The Great Destroyer (12 page)

“All units, converge on Sector 21,” Yazov ordered from the Project Charlie command room in Houston.  The Ushah attack on Charlie III-5 might have been the prelude to a larger ambush, but Charlie III-6 was now within twenty meters of the thermal anomaly and had not suffered further attacks.  If the Ushah did have an attack planned, it would be very strange for them to strike at only one Charlie III and throw away the element of surprise. 

Yazov watched a monitor depicting the real time position of the Charlies in the Mozambique jungle.  Charlie III-5’s status indicator had just turned red, indicating that his GPS unit was no longer updating his position.  It was a death knell for the robot, Yazov knew.  He cleared his throat, putting aside the emotions the death of his pupil had wrought. 

The first loss of a Charlie in combat made Yazov uneasy.  If there were any Ushah watching from the jungle, they now knew that Charlie III was not invincible.  The miniature rail gun weapons they had mounted on their arms could penetrate the hardened metal exterior of the Charlies.

There hadn’t been any sign of any other Ushah, but Yazov didn’t doubt they were about somewhere.  Why would the Ushah send just one of their soldiers across the strait to Mozambique?

Charlie III-2 radioed in. “Unknown synthetic object on the ground at my position,” he reported in a monotone voice.  Yazov flicked his eyes over to another of the dozen-odd monitors lining the wall.  Charlie III-2’s video feed showed a metallic-looking square about half a meter long on each side.  Toward one side of the square was a handle.

“That’s a goddamn hatch,” Yazov said to himself. 

Luke muttered, “Oh my.  Do you think it’s a hidey-hole built by the Ushah?”

Yazov tried not to curse the young man’s light-hearted tone and considered what the hell the hatch could lead to.  It could be a bunker, a rallying point for Ushah sent across the Mozambique Channel. 
But how could they have gotten digging equipment across the Channel?

“All units except Charlie III-2, form a defensive perimeter around Charlie III-2’s current position,” Yazov ordered.  “Charlie III-2, that object is a hatch, a door to something underground.  Pull the handle, then enter the structure below.”

Acknowledgments poured in from the Charlies.  Yazov thought quickly and added, “All units, you are now in combat mode.  Engage any Ushah on sight.”  He wasn’t sure if he really had the authority to do that, but the time for niceties was over.  The Ushah had inflicted casualties on his force.

Yazov watched Charlie III-2’s video feed as the robot pulled gently on the handle.  It didn’t give way at all.  “Rip the hatch off its hinges,” Yazov ordered flatly.

“Yes, sir,” the reply came.  With a screech of protest from the metal, Charlie III-2 put all of his strength into pulling the hatch off its frame.  He tossed the wrecked hatch aside, then looked down into entryway.

The video feed was Charlie III-2’s nightvision camera, but even with nightvision amplification, the hole looked pitch black.  “Switch on your flashlight,” Yazov ordered. 

Charlie III-2 did so, and revealed a small shaft the same dimension as the hatch.  A ladder ran down the shaft, and at the bottom, perhaps ten meters deep, there was another hatch.

Yazov cursed.  He knew that Charlie III had never seen a ladder.  The robots were smart, but he wasn’t sure whether they knew how to navigate a ladder, and he didn’t want Charlie III-2 to get stuck in the hole, unable to get out.  He dialed his friend Peskov’s emergency contact number on a nearby phone.  When the Russian programmer answered, Yazov asked without preamble, “Does Charlie III know how to climb down a ladder?” 

Peskov thought for a moment.  “Yes, he can do that.  Charlie I worked at Luna, remember, so he had to know how to climb ladders.  I don’t think we optimized that process at all in the programming, though, so he might be somewhat slow.”

“Thanks.”  Yazov hung up without explanation for his inquiry. 

“Charlie III-2, move down the ladder and open the lower hatch,” Yazov said.

The robot seemed to take a moment to figure out what to do, and Yazov knew from Peskov’s earlier explanations that Charlie III-2 was trying to fit the ladder subroutines into his combat mode setting.  After a few seconds, he decided he couldn’t carry his rifle into the hole, so he latched it in a plastic holder on his back.  Then he backed slowly into the hatch, putting his feet carefully on the first rung of the ladder.

The rungs were a little closer together than on a human ladder, but other than that it might have been made in an Earth factory, Yazov thought.  The Ushah had evidently come up with the same solution to the same problem of how to move up and down in a space-efficient manner on a planet billions of miles from Earth.  “Convergent evolution,” Takagawa had called that.

“Unknown contact in the trees,” Charlie III-6 reported.  Yazov’s gaze flicked to the monitor showing Charlie III-6’s camera feed.  He saw nothing but trees swaying peacefully in the dark jungle night. 

Charlie III-6 waited patiently, his Gram rifle in hand.  After a few moments of quiet, Charlie III-6’s head shifted abruptly to the right and his body jerked as he fired three quick shots into the night.  His audio sensors must have picked up the sound of something coming toward him quickly, triggering his self-defense mechanism.

Taking a few steps forward, Charlie III-6 pushed some vegetation aside to see what he had hit.  There on the jungle floor, clear as day, was the corpse of a monkey with three .50 caliber bullet holes punched through its sternum. 

“Shit,” Yazov said.  Then all Hell broke loose.

Charlie III-6’s video feed cut off and his status indicator turned to red on Yazov’s tactical display as a shot from an Ushah rail gun destroyed his head and central processing unit. 

Charlie III-7’s video feed turned to face Charlie III-6’s position just in time to see three more rail gun rounds shatter the foliage around the fallen robot.  The computer on the robotic soldier calculated the probable trajectory of the rounds and he fired ten rounds from his Gram at the area of jungle where the enemy had fired at his compatriot.

