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His androids were pretty good, but they were general-purpose expendables, strong and quick,
not extensively trained for formal combat scenarios. In this kind of thing the marines had the edge,
even though they weren t armed very well. Three of the six pods flamed out and crashed; the other
three quickly pulled out of range and hovered over the area.
Commander, came the query from the com, we have a problem here.
I m not blind, Massey said. Hold your position. Keep them in sight.
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his chin. He turned away and called to the android
standing guard at the door. Go get Wilks and bring him here.
The android left.
Hmm. Yes, this was much more challenging than he had expected. Still, it was a minor setback.
He had uploaded a raft of information about the planet, and his primary mission, to keep the
government from securing an alien specimen, was accomplished. Should he continue this, or cut his
losses and go home? On the one hand, he d done pretty much what they wanted him to do he
could tell the company that the surface teams had been destroyed by alien wildlife and they would
shrug it off as nothing. The company had its specimen, another one would only be backup. On the
other hand, he hated the idea of even a partial failure.
Yes, it was an interesting question. He d have to think about it a little more.
It was blind luck that let Billie see the pirate moving Wilks along, a gun jammed into the
marine s back. Wilks had his hands crossed behind him and held with a thin carbon-fiber cuffstrip.
The man or was it another android? herding Wilks along didn t glance down the corridor as he
passed, his attention being on his prisoner, so he didn t see Billie crouched down by a radiator heat
sink.
When they had gone by, Billie stood and cat-footed to the end of the cross corridor. She
peeped around the corner in time to see them turn toward the control deck. Well, she had wanted to
find Wilks and now she had. She slipped into the main corridor and started after the two.
Wilks had a feeling that wherever he was going, he might not be leaving under his own power.
What the hell, he figured. He d been living on borrowed time for more than a decade. He should
have died with his squad back on Rim. It had all been gravy since, and not real tasty most of the time
anyhow. Fuck it. If his number was up, then his number was up. He was going to go down like a
man.
Bueller had the squad dispersed and shifting positions every few seconds. They were lucky the
air pods hadn t been designed for anything other than quick and dirty transportation the little craft
didn t have much in the way of sensing gear, only basic radar and Doppler, no sniffers or IR. And no
weapons except what the passengers themselves carried. Since the androids flying the pods had to
rely on their own senses for targeting, the camo suits the marines wore made it difficult to see them.
They were hard to see but the pods weren t. And the two plasma rifles the squad had would reach
the same distance as the ones in the pods. So if they came down within range to splash the marines,
they risked getting smoked themselves. And since they were much bigger and better targets, so far
the score was marines three, pirates nada.
Then again, they couldn t sit here on the ground much longer. Sooner or later the bugs would
come swarming out of the mound and that would make things more than a little worse for the squad.
They couldn t afford to be pinned down here.
Okay, everybody listen up, Bueller said, using his scrambled opchan. We got to move out
before company comes looking for dinner, everybody copy? On my signal, we rocket, magnetic
south. Ramirez, you take point, Blake you cover. Everybody else keep your head down and give me
asses and elbows.
Bueller didn t think the pirates could tap their opchan, but he remembered the lesson he d
learned from Wilks when he and Easley had gotten nailed during a practice assault back on Earth.
On my signal, marines, gainsay prior.
The last was a code. It meant move at 180 degrees to the last order. If the pirates did have an
ear tuned to their private line, they d be looking for the marines to move south. The squad would be
going north, however, and it might buy them a few hundred more meters.
Go!
The captured android had been listening to Bueller give the order. Bueller didn t think about it
until they were moving the android didn t know their codes. When the marines scrambled, the
pirate android went the wrong way.
Hey! Bueller yelled.
Too late. One of the pods swooped down to the south of their position, a plasma rifle on full
auto. Its charge wouldn t last long firing that way, but hosing could cause a lot of damage in a short
time. The ground smoked and cratered; rocks screamed as they shattered under the blasts of energy;
the pirate android tried to stop but ran into the dancing lines of green death. His internal fluids boiled
and he exploded like a water balloon stuck with a sharp knife. Well, it was quick. He wouldn t have
suffered much.
Blake pulled up, spun, and sighted at the pod. The craft looped from its dive and started to lift.
Too far, Bueller yelled. Don t waste your shot!
Blake grinned, her smile wide. She kept both eyes open as she aimed, followed the pod with
her rifle, then squeezed off the plasma bolt.
It was five hundred meters if it was a centimeter, a fast-moving target. Not much chance of
hitting it, Bueller thought.
The green beam drilled the pod dead center. The energy bolt coruscated against the heavy
plastic, ate its way through in less time than it took a nervous man to blink, and burned out the pod s
repellors. The pod seemed to hang motionless for a heartbeat, suspended in time and space, then it
fell like a fat lead ball dropped in heavy gravity. Without the repellor, an air pod had the
aerodynamics of a round brick. They were close enough to hear the atmosphere whistle across the
hole the plasma bolt made. The thing hit the ground hard enough to make the hard dirt splash.
Nice shot, Bueller said.
Like duck hunting, she said. Got to lead the target a little, that s all.
They ran.
The remaining two pods circled high overhead, keeping well out of range.
Where are we going? Chin yelled.
TotheAPC.
