Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 47 - Strike

A complex humming began as soon as Aron squeezed the button. Different low frequencies pouring over each other, shifting phase in opposing directions. He was the only one not staring at the cannon in anticipation, instead staring at the dead robot and keeping the cannon carefully trained upon it.

For a moment, the hum appeared to be fading but then it abruptly transitioned to an abrasive buzz and raised sharply in pitch. A split-second later, the buzz died swiftly away to nothing. His audience's obvious disappointment was interrupted by a loud clattering sound from the robot carcass as pieces of its now shattered form showered onto the ground, blackened and mostly melted.

Megan ran nearer to survey the damage. Ekono, Isa and Walter followed close behind but Aron remained, instead setting about shutting down the cannon.

"You obliterated it!" Megan cried, breaking into a little victory dance before thinking better of it.

"That caused considerably more damage than I expected," Walter added.

"I like it!" Ekono grinned.

"The robots didn't hit our buggy that hard," said Walter, crouching to inspect the still smoking, charred pieces.

"They didn't need to," Aron replied, joining them to get a better look too.

He had aimed at the centre of the robot's right side. Apart from the lower part of the robot's mechanical arm, lying some three metres away, that side of the robot was simply gone. The invisible energy beam had disintegrated the entire sidewall of the armour and punched a significant hole through the opposite side too.

Both front and back surfaces were ballooned outwards with obvious indications of severe heat damage. Charred fragments, mostly part-melted, of internal components were scattered around and the window on the front of its head was scorched away almost completely.

"Is this the kind of damage they can do to us?" asked Megan, her mood suddenly dropping.

"If they can supply enough power to the gun, yes, and potentially more," Aron replied. "Frankly, I'd be surprised if they can't power it to its maximum output, when they want to."

"If they fired at one of us on that power-setting, there wouldn't be much left," Isa sighed.

"So, we hit them first," said Ekono coldly. "Don't give them opportunity to shoot at all."

"How do we achieve that?" asked Megan.

"Give me some improvised grenades and the two-seater buggy, and I have a plan," he smiled.

* * *

After almost three hours of preparations, the fully loaded and slightly modified two-seater buggy set off to the hangar airlock to execute Ekono's urgently thrown-together plan.

"Doors opening now!" shouted Aron, hurrying across to the two-seater buggy and practically throwing himself back into the driver's seat.

As per the plan, as soon as the airlock door was open wide enough, he slammed the accelerator down and scanned the darkness ahead for any trace of lights. The buggy's own headlamps were off so the only lights he could see outside of his visor were the various lamps on the dashboard. He hoped the lack of lights in the corridor indicated that the robots had left.

He was prepared to throw the buggy into a sharp left turn as soon as it was sufficiently clear of the doors, but the appearance of two brilliant beams of light from that direction meant a hasty change of plan. The whole plan now relied on there not being more robots to the right too. The buggy's tyres squealed on the black surface as, even at its relatively slow speed, they struggled to change its momentum so fast.

Keeping the accelerator pedal pinned to the floor, he instinctively hunched down over the steering wheel to make himself less of a target. Obi, clinging on in the passenger seat beside him, activated and lobbed two improvised explosive devices at the approaching robots. The first did not even reach the ground before it exploded in a near-blinding, red flame. The second bounced towards the rapidly approaching lights, settling on the floor just before exploding in an identical flash.

Aron straightened the buggy, activated the headlamps and aimed along the centre of the corridor. Obi was trying to activate a third, larger device, but Aron knew that their survival now depended on the hastily printed heat-shield that was bolted to the cargo tray on the back of the buggy. The 3D-printer on the Arcadian had taken two hours to create a panel of the material usually used as physical shielding around the fusion reactors. It was the same width as the buggy and just tall enough to reach from the ground to the tops of their heads.

Obi finished prepping the third device and tossed it casually over the side as thick, black smoke poured from both ends. Aron willed the buggy to accelerate faster than it was. He knew the robots would open fire at any second and that he could not create any meaningful distance between them, but he felt better being further away.

Two jerks in rapid succession told him that the robots were now firing at, and hitting, the buggy. The fact both he and Obi were still alive implied that the new shield was holding, at least for now. Holding his gun awkwardly, Obi fired his sidearm backwards around the shield. They both knew it was a futile gesture, but Obi was sticking to the overall plan to make as much noise, light and confusion as possible.

High energy impacts on the shield kicked the buggy again, but it seemed to hold. Aron hoped that the rest of the plan would work as well as it had gone so far.

* * *

As the heavy whirring and sporadic buzzing of the robots passed the now fully open airlock door, Ekono flicked the power switches on the alien cannon. With his suit lights and radios off, standing with his back against the wall around the door, his aim was not to be noticed by the robots. The fact that they had not responded to his presence was a clear sign that they had taken the bait.

He stepped quickly through the opening and spun to face the backs of the robots as they rolled quickly along the corridor after the buggy. Aiming from the hip, all he could do given the weight of the improvised cannon assembly, he fired at each robot in turn. The wind-up time of the cannon was annoyingly slow but in the space of ten seconds, he launched four blasts, two at each target.

The right-hand robot wobbled for a couple of metres, pouring grey smoke, before finally losing its balance and slamming face-first into the floor. The left-hand robot managed to spin on the spot, turning to face directly towards him.

He felt a wave of heat as an energy blast flew harmlessly past his shoulder. Knowing that the next blast might vaporise him, the two seconds it took for his own cannon to charge felt like an eternity. Finally, his cannon fired, catching the remaining robot just above its wheels. The upper body crumpled sideways in an explosion of smoke then the whole robot pivoted, gave way and crashed onto the floor.

Ekono walked towards it, firing several more shots at the robots to ensure they were both dead. Then he activated his suit radio.

"They're down!" he exclaimed calmly as soon as a connection was made. "We got the two that were waiting for us. Just be on alert in case there are any more of them on their way here."

"Great work!" Aron replied. "I'll get the buggy turned around and get back to your position."

"Next job, find Margaux," said Ekono.