Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) (76 page)

“Yeah, right,” Irons said, pulling the canopy release. Instead of
popping off it slowly lifted, the edges were melting around the perimeter seal.
After a moment the air got under the lip of the canopy and did the rest,
ripping the thing off. Irons winced, the thing was covered in nanites, there
was no telling where it would land.

“Controls are now non responsive admiral. Bail,” Sprite said. He
grunted and hit the safety release on his harness. It didn't unlock. He hit it
again but it still didn't unlock.

“The AI admiral, it's locked it.”

“I see that,” Irons said, yanking with enough strength to rip the
nylon straps apart. He stood in the seat, feeling the wind buffering him as he
reached down and pulled a bag to his chest. The air sparkled around him as his
shields fended off the attacking nanites. As he stood, left arm up protecting his
eyes the ship nosed down into a suicidal dive. For a brief moment he felt like
he was air surfing.

Inertia tossed him out of the seat, he floated as the ship fell
below him. After a moment it picked up speed and was out of his field of view.
He however had gone spread eagle, he glanced left and right and saw the
familiar glow of his cybernetics under his skin. He checked the bag on his
chest and then looked to his left. “Where did the car crash?”

“It didn't. It's... it's coming back around!” Sprite warned,
putting a karat on his HUD, behind and to his left. He turned, looking in the
indicated direction.

“Son of a bitch!” he said, arching into a dive of his own. “Lose
it!”

“We're trying admiral!”

“Cloak?”

“Not enough power if we're going to get to where we're going
admiral. And the air is saturated with nanites. If we cloak they will still
know our location from our passage through the air.”

“Useless. Right,” Irons grunted as the air tore at the bubble
around him. He gritted his teeth, readying himself for the impact to come. “Is
it still on us?” he asked, looking under his left arm. He could just spot the
little red car in a matching dive.

“That's loyalty for you,” Sprite said in a moment of ill-timed
levity. He blew a raspberry in response.

“Head straight down. When I give the word we kick and yo yo.”

“Um...”

“It'll work,” Irons replied. He felt the rush on the shield
intensify as the shield reformed into an egg shape to cut his drag coefficient.
“It's got to work,” he said, staring at the ground rushing up to meet him.

“One hundred meters kick!” Sprite said, putting words to action.
His gravity emitters kicked forward and to the right and then went to full
power upwards.  He felt a brief amount of negative g's until his inertial
dampeners compensated. He looked to the right just in time to see the air car
impact the ground in a tremendous explosion.

“Nice. It couldn't pull up in time,” Sprite said as they flew
onward. “We need to land soon admiral, we're using up a lot of juice,” she
cautioned.

He looked down to the sea of material writhing below him. They
were over ground zero, the central mass of nanites. He shook his head,
refocusing on the nearest Xeno shield emitter. It stood like an alien claw,
glowing purple in the dying sunlight. “Not a chance. We'd be in quicksand and
we're low on time. Get us there,” he said.

“Lucky us,” Sprite replied.

...*...*...*...*...

A few minutes later Irons noticed bubbles in the nanite mix ahead
of them. The sea of robots seemed to writhe, and then a tentacle reached out for
him. “Someone doesn't like us,” he said, dodging. Tentacles shot out, some
spears, and other objects. The Xeno AI viewed him as a threat and rightly so.
However he was only a dozen meters from the shield emitter. He twisted,
watching a spear strike the shield and sizzle on it. “My turn,” he said,
reaching into the bag and tossing the first package.

The small gravity emitter he tossed activated right away thanks to
the signal Sprite sent. It had a capacitor and just enough juice to fire off a
millisecond burst of gravitational energy, all focused at the emitter itself.
The planned chaotic interference kicked the Xeno shield, destabilizing it. It
fluttered and then went down, the glow of the emitter towers ending
momentarily. Irons flew through the gap and straight for the bomb.

