Nanotroopers Episode 11: Engebbe, Page 4

  “It’s faint, Skipper…intermittent captures right now. There seems to be a fix about two hundred and six meters ahead, bearing zero five five degrees ANAD’s current position. It’s not much but all the decoherence waves seem to converge there…when we can grab them.” M’Bela marked the position and Winger saw it on the crewnet.

  “Very well…we’ll mark that as objective number one. Detachment, listen up—“ he took over the comms for a moment “—Witchy has a fix that may be the master control source for Archive access. It’s ahead and deeper in the complex. We’re moving on that objective…Reaves, are we cleared to advance?”

  The DPS1 had noticed on ANAD’s visuals some kind of shimmering veil blocking entrance to the great rotunda of the cavern. “Give me a moment, Skipper—“ She took control of a small element from the main ANAD swarm and vectored the formation toward the veil of low-level nano guarding the portal. The swarms collided in a shower of sparks and light flashes. There was a brief, almost inaudible screech, as ANAD made quick work of the enemy bots.

  The portal then went dark and the faint phosphorescent mist that was the ANAD element moved ahead into the rotunda.

  “Open sesame,” muttered Deeno D’Nunzio.

  “Door is clear, Skipper,” Reaves announced.

  Winger ordered the master ANAD swarm to follow. “Okay…so much for covert entry…let’s move out. And keep your eyes and ears open…we got nasties all around us just itching to take a bite.”

  Millimeter by millimeter, ANAD crept into the rotunda, surrounding the firepit and its crackling flames. Other corridors branched off from the great room, like spokes from a base.

  “Where the hell is everybody?” M’Bela asked. His left hand fondled a clutch of amulets, massaging them for good luck even though he couldn’t feel them very well through his hypersuit gloves.

  “It’s a trap,” decided Reaves. “It’s got to be…they’re trying to pull us into some kind of free-fire zone.”

  “Which way to the last fix, Witchy?”

  M’Bela checked signals. “Best bearing to the convergence is still zero five five, less than two hundred meters…and still below our elevation, about fifty meters.”

  Winger calibrated the direction. M’Bela’s bearing seemed to point toward another corridor branching off from the rotunda.

  “That seems to be the way to go. Detachment, move out—“ Winger indicated the passageway.

  “Skipper, I don’t like this,” said Reaves. “It’s a confined space…only one way in or out. It could be an ambush.”

  “Duly noted,” Winger said. The possibility had occurred to him but they had little choice but to move forward now. M’Bela’s convergence fix was probably some kind of quantum device, possibly even the master control for the Archive access. That had to be put out of commission. “Let’s get an ANAD screen ahead of and behind us, before we go down that corridor. Other contacts and threats?”

  Reaves checked her threat status, letting her eyepiece viewer cycle through all bands that ANAD was feeding them. “Still reading fairly high thermals and EM ahead, all azimuth. So far, no evidence anybody’s detected ANAD though. Skipper, I recommend ANAD go to Dispersal 1, just to be sure.”

  It was one of the core doctrines of ANAD swarm ops…something they’d all learned in nog school. Disperse. Look like something else. Hide behind other molecules.

  “I’m sending it,” Winger agreed. “Maybe ANAD’ll get lucky…after breaching that nano barrier, I’m honestly surprised we didn’t trigger something.” Winger sent the command and ANAD’s small swarm of bots scattered like so many dust motes.

  “That tunnel to the right, Lieutenant,” M’Bela told them, “that’s where deco wakes are strongest. Target must be down there.”

  “ANAD, steer right zero nine five degrees. Maintain speed. Maintain dispersal.”

  ***ANAD coming to new heading, Base…lots of silicon and phosphor molecules around here…I’m hitching a ride…now in Dispersal One***

  “It’s dust from the cave walls,” said M’Bela. “I’m surprised the enemy hasn’t tuned their detectors better.”

  D’Nunzio snorted. “They can’t imagine anyone would be so bold…or so foolish… as to enter Paryang.”

  ANAD crept forward and drifted down a descending tunnel, coming eventually to a smaller cave. The cave was well lit with lampstands and light fixtures. A platform dominated the center. Mounted on top was the master sphere, looking for all the world like a giant egg. It throbbed in the grainy view from ANAD’s photon lens, the lens now truncated to permit the dispersal, shimmering in and out of view as if caught up in heat waves.

