HARM - A Mecha Short Story

 

 

HARM

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.  © Peter Lok, 2012.  All rights Reserved.

An action packed mecha vs. mecha story set in the early days of Exocrisis Blue.

The heavy cockpit hatch set in the giant robot's lower chest sealed with a hiss then a dull thud.  Internal cockpit panels and displays immediately lit up.  Second lieutenant Joshua Scott finished strapping himself in then followed with the final plug hookups for his suit.  He then put on his silvery cybernetic helmet that would use his mental impulses to help control the machine.  You could clearly see his face through the wrap-around visor of the helmet, but the inside of the helmet showed a three dimensional view from the perspective of the robot’s head to the pilot.  He completed the biometric security check, and punched the red Start button.  The machine began to hum to life as its electronics powered up.  

"Welcome back, Lieutenant Scott," greeted the synthesized voice of his robot's AI.

“Glad to be back X-14.” He replied.  He had been piloting X-14 for weeks now, and various experimental models of these new humanoid robots for months.  It was something he was adapting to, something that he was good at, but he missed flying fighters.  “Start up progress?”

"HARM start up in progress… Master power on… System initializing… Control systems ready… Mobility systems ready… Sensors and targeting ready… Weapons ready… Communications ready… Network linkage ready… Control synchronization initiated…  Loading mission data…"

Cockpit visuals showed technicians on the hangar floor uncoupling external power and data feeds after finishing the final checks on his robot.  The hangar was also bustling with additional activity.  Large trucks were being loaded with equipment, tools, and supplies. Everything that was useful and moveable was being packed up for a move to a safer General Automata Corporation facility.

His tactical display showed friendly positions and the advancing enemy units in real time. Tactical orders, requests for support, and status messages scrolled down the side.  Things were looking pretty bad, Joshua thought to himself, as the alien advance was only 15 km from this facility.  The aliens, also known as the Blue Newts from corpses recovered on the battlefield, had made a surprise breakthrough of the main defensive line.  They seemed to be on a direct path towards Huntsville Alabama, otherwise known as Space City USA.  Unfortunately the path of the alien advance would take them right through the research facility where Joshua was.  Worse yet, the fighting was nearing a refugee camp of 40,000 that was also in the area.

Joshua continued to listen into the chatter on the army com-nets, some of it panicked.  He was nervous too, but focused on his work while finishing the pre-start sequence on his HARM X-14.    HARM was short for Humanoid Assault and Reconnaissance Machine.  His machine was a 13 metre tall bipedal robot that vaguely resembled a medieval knight with its thick torso, massive joints, blocky armour plates, and a squat helmet with a horizontal slit on top.  There was no sword though.  Instead, his right arm had a coil-gun attached to it, an electromagnetic cannon which was his main weapon, and his left arm had a smaller automatic cannon built into it.  While large, the HARM was nimble for its size, with a near full range of human motion, the ability to rocket jump 20 metres up, and was able to run at 80 kph.

The brains at General Automata Corporation had hastily assembled the robot he was in over a three week period.  It was the culmination of  work that built on many earlier prototypes and hundreds of simulated computer models. Sometime during development, everyone had started calling the big robots “mechas,” following a Japanese naming convention.  Joshua wasn’t big into science fiction, especially Japanese science fiction, but he sure felt like he was living it.

His mecha was the first production prototype off the robotic manufacturing line.  It was so new that the cockpit hadn't been finished by the technicians.  Inside the cockpit, there were unpainted surfaces everywhere, empty electronics bays, and both the electronic camouflage and ejection systems weren’t even operational.  More importantly, the onboard visual displays, key instruments, and robot controls were fully functional.  Despite looking new on the inside, they had been busy field testing it for the last week.  The yellow, external paint job was now dirtied, scuffed, and scarred on the outside from the operational tests, and shooting exercises.  He was quite nimble at piloting the machine now, but had resigned himself to his robot’s yellow paint scheme as it was originally a test model that was never supposed to see combat.  Combat that was now necessary as an alien breakthrough in the last day had changed things dramatically.

Inside the cockpit, a pair of joysticks with thumb controls were located in front of the pilot.  These were the manual backups to operate the machine, but this could just make it walk and work its arms in the simplest manner.  The real controls for the HARM were linked the cybernetic 3D display helmet and the motion capture suit that the pilot wore.  The tight-fitting suit was plugged into a skeletal support frame that provided both physical support for the human operator and force-feedback to show how the machine was responding to commands.  Even though their cockpits were 9 metres off the ground, pilots felt like they were wearing the 30 ton machine in a manner similar to how battlesuit infantry felt when they were wearing their powered exoskeletons.  When you first piloted a HARM you had to adjust to the disorienting size perspective and the actual capabilities and limitations of the machine.