“The easy part is over. Now for the hard part,” Irons muttered as
he reached into the bag again. His hands pulled out two centimeter long tubes
of explosives that he immediately dropped onto the target.  The mushroom shaped
bomb's exterior casing ripped open like a torn fruit as the shaped charges
detonated. He felt the plume of debris and hot gases ping off his shield,
temporarily enveloping him for a moment before they dissipated skyward.

“It's now time for the tricky part,” Irons said, reorienting so he
was face down, hovering over the center of the Xeno bomb. He could see silver
objects inside, and his enhanced vision picked out the nanites swarming like
ants around the ripped sections of the bomb, already at work repairing the damage.
“Nope,” Irons said, reaching in with his right hand and triggering a blast of
plasma.

Super-hot blue plasma slammed into the silver metal, scorching it.
Blow back obliterated the nanites around the perimeter. A second shot tore a
larger hole. Then he began to rip and tear at the torn metal with his right
hand until he was had the center cavity exposed.

“Bombs away,” Sprite said as Irons dropped the bag and its'
remaining contents inside.

“And now up, up and away,” Irons said, spinning and throwing all
the power he had into a climb. The bombs went off immediately, tearing the
planet buster apart with concentrated thermite and plasma charges.

Irons felt the explosive force push the air and him along, and he
rode it like a surfer. He grinned. “Target neutralized?” he asked.

Sprite extended his scanner range behind him briefly to look.
“I'll say. At least until the Xeno AI can build another,” Sprite responded.

“Which it's not going to do,” Irons said, looking up to the sky.
“Phoenix? Drop on command,” he said as he crested the edge of the Xeno nanite
mass and landed near a pile of rubble. The Xeno nanites were like organic
things, they invariably took the easy path, chewing up the softer dirt around
the rocks and leaving them alone. Now they would serve as a tomb for him.

“Ready admiral,” The AI responded after a moment. Irons had sent a
command to use the ship's on-board replicators to build an immense EMP bomb.
The only downside would be that he was damn close to ground zero. Too close for
comfort actually, but he had a plan that might work in his favor. Might. He
wasn't sure, but there was one thing he was certain about, he didn't want to be
in the air when the bomb went off.

“Go for drop,” Irons replied. He turned and dug for his life,
trying to get as much mass between him and the incoming bomb. The rocks
exploded into flying chips as he burrowed and chiseled lower. His nanites
spread out around him in a cloud, Proteus had his own task to perform.

...*...*...*...*...

In orbit Phoenix did a series of precise calculations and then
adjusted its orbit with finicky precision. When it was satisfied it counted
down over the radio network. At ten-seconds the shuttle bay doors opened. At
Zero the little kick motor on the back of the bomb ignited to life, kicking the
bomb away and down to the planet. “Bombs away!” Phoenix called.

...*...*...*...*...

The admiral looked up as his nanites moved rock and copper over
him, entombing him. Just as the last centimeter was covered he caught a glimpse
of the bomb with his long range sensors. “This is Irons, bomb is in flight.
Repeat, bomb is in flight. Shut down all electronic devices now! Repeat now!”
He coughed a few times, he'd inhaled granite dust in his haste to get the
warning out.

“Good luck admiral,” Helen replied and then he heard a click as
her radio cut off.  She would be passing the order to everyone to shut down all
electronics right about now he thought.

Irons grunted and turned in place.  He was as deep as he safely
could get. Proteus had stopped him. He turned, aware of the cage being built
around him. Between it, the ground, and his shields, and his own hardened
electronics hopefully it would be enough.

“Sprite, Defender, nap time,” he ordered.

“Good luck admiral,” Sprite replied. He watched with a thread of
worry as the two AI shut down his computers and then themselves. Unfortunately
he had to leave Proteus up for this. The index and middle fingers of both hands
crossed.

...*...*...*...*...

Falling through the atmosphere the six meter diameter canister
bomb sparkled as its' carbon carbon shell heated up from the forces of reentry.
The super-heated plasma around it made the air pop, and also burned away any
nanites that came into contact with it as it dropped below one thousand five
hundred feet. A micro second later it was at its preprogrammed detonation point
and a relay clicked.

