Good side: I’d sucked down enough juice to bring my manipulator system online. The field emitters in my arms and legs were warm with the heat of flash building the last few control connections, but the new software that was integrating with my motor centers told me they could run a lot hotter if they needed to. My power cell could only run them at full power for a few minutes, though, so I’d have to play this smart.
A jump off the breaker panel launched me out into the corridor just before the bots could reach me. I bounced off the wall and down the hall, out from between the enemy. The closer bot tried to spray me with a jet of liquid as I rocketed past, but I just pushed it away with a wave of my hand.
Thanks, Mom. You really came through for me this time.
The liquid must have been one of those nasty nanotech superacids, because it ate into the bot with a hiss and sizzle that reminded me of frying bacon. It faltered, but the other one was still chasing me. I gave myself a good push to get away from the thing, before it deployed some other weapon.
A shot rang out from well down the corridor, but I’d seen the loading bot taking aim. I jinked out of its line of fire just before it pulled the trigger, and the heavy mass driver round tore past me to blow a hole in the wall.
“Hah! Can’t hit me, slowpokes. See ya!”
I ducked into the lift tube, and threw myself up it. This was so awesome! Here inside the ship I could practically fly. I’d be back to my suit in no time.
Now if only there weren’t so many bots converging on me. How many of these stupid things did Mr. Desh have time to make, anyway?
Industrial fabricators can work pretty fast, and we’d left him alone for hours. If he was smart about it he made more fabricators first, and he’d been churning out several bots per minute by the time I cut the power. Bet he was going to be mad about that.
I bounced around a corner right into the bots I’d seen laying out sensors earlier, but I’d known they were there. Their big mass drivers thundered uselessly, as I dodged around their lines of fire. I grabbed one by the carrying handle as I flew by, and braced myself against the bot’s head for a split second to pry the weapon out of its grip. With my manipulator field augmenting my muscles I was stronger that the bot, and the weapon popped free easily.
A hard push off the bot’s back sent me on my way before the other one could get a shot lined up, and then I was flying down the hall away from them. Could I work the trigger on this thing with my fields? Yes, and I could adjust course to aim it too.
Thooom! Thooom!
Two bots down, and the recoil really sent me flying. I ditched the big gun at my next turn, though. Lugging it around would slow me down too much, and my pistol was just a few meters away now. Around another corner—
A lance of pain carved a smoking wound deep into my side.
There was a little disk-shaped bot hiding against the wall just around the corner, and I hadn’t seen it until it was already firing. The laser built into its top wasn’t very powerful, but it was enough to cut through my skin and cook my right kidney. If I was human I’d already be dying.
Instead it just hurt really, really bad. But the pain didn’t keep me from focusing. I pulled the thing off the wall, and ripped it apart with nothing but brute strength. The metal casing cut into my hands, but I was too mad to care. I ripped out the power cell, and crushed the thing’s AI core in one bleeding hand.
Ow. Ow ow ow ow. Careless idiot, getting ambushed by a bot with the brains of a mouse. What good are all these fancy sensors if I’m not smart enough to actually pay attention to them?
Spacesuit. Medical pack. Right, just get it on and get out of here. The laser wound was already cauterized, and the cuts on my fingers only bled for a second. I’d be fine, my damage control said I could heal this. Just don’t get shot again.
Alice!
Smoke’s concerned transmission caught me by surprise. I’d almost forgotten he was here. He jumped off my spacesuit to look around the corner at where I’d come from, and Ash took to the air to inspect me close up.
“I’ll be fine, guys. Multiple enemies inbound. Guard me while I suit up, and then we’re getting out of here.”
Yes! They agreed in unison.
It was good to have some backup, but there were an awful lot of bots coming. I could track the ones that were moving even around multiple corners, by the sound and radio noise. Too bad my boys didn’t have sensors like mine. Wait, didn’t their manual say something about a combat information link?
I pulled my suit off the wall, and started to work my foot into the left boot. Yeah, there it was. I opened my own connection to their shared battle management system, and found myself with a new appreciation for good software. These little guys might not be sapient, but they had some solid tactical instincts. I started dumping my own sensor feeds into the workspace, and in the space of a few milliseconds they’d worked out the correlation of forces and planned a neat little ambush to cover my retreat.
But they thought at least one of them was going to have to die to get me out of here.
Well, they didn’t know what I could do, and there wasn’t time to explain it all to their little bot brains. I stuffed my arms into the suit’s sleeves, ignoring the pain from my side. The first of my pursuers were almost here, but at least they were all coming from one direction. By the time they could circle around to try and surround us we’d be long gone.
A spider bot came hurtling into view. It bounced off the wall and jumped at me, but Smoke intercepted it before it could get near me. He tore into it ferociously, ripping it apart with his claws and teeth while easily dodging its flailing limbs. Hah! Cheap bots can’t stand up to good tech, can they?
The next thing to come around the corner was a grenade.
I squeaked, and smacked it away with my manipulator field. It promptly blew up.
Fortunately it was just a chunk of chemical explosive wrapped in metal, and not a plasma grenade. I managed to focus my field enough to keep the fragments away from my exposed face, and the ones that struck my suit just bounced off. I got a chunk of metal stuck in my belly, though, and it was full of attack nanites. Ouch. That was going to keep my immune system busy for a few minutes.
The blast sent us all tumbling slowly back along the hallway, but my dragons held up pretty well. Ash laid down a wall of sensor-blocking smoke across the hallway, while Smoke finished making sure the spider bot was out of action. Then they both fell back to where I was untangling myself and trying to finish putting my suit on. Ash even grabbed my helmet for me.
I plucked the fragment out of my belly with a grimace, and tossed it away. The bleeding stopped in a few seconds, though, and by then I finally had all my limbs properly in place. I sealed the suit, and reached for my helmet.
“Here’s your package, Alice!”
Emla’s cheerful announcement was the last thing I expected. I’d been so focused on the bots that I’d barely noticed the friendly IFF ping coming up the corridor behind me. But her timing couldn’t have been worse. The enemy bots had just marched into Ash’s smoke cloud, and they couldn’t see a thing. But their audio sensors still worked.