Initialization error 22 - cerebral synchronization requires restart.  The error message flashed on Scott's helmet display.  “It appears the interface pickups require adjustment,” the AI responded, “I will attempt to correct.”

Crap, Joshua thought to himself, not again.  He'd have to restart again through the neuro-syncing interlocks again.  The mecha systems themselves were ready as he had green lights right across the board, but the vitally important cybernetic control interfaces were being difficult again.  The cybernetic interfaces read his mind to enhance the motion capture control of the robot to a new level.

"Don't worry," Janet Chan, the chief engineer, spoke through the visual com-link.  "We see it.  Fred's working on it right now too.  Once we get it going, you'll be fine.”  Janet was an older Chinese lady, a formidable woman with a keen intellect.  She actually scared Joshua a bit with her personality.  Some of the staff referred to her as the Dragon Lady.  If you didn't do your job right  you would hear about it.  “They're adjusting the primary protocols right now - the threshold values shifted on the last set of replacement neural sensors."

"It better work or I'm a sitting duck in this tin can," Joshua replied with a hint of sarcasm.  There had been serious glitches with the mecha before, but they seemed to have been ironed out. "I'd be better off with a battlesuit and a rocket launcher.  Better yet, get me a fighter."

"Why don't we let our security boys play with the gorilla suits," Janet replied with just a hint of a grin, "we need to get the big guns out there to back them up – and you didn’t do all that well last time you were in a plane if I recall.”  Joshua was surprise to hear her joke – it was rare.  She then asked, “How are the power levels on your end?  The chemical fusion plant was fluctuating just a little last night but our telemetry shows a clean curve now."

Joshua checked his visor HUD, thought power status and noted the displayed readings matched.  "Power's good.  We'll see how it goes at full output."  He did expected problems, but not serious problems as the HARM had proven itself already, but the machine still unnerved him a little.

The machine he was riding in would have been technically impossible to build seven months ago.  The technology to build something like it, something much cruder and different existed, but this mecha used alien technology.  Alien technology had been captured or recovered, then reverse engineered to build new weapons, chemical fusion power plants, synthetic muscle, active molecular armour, and even cybernetic mental interfaces.  The governments of earth, with their best scientists, most powerful computers, and massive, around the clock, desperation had worked miracles through international cooperation and collaborative miracles due to the Internet.

Japanese robot scientists, Russian physicists, American computer scientists, Canadian nanotech researchers, German weapons engineers, and a host of help from other nations had learned and innovated from the fragments of alien technology.  Even with the massive devastation to modern society from the alien war, communication and collaboration went on through the nets.  Thanks to advanced computer directed manufacturing and fully automated factories new designs were created, prototyped, and tested with astonishing speed.  These same robotic factories also enabled countries to keep manufacturing, despite the war losses and supply chain disruptions, as manufacturing was no longer centralized in Asia as it was at the beginning of the 21st century.

The HARM’s AI computer voice suddenly spoke.  “Cerebral synchronization complete.  Please begin operational validation tests.”

Joshua moved his right arm, followed by his left arm, then flexed his fingers, causing the three fingered grippers on the mecha’s arms to open and close.  He then rotated his head ensuring the sensors in the mecha’s head were tracking his motion.  Walking forward two steps he then turned 360 degrees both left and right.  Finally, he mentally activated his offensive and defensive systems to complete the testing, but not before he double checked the power couplings to the coil-gun as it drew it’s power from the mecha’s power plant.

“HARM X-14 is ready for operation,” the AI spoke out.

“Great.” Joshua spoke out.  “All weapons and systems check out.  X-14 is moving out.  Will head to Waypoint Charlie to rendezvous with Bravo Company, 3rd armoured battalion.”    

“Open the bunker doors,” Janet directed. “Inform General Garcia that X-14 is on its way to join the blocking force.”

The mecha walked forward up the ramp from the underground hanger to bunker exit.  At low speed the full of extent of its agility wasn’t evident at all.  It moved like a lumbering four story high giant, but without the sound of heavy whining of motors or hydraulic actuators. The synthetic muscles that powered the machine flexed and pulled it along with only a slight whirring sound that was drowned out by the thumping of its heavy footsteps.