It s the other way! [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
His androids were pretty good, but they were general-purpose expendables, strong and quick,
not extensively trained for formal combat scenarios. In this kind of thing the marines had the edge,
even though they weren t armed very well. Three of the six pods flamed out and crashed; the other
three quickly pulled out of range and hovered over the area.
Commander, came the query from the com, we have a problem here.
I m not blind, Massey said. Hold your position. Keep them in sight.
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his chin. He turned away and called to the android
standing guard at the door. Go get Wilks and bring him here.
The android left.
Hmm. Yes, this was much more challenging than he had expected. Still, it was a minor setback.
He had uploaded a raft of information about the planet, and his primary mission, to keep the
government from securing an alien specimen, was accomplished. Should he continue this, or cut his
losses and go home? On the one hand, he d done pretty much what they wanted him to do he
could tell the company that the surface teams had been destroyed by alien wildlife and they would
shrug it off as nothing. The company had its specimen, another one would only be backup. On the
other hand, he hated the idea of even a partial failure.
Yes, it was an interesting question. He d have to think about it a little more.
It was blind luck that let Billie see the pirate moving Wilks along, a gun jammed into the
marine s back. Wilks had his hands crossed behind him and held with a thin carbon-fiber cuffstrip.
The man or was it another android? herding Wilks along didn t glance down the corridor as he
passed, his attention being on his prisoner, so he didn t see Billie crouched down by a radiator heat
sink.
When they had gone by, Billie stood and cat-footed to the end of the cross corridor. She
peeped around the corner in time to see them turn toward the control deck. Well, she had wanted to
find Wilks and now she had. She slipped into the main corridor and started after the two.
Wilks had a feeling that wherever he was going, he might not be leaving under his own power.
What the hell, he figured. He d been living on borrowed time for more than a decade. He should
have died with his squad back on Rim. It had all been gravy since, and not real tasty most of the time
anyhow. Fuck it. If his number was up, then his number was up. He was going to go down like a
man.
Bueller had the squad dispersed and shifting positions every few seconds. They were lucky the
air pods hadn t been designed for anything other than quick and dirty transportation the little craft
didn t have much in the way of sensing gear, only basic radar and Doppler, no sniffers or IR. And no
weapons except what the passengers themselves carried. Since the androids flying the pods had to
rely on their own senses for targeting, the camo suits the marines wore made it difficult to see them.
They were hard to see but the pods weren t. And the two plasma rifles the squad had would reach
the same distance as the ones in the pods. So if they came down within range to splash the marines,
they risked getting smoked themselves. And since they were much bigger and better targets, so far
the score was marines three, pirates nada.
Then again, they couldn t sit here on the ground much longer. Sooner or later the bugs would
come swarming out of the mound and that would make things more than a little worse for the squad.
They couldn t afford to be pinned down here.
Okay, everybody listen up, Bueller said, using his scrambled opchan. We got to move out
before company comes looking for dinner, everybody copy? On my signal, we rocket, magnetic
south. Ramirez, you take point, Blake you cover. Everybody else keep your head down and give me
asses and elbows.
Bueller didn t think the pirates could tap their opchan, but he remembered the lesson he d
learned from Wilks when he and Easley had gotten nailed during a practice assault back on Earth.
On my signal, marines, gainsay prior.
The last was a code. It meant move at 180 degrees to the last order. If the pirates did have an
ear tuned to their private line, they d be looking for the marines to move south. The squad would be
going north, however, and it might buy them a few hundred more meters.
Go!
The captured android had been listening to Bueller give the order. Bueller didn t think about it
until they were moving the android didn t know their codes. When the marines scrambled, the
pirate android went the wrong way.
Hey! Bueller yelled.
Too late. One of the pods swooped down to the south of their position, a plasma rifle on full
auto. Its charge wouldn t last long firing that way, but hosing could cause a lot of damage in a short
time. The ground smoked and cratered; rocks screamed as they shattered under the blasts of energy;
the pirate android tried to stop but ran into the dancing lines of green death. His internal fluids boiled
and he exploded like a water balloon stuck with a sharp knife. Well, it was quick. He wouldn t have
suffered much.
Blake pulled up, spun, and sighted at the pod. The craft looped from its dive and started to lift.
Too far, Bueller yelled. Don t waste your shot!
Blake grinned, her smile wide. She kept both eyes open as she aimed, followed the pod with
her rifle, then squeezed off the plasma bolt.
It was five hundred meters if it was a centimeter, a fast-moving target. Not much chance of
hitting it, Bueller thought.
The green beam drilled the pod dead center. The energy bolt coruscated against the heavy
plastic, ate its way through in less time than it took a nervous man to blink, and burned out the pod s
repellors. The pod seemed to hang motionless for a heartbeat, suspended in time and space, then it
fell like a fat lead ball dropped in heavy gravity. Without the repellor, an air pod had the
aerodynamics of a round brick. They were close enough to hear the atmosphere whistle across the
hole the plasma bolt made. The thing hit the ground hard enough to make the hard dirt splash.
Nice shot, Bueller said.
Like duck hunting, she said. Got to lead the target a little, that s all.
They ran.
The remaining two pods circled high overhead, keeping well out of range.
Where are we going? Chin yelled.
TotheAPC.
It s the other way! [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]