  “Bingo,” said Winger quietly. “That has to be our target. Now, we’ll scout around the cave and find a convenient spot to build our disentangler. Deeno—“

  D’Nunzio was CQE for Alpha Detachment. That meant Containment and Quantum Engineering. The wise-cracking New York brunette was responsible for all the configs that would instruct ANAD on how to replicate and build the disentangler.

  “Templates checked and ready, Skipper. Say the word.”

  “Send it, Deeno.”

  D’Nunzio pressed a few buttons on her own wristpad. The config signal went out over Winger’s coupler circuit. Moments later, ANAD came back.

  ***ANAD now receiving Config C-55, labeled ‘Build Full-Function Disentangler.’ Now processing…setting replication to zero…lots of feedstock around here, Base…engaging atomgrab damper and thermal shields…glad to be finally doing something, Base…ANAD was getting sleepy doing recon***

  D’Nunzio looked over at Winger on the other side of the rickety rail car. “Where the hell did that come from, Skipper? ANAD’s starting to act like a five-year old. Pretty soon, he’ll start whining and won’t want to take a nap.”

  “It’s his learning net, Deeno. I’ll have to get with Doc Frost when we get back. Nanotroopers don’t respond to commands like that.”

  But this one did often enough, he thought.

  Inside the small cave, in a darkened hollow in the back, unseen by any technician, ANAD began silently grabbing atoms. With dampers and shields on, the replication would take longer. But it was critical that the Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler be able to replicate and construct the disentangler without detection. If all went according to plan, the device would sit unobtrusively in the corner of the cave, designed to blend in with the rock walls, and bollix up any and all quantum comms coming in and out of the master sphere. Red Hammer would soon find the doors to the alien archives closed and locked.

  That was the plan.

  “Uh oh,” muttered Buddha Nguyen. “We may have company.”

  Winger jerked his head up from the small panel on his lap, where he had been hacking out another small config to fire off to ANAD. “What is it?”

  Nguyen pecked at some keys on his wristpad, studying the feedback from ANAD. “The little guy’s detecting something…thermals rising, some EMs too…other side of that cave. Atomgrabbing signatures…lots of them. Could be a swarm headed our way—“

  “Crap!” Winger seethed. “Right in the middle of repping the disentangler. Okay, pinch off a tenth mass…form up some grabbers and the baddest bond disrupters you can with what you’ve got. We’ve got to hold these bastards off long enough—“

  Nguyen sent several configs, commanding the ANAD master to use part of its mass to build defenses.

  ***ANAD receiving new configs…Base, this slows down replication of C55…can’t I hold off a little longer?***

  “Negative, ANAD…enemy swarms closing on your position. Config defenses as commanded and prepare to engage.”

  The collision came quickly. No longer dispersed, no longer hidden, the line of engagement could be seen as a snaking line of flickering light, whipping through the air like an illuminated spiderweb. Bots collided and sparks flew. Technicians came running. Someone fired off a HERF round and the hot wave of
rf thundered into a nearby crevice, loosening seams of rock chips and dirt.

  “I’m going small,” Winger announced. The whole of Alpha Detachment was safely ensconced in the depths of the Pura River ruby mine, several hundred kilometers from Paryang. But Winger knew ANAD needed help. Nanotroopers always had their buddies’ back. ‘Going over the waterfall’, as many nanotroopers termed it, would put Winger down into ANAD’s world, fighting off enemy bots and the normal sleet of molecules and atoms. “Sheila, you and Deeno, come with me. ANAD needs help.”

  The three of them went nano and soon found themselves buffeted with van der Waals forces and Brownian motion. It was like wading out into the ocean, in the midst of a hurricane.

  Even in the maelstrom, the three nanotroopers, working through ANAD’s sensors, could ‘see’ what was coming. It was like watching a fleet of enemy battleships materialize out of the fog.

  “Contacts dead ahead, Skipper,” said D’Nunzio. “Strong thermals, strong atomgrabbing…”

  The first of the Paryang bots hove into view: inverted pyramids, attached at their apexes, girdled with a dizzying array of effectors. Propulsors at each end lent matchless maneuverability to the bot.