“Good luck, Joshua,” Janet spoke, even as the technical crews in the hanger all raised a cheer.  “Go kick some alien butt. It’s time for some payback.”

“I’ll be ready – X-14 and I – we’ll do the job.  We’ll stop them or buy you more time.”  Joshua pivoted the mecha around and gave a thumbs up with the mecha to his crew, raising more cheers.

When Joshua was clear of the bunker, the massive doors closed again and Janet spoke again off comm.  “Continue with the evacuation of all personnel to Site B.  This facility is shutting down as scheduled.”

 

****

 

Joshua followed his visual direction indicators to run X-14 towards Waypoint Charlie once he cleared of the bunker.  His main gun was cradled across the front in the travel position between both of his arms to reduce strain on the gun arm from the heavy mass of the tubular coil-gun.  The machine's synthetic muscles flexed to pushed it to maximum speed within seconds.  He dodged and leapt over abandoned vehicles, trees, fences, and drainage ditches with ease as he headed for the 8 km distant waypoint.

Sensors were set to maximum range and he did not pick up any enemy units on the tactical display.  A scattering of friendly units in blue that were shown around him.  Zooming out, using the Army tactical net data, he could see friendly units retreating from the south east at high speed towards the defensive position at Waypoint Charlie.  Behind them were a dozen red markers indicating the advancing spider-mechs of the Newts.  A long series of blue markers suddenly appeared on the southern edge of the display.  Identifying the new friendly units elicited a groan from Joshua.  It was a refugee convoy heading to Huntsville that had just entered the combat zone.  Even as he watched, two spider-mechs stopped then began moving south west to intercept.

The Blue Newts had brutally attacked the Earth ten months earlier.  There had been no communications, just a massive meteor bombardment from the asteroid belt.  Astronomers had spotted the incoming meteor swarm late and governments had to prepare for the worst with barely a month of warning.  Although these meteors were not global extinction causing events they were large enough and fast enough to obliterate cities on impact.  A single meteor strike would have been bad, but there were hundreds of them.  Several were much larger too, capable of causing sizable tsunamis in both the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans where they were projected to strike.

The space faring nations of the 21st century only had limited space-based weapons capability to target a just over a third of the swarm with nuclear weapons.  The largest rocks and the ones striking on home territory were given priority.  The United Nations was in an uproar over this self-serving behavior, but the nations with the means protected their own first.  Still, a few weapons were diverted from meteors that would strike in Siberia or North Dakota to save major cities like Karachi and Sydney.

The nets had been buzzing with conspiracy theories about the approaching meteor shower as no one could explain it.  Was is a mystery swarm from deep space?  A cometary impact in the asteroid belt?  No one knew the cause.  Everyone did agree it was unbelievable that over half would strike near or directly on large cities.  Still, no one really believed the alien attack theories it until it was too late.

The meteors would strike over a 12 hour period, impacting over most of the planet as it rotated.  Ninety percent of the intercepted rocks were destroyed, including the largest ones.  The world breathed a sign of relief that was cut off as the remaining meteors struck home.  The devastation had been intense around the globe with fires raging out of control everywhere.  Casualties were still in the millions despite the evacuations.  The Earth was covered in a thin smoky haze during the day and burned a fiery red at night.

Hundreds of cities spanning the globe had been destroyed or damaged.  In the United States, Grand Forks, Wichita and Knoxville had been hit, but an interception malfunction had allowed San Diego to be destroyed by a nearby impact.  Tragically, Toronto in Canada, had also been devastated when another interception had only partially succeeded.   In Europe, Sheffield was a smoking crater along with Dusseldorf and Krakow.  Nairobi was gone and so was Hyderabad.  In China, the destruction of Shanghai had stunned the country due to another failed interception.

As disaster relief efforts ramped up the aliens revealed themselves.  Their invasion fleet unmasked and their fusion drive flares began appearing in space as they decelerated towards Earth.  Global hysteria peaked and mass panic ensued.  Rescue efforts broke down, but the pre-disaster mobilization of military forces allowed central authority in most nations to keep order.

