“It’s getting hot out there, folks. Watch out for the death dogs. They have weaponized them! Those of you with missiles, get firing! I want mortars on that defensive wall!”
“Death dogs,” I muttered. And then I grunted with amusement. When “Colonel Boomer” turned his head, I could see the wall behind him. It was the same mural that I had seen when we spoke with Eli Opel. He was in the same room that Opel had been in when we spoke with him. I had assumed it was some cushy office somewhere on Earth.
What a poseur,I thought.
“You have two friendly companions,” Roger said. “Try not to look at them.”
I knew I now had a pair of honeybee drones shadowing me, running just behind me. These were silver ones, part of the original squad. I didn’t know what their names were.
Of the seven hundred honeybees we had left, five hundred of them wore the EMP land mines that’d been given to us by Apex, all with an extra explosive attached to the top, which effectively turned them into fast-moving smart suicide bombers.
The two that shadowed me would have inactive pulse rifles on their backs, and they would be running cold, meaning they were hopefully stealthed from the satellites. They would be visual to the naked eye, but any sensors looking at heat would mask their presence, and because they were moving so close to the ground, most radars would miss them as well. They would make themselves known only if I was in serious trouble.
“There are five RMI soldiers ahead,” Roger said in my ear.
“I see them,” I said as the song moved to the bridge, which was the only tricky part. I nailed it. “Moving to engage.”
One of the biggest variables in all this was the RMI soldiers. They would now attack anyone they saw, and if they knew someone was nearby, they would swarm. We didn’t know for certain, but we assumed someone up on thePinnaclewas keeping a close eye on them, and we didn’t want too much attention focused on me. I was doing something strange, and I would be doing something even stranger in a minute. We didn’t know if all this was necessary, but just in case, we needed to make it look like Hobie Martin was going off on his own, missing the main attack because he wanted to fight the RMI soldiers one-on-one.
There was a clearing ahead, and my advanced radar showed the five soldiers just standing there.
At this point, those at the base would be doing the sameback-and-forth missile barrage that had preceded the fight the previous two evenings, only this time, the number of incoming missiles would be overwhelming. Still, we had more chaff and point defense guns than ever, and we hoped we could hold out for a little longer.
The song was coming to an end. We would pause, and Rosita’s documentary would start to play. There’d be a message that if you didn’t want to watch the concert, you could watch the whole video, which was now streaming on multiple platforms. These were already uploaded Earthside.
While I’d seen several of the segments, I hadn’t had time to watch the whole thing. She said it was just all her interviews, one after another, all with just a touch of editing. The purpose was to show the Earthers who we were. Who we really were. She hadn’t added anything about the war to the documentary except at the very end, instead framing it like she had originally intended: a snapshot of our lives so those who would come after us would know what it used to be like.
If people didn’t care about seeing us die, maybe they would care about seeing us live.
I kept my bass-drum beat going. Sam would tap me on the shoulder when it was time to start the next song.
In the mech, I sped up. Ahead, the RMI soldiers were just starting to react. I activated my jump jets, and I tapped the backpack, dropping a few of the custom-designed caltrops over the soldiers.
The little round balls dropped down into the clearing. One out of every four expelled smoke. The rest were true caltrops. The spiked devices would pierce the feet of the RMI soldiers, but they weren’t strong enough to cause any damage to the metallic feet of the mechs. If any of the RMI soldiers did manage to step on them, their feet would—in theory—get impaled, making it difficult for the dumb soldiers to walk.
We didn’t expect these to work very well, but it was the only weapon that came with the large deployment backpack.
I hit the ground heavily, wobbled a little, and turned. I extendedmy one hidden weapon: the electric scythes I had along both of my arms. I waded into the smoke, waving my arms about wildly.
The confused soldiers went down in seconds. A little chime appeared on the upper right of my vision.
Achievement Unlocked! First Kill!
I laughed at that. That kid Hobie hadn’t managed to hurt or kill anyone the whole time he’d been driving a mech.
“Christ, Roger, you were right. That was a good way to kill them.”
“Very good, Oliver. Recommence your mission.”
I resumed running. The trees cleared. Ahead, I could see the wreck of Rosita’s house and, just past that, the twin greenhouses where she grew her garlic, which had miraculously stayed intact.
Inside the first greenhouse were the supplies I would be bringing back with me to thePinnacle.
Sam smacked me on the shoulder, indicating it was time to start the next song. This one had been written by Tito, and it was pretty much one long guitar solo. It was called “The Pain in the Stars.”
Lulu shouted, “Nice mortars, assholes. Next time aim a little better. I can’t imagine what your toilet seats look like back home.”
“We better start evacuating those on the wall,” I said. And then, louder, I hit my sticks together, and I shouted, “One, two, three, four!”