  Winger revved ANAD’s propulsors and closed the last remaining distance in seconds.

  “ANAD, I’m extending all your disrupters. I’m also commanding ‘Spinning Jenny.’ We’ll close on them like a whirling dervish.”

  ***ANAD extending all disrupters, now priming all disrupters…Hub, recommend altering config to C12…Assault Three gives me better control of my carbene grabbers…I can slash and jab like a champion boxer***

  Winger thought: where the hell did he learn about boxers? “Negative on C-12, ANAD. Assume ‘Spinning Jenny’ configuration and load up CQ-1. I’m thinking these bots may be entangled…if I’m right, when we engage, they should pop back to their normal state.”

  ***ANAD complying…now loading CQ-1…hope you know what you’re doing***

  Winger snorted. He wasn’t used to having his commands questioned by a bot sixty nanometers tall. When they got back to Table Top, there would have to be some serious tweaking on ANAD’s neural net and learning algorithms.

  The last few nanometers were closed and ANAD spun past the line of Paryang bots on a strafing run, like a wartime fighter aircraft.

  The first grab tore off some of the enemy’s effectors, but also sent ANAD momentarily into an uncontrolled spin. Winger countered that with fore and aft propulsors, slowed down the ‘Jenny” and came around for another pass.

  “Enemy replicating fast,” Deeno told him. “Recommend ANAD counter with reps…we’ll be out-massed in no time, if he doesn’t.”

  “I can’t spare any configs, Deeno…processor’s maxed out. We’ll have to fight with what we have.”

  Sheila Reaves had gone small as well. She noticed a small seam around the Paryang bots’ midsection. “Skipper, maybe if you make ANAD’s next pass amidships, tangent to that seam around his waist. I’m thinking his effectors can’t reach down there…could be a weak spot.”

  “It’s worth a try, Sheila. Give me a config that’ll unbutton that casing at the seam.”

  Reaves found one. “Try C-44. We tweaked in the lab a few weeks ago. ANAD should have the upgrade already.”

  Winger sent the command.

  ***ANAD assuming C-44, Hub…with all these changes, I hope you know what you’re doing***

  “ANAD, just follow orders. You’re a trooper now…troopers follow orders.”

  The Paryang bots were tough and maneuverable. On each strafing run, ANAD managed to slash scores of bots but lost almost as many of his own. The enemy kept advancing, trying to turn the flanks of ANAD’s formation.

  “Deeno, Sheila, it’s not working. They’re out-replicating me…if this keeps up, there won’t be any ANAD left.”

  And to make matters worse, some of the Paryang bots were entangled. When ANAD came into contact, the entangled targets vanished in a cloud of blurry waves and were gone, displaced to another time and space.

  “Jeez, this is no way to fight a war,” muttered Deeno. “You can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.”

  “A full swarm of entangled bots—“ marveled Sheila. “We’ve got no defenses for that, Skipper. This was never covered in nog school—“

  “No but we’re in the fight…we’ll just have to figure it out. We came here to do a job and put a disentangler in place. I’m pinching off some of ANAD to get that started.” He sent the commands. A hundred kilometers north of the ruby mine where the Detachment had hunkered down, ANAD received the commands and began sloughing off bots, re-configging them to begin grabbing atoms and replicating the disentangler from its stored template.

  With any luck, the disentangler would help out in the immediate battle too.

  Winger was stunned by the speed of the enemy’s assault. A battalion of Paryang soon engulfed ANAD. No time to replicate now…got to get free…signal daughters….Winger fired off a burst of instructions to gather all the daughters ANAD had replicated going in. It might be too late.

  The imager screen shook with the collision, then careened sideways.

  "I can't hold structure!" Winger yelled. "I'm reconfiguring…shutting down peripheral systems!"

  Deeno D’Nunzio had taken a place beside Winger at the interface controls, set up on a small console deep inside the ruby mine. "Got to disengage, Boss…emergency truncation. Everything not critical. We've got to get ANAD out of there before we lose him!"

  "I'm trying…but the damn mech's penetrated the signal path…if he cuts the link…."

  "I know, I know…just keep trying, Jesus…internal bonds on main body structure weakening…he’s lost all grappling capability…."