The first six alien landers came down in the eastern United States near Richmond, Virginia.  They were met by F-24E interceptors of the First Fighter Wing out of Langley AFB.  The first battle between alien and human was very short.  The F-24Es gave a good showing and took down two landers, but took 70% losses in return.  Each group of landers were met by airpower and the outcomes were similar.  This type of encounter occurred repeated around the globe except in the third world where the local air forces were generally swept aside.  The battlefield skies were soon cleared of military aircraft for both sides as it was such a lethal environment to be in.  It was missile versus laser and neither side was well prepared for the other.

A protracted ground war ensued as the aliens had landed all over the countryside.  Alien concentrations were particularly heavy in the south eastern United States where they seemed to want to consolidate their position.  Fighting was heavy, and millions of civilians perished as they couldn’t escape the aliens fast enough.  More cities burned and highways were clogged with refugees.  The fighting had been going on for almost seven months now.

The battle for Atlanta had started two months ago and the city had burned again after the defenders had put up a protracted fight around it and in it.  Atlanta had ultimately fallen and refugees streamed west and south.  General Jose Garcia had used brilliant strategy and tactics in its defense, but the cost of resistance had been high.  After the fall of Atlanta, the aliens began moving towards the north west to cut America in half.  As the aliens expanded their territory they killed everyone and reduced cities to ruins in a scorched earth policy.  There was not mercy offered, in fact, there was no communication at all.

 

***

 

A bing sound alerted Joshua to an incoming visual communication.  An image of General Garcia popped up in a window.  “X-14, come in,” spoke the General in a gravelly voice.

“General, Sir,” Joshua replied.

“At ease, Lieutenant. I have a situation here.”  Garcia looked very tired.  He paused and rubbed one hand over his head, ruffling his field cap.  He then fixed his gaze on Joshua.

“Can your fancy machine really do what Dr. Chan says it can do?”

“That and some more, Sir.” Joshua confidently confirmed. “Best way is to show you.”

“We both know I have orders to protect the research lab, but you might have noticed that a large refugee convoy is out in the open to the south of your position.  There’s over a thousand civilians in that convoy.  They only have a light escort with them so they’re sitting ducks for the spiders going against them.  I'm stretched thin right now and you are the only unit close enough to get them through.  I’m ordering you to take out those spiders and rejoin the blocking force ASAP.”

“I have the convoy marked,” Joshua confirmed, “I’m on my way.”

 “You stop those spiders, son.  Save those refugees and give me some good news.  Stay alive, I don’t need any more dead heroes.”  The general then paused.  “Good hunting.”

“Yes, Sir.  Over and out.”

A moment later, a private channel from Dr. Chan pinged him.  He immediately responded.  “Yes, Doctor?”

“We overheard that transmission from the general,” Dr. Chan spoke, also fixing her gaze on him.  “Our work here is critical for the war effort.  We are evacuating, but we will need time.  Bravo Company will buy us most of that time, but they are outmatched.  I’m sure they will need your help.  I want you to save that convoy, but remember we are depending on you too.” Her voice then went cold.  “Do what needs to be done…  We will see you at the rendezvous later.”

 

“I got the message,” Joshua dourly replied.  They did call her the  Dragon Lady after all.  “Let me take care of things.   Over and out.”

Joshua then turned his HARM south east, continuing his run to cut off the rapidly advancing spider-mechs.  Three kilometers ahead there was an old abandoned factory.  The steel and concrete structures would make for good cover.  He would be in position first for an ambush.

His mecha crouched behind the weathered and rust streaked wall of a raw materials silo.  From his concealed location, he launched a small drone or RPV to hover within a grove of trees in the area to monitor the approach of the of the two spider-mechs.  The spider machines were huge with flattened and segmented bodies that were twelve metres long.  They stood nine metres high on six legs, three per side, a few short for an arachnid, but the name had stuck anyhow.  They scuttled up to 70 kph, and could jump over low obstacles.  They were almost black in color with dots of red light covering their armoured shells.  A vertically elongated, weapons blister on their back contained their primary beam weapon.  This particular spider type had been code-named Black Widow as they were a very lethal, heavy combat mech.

This was the second time Joshua had seen one up close, even if it was through his RPV's sensors.  The first time had been as a close air support pilot who had run out of missiles.  He had pulled a crazy, aerial maneuver to close in and kill an alien mech with a long, sustained burst of tank-killing cannon rounds, but had been shot down in the process.  While recovering in the hospital, Dr. Chan had dragooned him into the HARM program as extra medical tests indicated he had a high synchronization rate with the experimental mental cybernetics she was developing.  He had resisted at first, as he was a pilot, not some robot jockey, but potential of the HARM series mechas grew on him over time.

