The Drone Wars

Ascent and Descent

Pig stared into the eyes of the machine, they were just cameras but they almost seemed like they had a glimmer of sinister intelligence behind them.  From above, it had wings of camouflaged solar panels.  Even if the satellite images had been updated, they never would have seen it.  From ground level and below, it was polished chrome with over a dozen empty docking stations for the small drones.

"Lay the charges there and there," said Clairvaux pointing at the two sides of the machine.

Mitch handed one of the radio controlled C-4 explosives to Pig and took one for herself.

"Given the level of interference," Mitch said, "I don't think we'll be able to go a very safe distance before setting them off.  It's amazing this thing works."  She tapped the side of the machine.

Pig though about that.  Someone would have to stay close to set them off.  He glanced over at the precipice beside them down at the valley below.  They weren't quite at the peak of the vegetation clad mountain, but the view was still beautiful.  Just then a familiar buzzing sound became audible.

Pig strained to hear.  By the time he was sure, Mitch had already picked up a shotgun.  She was amazing, by the time Pig had reached his gun, the first Bee Drone appeared out of the brush and she blew it to smithereens.

It was amazing.  The big machine was definitely controlling the drones autonomously.  It was defending itself with the drones, just like the queen bee in a hive was kept safe by her soldiers.

A second later Mitch was still reloading when Pig fired the next shot.  Again a drone fell to the ground.  Azikiwe took the next shot, successful again.  When the forth drone appeared, Clairvaux fired and missed.  Who knew that a Lieutenant would be such a poor shot?  Pig wouldn't have said anything about it under the most conducive of circumstances, let alone now.

After a few milliseconds of respite, five of them appeared simultaneously.  The shotguns went off one after the other, no one missed.  One was left and it went straight at the Lieutenant.  Mitch fired, and the drone went down.  Clairvaux screamed as his face and body began to erupt in little blotches of blood.  The drone had been close and apparently Clairvaux had been hit with the edge of the projectile cone.

There was no time for sympathy, the drones kept coming and one after another Mitch, Pig, and Azikiwe kept blasting at them.  Finally, the last straggler was brought down.

"I'm alright, I'm alright," protested Clairvaux as Mitch tried to tend to his wounds.  Pig couldn't imagine how he could decline the attentions of such a woman.  He began putting the C-4 on the sides of the odious machine.

Finally his heart began pounding a bit less intensely as they once again began slowly trudging down the mountain.  What a story Pig would be able to tell his mama when they got back to the vehicles across the river!  It would be the defining moment of his military career, at least he hoped it would.

"Far enough," announced Mitch.  They weren't quite out of sight of the machine as all four began trying to wedge themselves behind rocks.  Mitch was crouching in a place where her hand could have line of sight with the machine but her body likely, but not certainly, would be out of the way of any shrapnel.

"I'll do it," said Pig as he went over to take the controller from her.

"OK by me," Mitch responded as she got up, as if Pig was eager to be a hero or some such macho nonsense.

Pig hunched behind the rock, his hand sticking out just a little, hopefully enough and he depressed the trigger.  Nothing happened.  He put his hand out a bit more and pushed it again.  This time, the two bombs went off, the explosion was big, all the power in the machine's big batteries was converted into heat in an instant.  Pig felt an intense burning sensation in his hand.  He pulled it back to examine it and it was indeed covered in blood.  The moment he saw it, the burning sensation was converted into pain.

He yelped and his wish for female attention was granted.  Mitch came over with a med kit to patch him up.  She pulled out a quarter inch metal fragment embedded in bone.  His hand was in bad shape but Mitch was confident that with proper medical care it would heal.

They made camp that night back in the cave at the bottom of the mountain.  Despite the pain in his hand and the dripping misery of the cave, Pig had never slept so peacefully.