Coils of wire ripped out from the device on  either end.
Electromagnetic force ripped out from the device as its' superconductor
batteries discharged, tearing at anything electronic. It was a shaped charge,
designed to focus its tornado of radio waves downward and in a broad two
hundred kilometer hemisphere of electronic death and destruction.

The Xeno's shields hadn't been restored when the bomb went off, it
consequently suffered the full brunt of the bomb as it ripped and tore at its
precious circuitry. It knocked the electronic network apart, cauterizing all
the nanites on the surface and burrowing deeper.

The Xeno nanites had burrowed into the ground much like the roots
of a Terran tree, forming a central tap root and feeder roots along axises with
the greatest amount of copper and other metals. These now became its downfall
as they channeled the electromagnetic fury into the heart of the swarm, killing
it.

...*...*...*...*...

Nearby Irons felt the force of the bomb as his sensors went fuzzy
and then filled with static. His eyes were closed, he felt the tremor of the
bomb's physical detonation slap at the ground above him. After a moment he
cracked an eye and swore as a bit of dirt from his ceiling got into his eye. He
rubbed at it. “We still here?”

“It seems that way admiral,” Proteus responded. “Faraday cage
succeeded.”

“Right,” Irons said.

“We are however down to one percent power,” Proteus said.

Irons grunted. “Sprite?”

“Sprite and Defender are both offline admiral. They took
themselves offline as a precaution,” Proteus responded. Irons knew that, he'd
ordered it. His mind cleared.

“But you didn't?”

“I
am
the nanites admiral. I am actually online all the
time if you wish to use them,” Proteus reminded him. Irons grunted as he stood.
His body ached, he felt tired, but oddly elated. He used his arms to dig
himself out. By the time he was done he really was exhausted. He turned,
shielding his eyes with one dirty hand to look at ground zero. It looked like a
sandy beach now, a silvery sandy beach. A hopefully dead beach, his power
reserves were hovering around five percent and he had only half his nanites
left.

“Well! I think that was enough excitement for one day! Don't you?”
he asked, brushing dirt from his hands as he leaned against a rock. He reached
down and brushed at the dirt and dust clinging to his clothes. “Sitrep?”

“Nanites down to forty one percent I backed most of my systems up
however. I will need time and resources to recover fully,” Proteus responded
with a slight hesitation. The admiral winced. He'd forgotten that Proteus was
the nanites. What could that have been like, using the nanites to create a
copper cage knowing that they would die? Feeling them die? He wasn't sure he
could ask Proteus. It was brave, that was for certain.

“Commander Sprite is booting now,” Proteus said, not acknowledging
the admiral's levity. “Estimated time to full consciousness... two... One...
now.”

“What'd I miss?” Sprite asked as her avatar popped up on his HUD.
She pretended to yawn and stretch. Irons snorted.

“Have a nice nap?” he asked as Defender appeared as well.

“Now that you mention it, yes,” Sprite replied with a shrug.

“Cute. Now, any ideas on how to get back to civilization?” he
asked looking around.

“Well, since everything electronic for a two hundred kilometer
range is toast, walking sounds about right,” Sprite replied with a snort.

Irons sighed. “I was afraid you'd say that,” he grumbled. Sprite
laughed as he shook his head and oriented himself. “This is going to be a
loooong walk.”

...*...*...*...*...

When the admiral returned to the edge of the remaining town just
as the sun had crested the horizon he was greeted by a cheering crowd. He
snorted, nodding and slowing his jog down as he got within a hundred meters of
the group. Nohar and Helen were in the forefront, clapping and smiling.

“What's next?” Nohar asked. Irons caught sight of Ole Blue in the
crowd. His multifaceted eyes glittered at him briefly. The assassin tipped his
hat his way with one pincer and then turned away, melting into the mix of
cheering people.