"Drone has been detected, beginning evasive manoeuvers."  After issuing the notice, the HARM's AI immediately began retreating and jinking the RPV.  Laser flashes from the spider-mech's secondary lasers indicated multiple shots against the RPV.  Several seconds later, the feed from the drone went dead.  "Drone destroyed," reported the AI.

That blew it.  The Newts knew someone was around and he was blind now.  He extended a tiny camera on his mecha’s head above the silo to see again.  He could see the spider-mechs were advancing more slowly and had their primary guns pointed in the direction of the factory, but the wrong part of the factory.  Readying his coil-gun he aimed past the silo to where the first spider-mech would appear.  Safety off.  Coil-gun in single mode, he thought.  “Safety off. Single mode, acknowledged,” replied the AI.  Single shot mode was the most powerful mode for the gun, but it would take 10 seconds before the capacitors would recharge for the next shot.

He was nervous, his hands felt a little damp, but he remained steady.  The front of the first mech appeared and he waited until a third of it entered his line of sight.  He sighted on the center of mass in front and below it’s primary gun, the targeting programs automatically adjusting for range and other parameters.  A squeeze of the virtual trigger in his right hand caused the coil-gun to kick back.  One hypersonic, depleted uranium penetrator fired out of the coil-gun with a loud bang.  A moment later, the slug hit with devastating power.  The full power shot punched clean through the side of the spider-mech in a small explosion, with most of the kinetic energy from the projectile focused on a tiny surface of armour that was blasted apart.  Inside the mech, the penetrator and spalled pieces of armour ricocheted through machinery, interior walls, bodies, and the main power plant.  All the stored energy inside the power plant instantaneously burst out and the resulting explosion tore the mech in two.

“Target destroyed,” the AI called out.

The coil-gun was highly effective – a vast reversal from the early encounters where 120 mm sabot rounds from the M3A1 battle tanks had proven less than effective against the alien’s molecular armour.  Better weapons like the coil-gun had been developed since, but they required a great deal of power for their superconducting magnetic coils to propel their projectiles at 3 km/second. Because of this only heavy tanks and the new HARMS were equipped with them.

The second spider-mech’s sensors had noted the source of the shot and targeted the old silos.  The powerful beam weapon on the mech flashed and beams punched four holes clean through the steel silos.  However, Joshua wasn’t there anymore.  He had already rolled and was shifting to a new position.

Ready, flashed the coil-gun indicator.  Coil-gun in burst mode, he thought.  “Coil-gun in burst mode,” responded the AI.  He ran his mecha in a crouch around the corner of the factory just as another burst of laser fire burned holes in the air behind him.   The alien mech had come straight in while firing.  Newts had never been observed to be cowardly.

Still crouched, Joshua leaned out and snapped off two rounds.  The first round left a deep gouge in the heavily sloped front armour of the mech but glanced off.  The second round hit the left front leg joint to the body, destroying it, and caused the mech to pitch down a bit.  Ducking back behind the corner, another burst of laser light blew molten chunks of brick away, peppering his HARM with small fragments.  The alien mech continued closing, firing as it went.  More corner vanished.

Damn, this was getting too close, Joshua thought to himself.  He needed to end this quick before he took some serious damage.  He backed his mecha up and thought coil-gun to single mode.  “Coil-gun to single mode. Gun charging,” spoke the AI.  “Gun ready.”

Readying himself, he thought, low jump, ten metres.  “Low Jump, ten metres,” verified the AI. Tensing his legs, Joshua mimicked the jump and his mech leapt into the air at a forty five degree angle.  He brought the coil gun up and aimed down.  As he cleared the top of the building, he lined up the flattened bug shaped of the alien mech in his sights and placed the cross-hairs right on the enemy’s main turret and squeezed the trigger.  He saw a flash of light as the alien fired at him, but it missed.  The alien turret exploded into the air along with the rest of the mech as his penetrator punched right through the thinner top armour.  The spider-mech was dead.

The AI automatically helped to cushion his jump landing by firing the jump rockets just before touchdown.  That was close, he thought.  The simulations had not completely prepared him for the sheer ferocity of the aliens mechs.

“Target destroyed.  Twenty six rounds remaining. No enemy activity nearby,” confirmed the AI.

