed an acknowledgment.

The exposed prisoners
who hadn’t allowed themselves to be buried by the sand were all dead now. They lay in grotesque positions on the ground, surrounded by destroyed devices and blood. As devices continued to attack his armor and were destroyed by the dissipating energy, Gideon took a quick look down hill and noted the czar troops were still taking cover. Remembering Michael, and the fact he hadn’t seen him since the attack, Gideon assumed he might be dead. Gideon looked around for what might be left of him and his robe on the ground.

“
They will order three more of the death clouds to attack soon,” Michael said in a low voice as he approached Gideon from the other side of the building.

Gideon was s
urprised Michael was still alive and watched as the devices attacking Michael were being destroyed inches from his body and falling to the ground. Gideon didn’t see an energy shield but assumed Michael was somehow generating one and didn’t have time to discuss it with him.

“
How do you know?” Gideon asked.

“
I know these people have used trillions of dollars and killed many people to perfect their weapons and ways to kill,” Michael said. He pointed skyward as three more clouds started toward the top of the hill.

A breach alarm sounded again, and Gideon asked Xia for another shot of particle beam. The impact was a bit harder this time and again knocked him off
his feet. Gideon estimated their armor could take only about four more shots of particle energy before the armor began to degrade and not protect them at all.

The devices then
changed their attack strategy. Devices that were covering the building and surrounding area were now beginning to cover the sand that spilled on the ground and were digging down toward the covered prisoners.

“
Tidwell, we need to be extracted ASAP. What’s your ETA?” Gideon transmitted urgently.

“
Ten minutes!” Tidwell replied.

Gideon knew that as soon as the other three clouds of devices arrived
, they wouldn’t have a chance. The sheer number of devices would quickly degenerate the residue particle-beam energy on their armor, and their armor could handle only a few more particle-beam hits. Also, the devices were quickly digging out the covered prisoners and would soon penetrate their environmental suits and kill them. He considered ordering everyone into the building, but knew it would only delay the inevitable. He didn’t want his men to die this way, and made his decision.  

“
Sipes! Leave the doctor in the building and report to me!” Gideon transmitted over the platoon channel.

“
Yes, sir,” Joseph said.

“
Gunny, come over here and help me make some explosive charges when Sipes gets here,” Gideon then transmitted.

Joseph exited the building and trotted toward Gideon. When he reached Gideon, the red devices began attacking him. Joseph wip
ed and swatted the devices off him. Xia walked behind Joseph and took off Joseph’s rucksack that contained the explosives.