The Drone Wars

Battle

A flat tire set them back by a full hour and by the time they got to the banks of the muddy river.  They slightly higher altitude valley ahead dumped the river out into the plain in this spot where it made a right turn southward.  To continue on as planned, they would need to cross the river.  Lieutenant Clairvaux instructed that they would setup camp for the night on the other side of the river, inside the valley at a choke point.  The sun was already falling below the treeline.  They weren't going to get finished until nearly midnight.

As Pig was unloading a tent from the truck, he heard an explosion.  His training kicked in instinctively and he dropped to the dry ground in a bolt of terror.  The explosion was followed by a second and a spate of gunfire.  The brown haired guy had been helping him, now he was down on the ground with bright red blood seeping from three bullet wounds.

Pig could smell the explosives.  He could smell the blood.  He jumped back up, his weapon drawn, and fired from behind the truck at unseen enemies in the brush.  He hoped it was the right direction, but couldn't be sure.  As he did so, an enemy drone emerged from behind a banana plant.  It was about the size of a large dog, but moved on treads like a tank.  Pig was half terrified and half relieved.  The drone was more deadly than a human soldier but he would feel no guilt over its demise.

"Tortoise!" yelled out Sergeant Park.  Pig recognized his voice though he had spoken to the man only a couple of times.  "Rodriguez!  Get the DK74!"  Their training had taught all the soldiers to identify drones by the animals they resembled: Tortoise of slow, heavily armored ones, Cheetah for the fast ones that went on legs, Dragon for the ones that flew.  All of them were moving guns controlled by an operator who was safe from harm in far off China or Russia or one of their satellite states.

Pig was frustrated.  His gun, more than adequate for killing humans, had no effect on the hardened armor of the drone.  He could hear the treads move the drone forward.  It was crawling his way.  It would take several minutes for Rodriguez to get the DK74 heavy drone buster out.  It was a big gun, with ultra-high velocity, armor piercing rounds.  Too big and heavy to carry around routinely.  Pig realized he was going to die unless he took the drone out himself which was impossible unless he had the big gun which was loaded in another vehicle.

Or was there another way?  Pig was a good shot.  In fact, it was the only thing he excelled at in basic training.  He waited for someone from another vehicle to futilely fire at it.  It wasn't a long wait.  Bullets pelted the dirt and plants hear the machine.  Its gun moved in another direction to return fire.  Pig swung out from around the truck with uncanny speed for a portly man who's body was shaped like a barrel.  He fired one bullet at the drone.  He would only have time for three until its gun moved back to point at him.  His bullet hit the drone, but to no effect just like the others.  The gun was already moving back towards him.  No doubt the operator on the other end was elated to see a big new target.  After all, it was just a video game to him and he would want the highest score.  Pig fired another shot, less than a second after the first.  Still no effect and the barrel of the gun was nearly aligned with him.

Two other drones had come out of the jungle and begun advancing on other vehicles.  Pig began doubting his gamble.  He was a good shot, but not good enough to hit a target that small.  There was still a chance that Rodriguez would be able to get the DK74 unloaded in time to save him, albeit unlikely.  He thought about turning back to the truck.  Maybe he'd think of another option.  No, there was no time for doubt.  The operator would fire soon.  If he didn't succeed with this gambit, he'd be shot in mere milliseconds.

His gun spat another bullet.  This time, Pig heard a satisfying crack from the drone.  Yes!  He'd done it!  The main camera, hidden under the gun's barrel had been hit.  The lens was broken and the sensor exposed to the grit and grime of the battlefield.  Pig could just imagine the fellow on the other end cursing him, a smirk crossed his face.  He didn't revel in his victory too long though.  He quickly turned and went back behind the truck.

The drone began to roll forward again.  Pig had bought time, but not much.  Of course he had destroyed the high-resolution main camera, but he hadn't touched the slightly lower resolution back up camera or the night vision camera, either of which would be more than sufficient to keep the drone operator informed.  He could hear the treads clattering on the dirt gravel and rocks of the road.

He couldn't think of any more plans now and he'd be a dead man soon.  The robot rounded the bend.  He saw its broken eye under the big gun and its other two eyes that were still working.  He shot at them but even at such close range the lenses were so small, he'd be unlikely to hit them.

The gun began moving in his direction.  Well, he thought, Mama might actually be better off with him gone.  He'd bought all the life insurance they would let him buy.  It would be enough to get Mama the nice new trailer she'd wanted for so many years.  And it would pay for doctors appointments with a real doctor for the rest of her life, not just those stupid AI doctors she'd been stuck with all this time.  Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.  The operator would probably try for a one shot kill too.  It might not even be that painful.

With these thoughts, a certain amount of peace came over him.  A peace that was broken by a deafening cracking sound.  The drone lurched and stopped as a plume of flame and very hot smoke spewed out of its side.  The lithium batteries were on fire.

"Rodriguez!" yelled Pig staring at the black haired man who came up from behind him carrying a heavy, long gun.  "You saved me!"

Rodriguez scarcely paused before he walked three paces towards the jungle and fired another four shots disabling one of the other drones and then one more shot at the last drone, damaging but not destroying it.  Just then Rodriguez's eyes got big as if in disbelief as three blotches of red blossomed in his chest and he fell over.

A dozen soldiers came out of the jungle guns a blazing.  Pig returned fire as did the others of his platoon who had been hiding wherever they could from the drones.  The enemy soldiers were a mixed bag.  Half of them looked Nigerian and the other half looked Chinese.  Only a couple of the soldiers, Nigerians, were skilled fighters, the rest, though wearing uniforms looked shy, almost panicked.  They were shooting all over the place with no regard for conserving their ammunition.  Pig had the same idea as the other members of the platoon, he shot at the skilled and ignored the unskilled.  He aimed for their legs, his team had the advantage and he wanted to avoid killing if he could help it.

It was impossible to say who shot them, but first the courageous Nigerians went down.  Pig hoped that the rest would surrender but they did not and soon they lay motionless on the ground.  The quiet after the battle was somehow disturbing.  How had Pig survived whereas Rodriguez and the brown haired man did not?  It didn't seem fair.  But then again, Mama used to say that the sooner you learned and accepted that life wasn't fair the better off you'd be.

Five NATO soldiers had died along with twelve enemy soldiers, everyone else was unharmed.  Pig was relieved that Patrick was part of the latter group.  A truck was being dispatched to take the bodies back to Wolfcat and then to their respective origins for burial.  Yes they had won the battle.  Pig hoped that some good would come from this, and that all these lives would not have been lost for nothing but it didn't seem likely.