Alien command and control nets were better than the human ones according to military intelligence.  After this little skirmish, the aliens certainly knew that he was out here and that humans had mechas.  Tactical on, Joshua thought.  He watched the refugee convoy veer clear of the battle zone.  “THX X-14”, messaged the lead APC.  Moments later a very brief message appeared from General Garcia too.  “GOOD WORK.  BRAVO NEEDS BACKUP ASAP.”

Content with the result, he then refocused his attention on Waypoint Charlie where the Bravo Company was about to be seriously outmatched by the remaining ten spider-mechs.

 

***

 

Bravo Company was well dug in along the most likely line of approach to Huntsville.  Captain William Ericson had his tanks dug in on a narrow front flanking both sides of a highway overpass.  His ready to eat meal pack was only half eaten, forgotten due to the rapid planning he had been doing with his platoon leaders.  His three platoons of main battle tanks (MBT), for nine tanks in total, were hull down, only showing their turrets behind tank sized firing pits dug for them by the combat engineers earlier in the day.  Each one utilized the natural cover of shrubbery and active camouflage netting to conceal their location from visual and thermal detection.

His M3A3 tanks were not a match for a spider-mech in a one on one fight even though they had been upgraded to the new 130 mm smoothbore guns.  Even their bulky ablative armour add-ons would only take a single hit from the alien beam cannon.  The extreme engagement range for the 130 mm gun was about 2500 metres, but he knew the chance of getting a kill on a Black Widow spider-mech were non-existent at that range.  They had to get the range down to 1500 metres to get good kills.  On the other hand, the alien beam cannon could kill a tank at 2000 metres with a far longer extreme engagement range that could even engage aircraft.

Ericson wasn’t in the best defensive position, but it would do as the flanking copses of woods and gullies would work for him.  At the same time, it wasn’t a likely ambush position, and he was banking the aliens wouldn’t think so either.  The tanks were going to be the hammer for the attack, but he would need to guarantee the spider-mechs would enter the anvil. To bait the spider-mechs in he would use one of his two platoons of robot combat walkers.  When the tanks engaged the aliens they would be the opening hammer.  The other walker platoon, concealed in the northerly copse of woods, would to hit the Newts from the side.  From the southern side, a platoon of battlesuit infantry would strike at the same time to complete the ambush.

The plan looked great, he just hoped it would survive contact with the enemy.  Originally, X-14’s long range coil-gun was supposed to begin the engagement, but things hadn’t worked out.  Still, it was good news that X-14 had knocked out two spider-mechs as there were two less to worry about.  He knew X-14 was coming in, but he also knew it wouldn’t  make it for the opening of the battle in time.  Its primary weapons would have been a great asset.  As it was, the battle ahead was going to be bloody.

Specialist Sam Winston called up to Ericson at his commander’s position from his gunner’s seat.  “Think the plan’s gonna work?”

Ericson looked down at Sam.  “I think we got a good chance,” but Sam could tell he was putting the best spin on it.  After all the LT couldn’t be a defeatist or it would be game over already.

“We’ll get ‘em.  I’m going to put a sabot round up their butt,” Sam replied with bravado. “They must have butts, right?”

Ericson, gave a slight laugh at the half-hearted humour.  He pulled out a rumpled picture of his wife and his two daughters from his pocket.  I’ll be back to see you, he promised himself.

 

***

 

The Blue Newts had sent a trio of moth-like reconnaissance drones ahead of their advance to observe for enemy activity.  As the drones approached they managed to see a half dozen combat walkers on the highway scrambling to cover, but that was all they saw. Shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles from the advance pickets of battlesuit infantry shot them down before further observations could be made.  The infantry then bounded in powered hops to their new concealed firing locations from their old positions.

The trap was set and a little luck would not hurt, Ericson thought.  He suddenly realized his throat was quite dry and took out his canteen for a quick swig.  Yes, he thought again, a little luck wouldn’t hurt at all.  “All units.  Prepare to engage according to the plan.  Let’s get these guys.”

Now that enemy units had been spotted, the spider-mechs slowed and spread out into a skirmish line that was almost a kilometre wide with seventy metres between each mech.  Their turrets  panned from side to side.  They had seen the robot combat walkers.  The walkers were normally no match for them, but there could be other enemy units nearby.

The command data net had gone passive so units wouldn’t give themselves away via radio emissions.  A few furtive reconnaissance RPVs flying low at extreme range provided partial data feeds that his whole command observed.   His own units with good positions could visually observe the advancing alien units to supplement the feeds but kept radio silence.  Looking through his tank’s periscope Ericson could see that the spider-mechs at the ends of the advancing line were very close to some of the concealed units.  He prayed that they would remain unspotted and that his men kept their cool.  Half of his unit was made up of green recruits, as casualty rates had been horrendously high, but the newbies had been spread out with the veterans to stiffen them up.