Then, Charlie III-7 fell prone to the ground as a dozen rail gun blasts shredded the jungle around him.  A tree toppled over, its trunk shattered in two by the high-velocity shots of the Ushah.

There must be at least a squad of Ushah out there, Yazov estimated.  They’d chop up Charlie III-7 pretty quickly if he didn’t get some support. 

Yazov thought fast.  The Ushah would be deployed in a line facing Charlie III-7. 

He scanned a terrain map.  There was a short ridge about thirty meters into the jungle. 
Did Ushah tactics bear any similarity to human tactics?
 

“Charlies III-4 and III-3, move up to support Charlie III-7.  Charlie III-1, flank the Ushah attacking Charlie III-7, don’t open fire until you’re behind them.” 

The robots moved out at a run.  Charlie III-7’s audio sensors had begun to process the location of the Ushah attackers.  There were eleven of them spread in a line about seventy meters long.  A few would keep up constant fire on Charlie III-7’s general vicinity while the others scampered ahead to close on his position.  They were damn fast runners, and Charlie III-7 could only keep up sporadic fire from his Gram to slow down the advance while he crawled behind a tree for some modicum of cover.

The battle was now out of Yazov’s hands.  He watched as Charlies III-3 and -4 came running up from the south, then slowed as they neared Charlie III-7’s position, coming to a stop within yards of their embattled comrade. 

The three Charlies in the defensive position snapped off shots at the location of flashes if they could see them, and at the thunderous sound of the rail guns if they couldn’t.

Meanwhile, Charlie III-1 was running past the Ushah on the left. He had learned the art of the flanking maneuver from Yazov early on in his training, the value of hitting an enemy from behind.

He kept low and ran fast, whipping through the foliage of the jungle. He oriented his optical sensor in the direction of the Ushah occasionally, looking for any sign that they had detected his presence.

Yazov saw no sign that the Ushah were aware of the threat to their flank; they were continuing to press forward against the three other robots.  The target recognition processes in the Charlies estimated that there were now only nine Ushah left, the rest having been killed or wounded by the defensive fire of the three Charlies in the defensive position.

Explosions began to rip through the Charlies’ position.  The Ushah apparently had some sort of grenade-like weapon, and Yazov caught a glimpse of one of the projectile explosives arcing through the air before it landed a few feet to the right of Charlie III-4.  These devices were not as effective at punching through the armor of the Charlies, and the explosives mostly served as an annoyance to the robot soldiers.

The Ushah were only about thirty meters from Charlie III-7 when Charlie III-1 began his attack on the rear of the Ushah line.  Charlie III-1 had made it to within fifteen meters of the nearest Ushah before he opened fire with his rifle. 

The thoughtful attributes of the Charlies, their ability to learn and apply tactics, their capacity to adapt—those were often what most impressed those who had learned of Project Charlie for the first time.  Yazov knew, however, that the Charlies had more tricks than just their brains. 

Emma Takagawa had acquired technology originally designed to hold cameras absolutely steady while moving in order to steady Charlie III’s aim.  The robot could fire his Gram with near-perfect accuracy at a full sprint.  Charlie III-1 gave an exemplary demonstration of that skill now.

As he ran toward the Ushah line, bounding over ferns, streams, and any manner of obstacle, Charlie III-1 took careful aim at one Ushah, fired, then switched to another target.  Each Ushah took three or four bullets to the chest, the projectiles punching gaping holes in their suits and reptilian bodies. 

Three Ushah fell before any of them even knew there was a threat behind them.  Charlie III-1 killed another Ushah after he was discovered, then was forced to throw himself prone to the ground to avoid a hail of return fire. 

The three other Charlies did not sit back and let Charlie III-1 do all the work, however. They knew that the Ushah would now be preoccupied with the danger to their rear.  Without the need for Yazov to give any orders, the three Charlies stood up and ran toward the Ushah.  In a seamless transition, the three Charlies who had been the anvil to Charlie III-1’s hammer switched roles, and the Ushah were crushed from behind once again.

The Ushah were now in a hopeless tactical position.  Attacked from all sides, they chose to fight on until they were overwhelmed.  The Charlies obliged, pressing forward from cover to cover and cutting down each of the remaining Ushah soldiers until quiet once again reigned in the Mozambique jungle.

The Charlies all ceased fire at the same moment, and they quickly examined each of the downed enemies to make sure that none was left alive.  Yazov watched as Charlie III-7 saw that one of the Ushah was still gasping for air, his oxygen mask blown off by the impact of a .50 caliber rifle bullet. 

Without emotion, Charlie III-7 withdrew his Ascalon and buried it through the Ushah’s head, ending the skirmish.
 

* * *

Charlie III-2 had by now reached the bottom of the ladder and Yazov glanced at his screen just in time to see the robot rip the hatch off.  Underneath the hatch, there appeared to be a room.

“Go down through the hatch, Charlie III-2,” Yazov ordered.  “And turn on your flashlight.”

Charlie III-2’s video feed was suddenly bathed in a floodlight, and his central processor switched the camera off of its night vision setting.  It took a second for the feed to compensate for the increased, almost blinding light, and in that time Charlie III-2 hopped down through the hatch, his rifle at the ready.

When the feed cleared up, Yazov saw that Charlie III-2 was crouching, looking down a long, narrow tunnel with a dirt floors and walls and some kind of metal or composite material forming structural supports on the sides and ceiling.  It was hard to tell dimensions without something to give scale.