  As they watched, Paryang began systematically dismantling ANAD, molecule by molecule. ANAD was woefully unprepared for the assault. With ruthless efficiency, Paryang mechs whirred and chopped every device ANAD could generate. ANAD tried to counter, replicating probes, inserters, jaws, cilia, pumps, blowers--but it was no use.

  Paryang mutated too fast. Somehow, the mech seemed to anticipate ANAD's every move.

  Winger was awed by its combat capabilities. "Incredible," he whispered. "The perfect warrior. Must have one hell of a processor."

  Sheila Reaves agreed. "Probably quantum, just like ANAD."

  They were all stunned at the ferocity of Paryang’s defensive tactics.

  Winger's fingers flew across the keyboard. "It doesn't make sense. I’ve got bots by the billion appearing out nowhere…how the hell can ANAD fight that?”

  He had no choice but to disengage to save the ANAD master. Extract before ANAD was chopped to pieces.

  "We're losing signal strength, Lieutenant!" Reaves yelled.

  "I see it! Paryang's penetrated the matrix. Main processing functions in danger…I'm counterprogramming…." Winger pecked madly at the keyboard.

  Deeno D’Nunzio shook a fist at the imager screen, now a dark, swirling mass of shapes and forms. "Come on, damn it! Come on…."

  But ANAD couldn't hold. Every move was countered by the nanomechs. Paryang’s response was swift and sure. Winger, Reaves and D’Nunzio watched in amazement and horror, as one by one, ANAD's capabilities--fine motor control, attitude and orientation, propulsors, sensors, molecule analysis, replication--were rendered inert, or completely excised.

  ANAD was helpless.

  "Got to get the hell out of Dodge," Winger muttered. While I still can.

  Reaves was checking status. "It's bad, Lieutenant. We've got no electron lens. No enzymatic knife. Hardly any effector control. ANAD's crippled."

  Johnny Winger gritted his teeth. "Not just yet…" His fingers flew over the keyboard. "We've gotta get some data…got to probe that bugger, get some structure on him…if I can just get stabilized--"

  "Lieutenant--there's nothing left to stabilize--"

  At the same time, Winger
was determined to get ANAD out before he lost the assembler completely.

  "Executing quantum collapse…NOW!" Come on baby, get small for me…get real small….

  Deep inside the cavern beneath the monastery, the ANAD master collapsed what was left of its own structure in an explosive puff of atom fragments. Base, effectors, probes and grapplers, even the core shell surrounding its nanoprocessor, went hurtling off in a big bang of spinning atom parts.

  Instantly, ANAD disappeared. To all intents and purposes, ANAD had effectively vanished in a cloud of blurry quantum waves.

  Then Winger swallowed hard. He shook himself back into the macro world, letting the scene settle down in his head, trying to focus on what was real and what wasn’t. The mine walls. The rickety rail tracks and car. Their gear. The flashing IC console. Faces and frowns all around. A shudder passed through his body and Winger winced. Something had happened. Something bad. Going back up the waterfall had never been like this. Somehow, they had lost the signal. The nano world of ANAD and Paryang bots had spit them all out like bad meat.

  Reaves’s fingers were flying over the keyboard on her console. “Lieutenant, I got nothing…you did a quantum collapse, didn’t you?”

  Winger nodded. “I sent the command. But that was a damned rough return…where’s ANAD now?”

  Reaves threw up her hands. “Sir, I have no signal at all. No acoustic, no thermal, no electromagnetic…it’s like he’s just vanished.”

  “Quantum collapse won’t send a signal, Sheila. That’s the whole point. ANAD’s just a barebones processor…nothing to send a signal. I’ll open my capsule and let him come to me. He’s programmed to return to containment once quantum collapse is commanded.”

  “If he can—“ D’Nunzio said.

  They all waited for several hours. Winger even took the rail car back up its tracks to the mine entrance. Maybe this will give ANAD something to look for....

  But ANAD never returned.

  Two hours waiting had steeled a determination inside Johnny Winger. It was against all mission orders for Quantum Shadow. It was against all regulations, against all doctrine. But nanotroopers didn’t leave their buddies behind. It was part of the Nanotroopers’ Code.

  “What now, Lieutenant?” asked An Nguyen.