A great deal of his plan depended on the combat walkers, a military innovation introduced in the 2030s.  The walkers were autonomous, quadrupedal robots with a weapons mount on the back of their thick stubby bodies.  They were approximately the shape and size of a horse with a sensor array where the horse’s neck would be, and stood on narrow legs that allowed them to traverse most rough terrain.  While a tank company had only 10 tanks, including the command tank, they had a swarm of 18 combat walkers to support them.  Two special transporter vehicles would both remotely control and transport the walkers. The walkers acted in the hybrid role of a light fighting vehicle and infantry support for the tanks.  Every walker was armed with a machinegun that could be supplemented by either anti-tank missiles or a chain gun.

Sweat was beginning to form on Ericson’s brow and he was sure everyone else was just as tense.  Watching the tactical display count down the distance between the Newts and the camouflaged tanks was nerve wracking.  While he couldn’t see Lieutenant Nguyen, who commanded the robo-jockeys, he had fought with him before and knew he’d do his job.  When the Newts had advanced within 2000 metres of the tanks the six combat walkers rose up on their legs from their prone positions and each fired an improved anti-tank missile on the same central walker.  They then ducked back down, popped smoke and fell back towards the overpass directly behind them.  The missiles were self-homing and contrails of smoke showed them closing the distance as supersonic speed.

The air was suddenly full of laser flashes.  The Newts had data-linked fire control that multiplied the lethality of their machines by synchronizing their weapons to act as a whole.  Their beam weapons now worked together in an anti-air capacity.  Four of the missiles exploded in mid-air.  The last two missiles struck the targeted spider-mech dead on.  Great balls of flame erupted on its upper, frontal armour where the shaped charges detonated, trying to burn through the molecular armour.  Both warheads left great blast marks on the surface, but black smoke only boiled out of one of them, where one warhead had penetrated.  However, the mech looked like it was still quite functional as it and a number of the other walkers returned fire through the smoke.  Their shots hit the empty ground that the walkers had vacated.  The advance of the spider-mechs picked up as they tried to close the range on the walkers.

Each combat walker had one missile remaining. They continued to run for the cover behind the overpass, their weapon mounts traversing to the rear.  Emerging from a depression in the ground they fired again at the same spider-mech.   Lasers flashed again at the missiles. Five more exploded in mid-air, the sixth staggered the damaged spider-mech, but it still didn’t go down.  The lasers then targeted the escaping walkers which were running flat out at 30 kph.  The combat walkers didn’t have much of a chance.  Four out of the six walkers disintegrated into metal flinging fireballs while the fifth and sixth walkers managed to dodge and clear the corner.

1800 metres…  1700 metres…  Three more of the combat walkers popped up over the top of the overpass shoulder and fired another barrage of six missiles.  The damaged spider-mech had already fallen behind and took  two more hits. This time it stopped all movement, but continued shooting.  Return fire on the walkers was fierce.  One more walker exploded with a direct hit.  The last two walkers popped more smoke and ducked back down behind cover.   1600 metres… 1500 metres…  The spider-mechs relentlessly closed in.

Ericson saw that the range was good.  “All units, engage your targets!” His own command tank surged forward to expose the turret over the top of the overpass embankment to add additional firepower.  He had also been using the overpass embankment for cover. “Gunner.  Fire at will,” he ordered.  

All nine MBTs open fire within a second of each other.  The open woodlands was filled with the roar of 130 mm cannon fire and the pulsing cracks of the enemy beam weapons.   Each of the  enemy mechs was hit by the initial barrage, brilliant explosive flashes from the impacts lighting up each mech, but they withstood the attacks.  Laser fire began stabbing back at the dug in tanks.  Flashes of light, the explosive vapourization of ablative armour blocks indicated direct hits on several of the tanks, but the ablative armour held.   

Before the autoloaders on the tanks could complete the loading of the second rounds into the gun breaches, dozens of anti-tank missiles streaked out from both the north and south woods.  The battlesuit infantry platoon and other combat walker platoon were engaging the spider-mechs from the flanks.  A second set of 130 mm discarding sabot penetrators fired off just 7 seconds after the first set.  They were at the maximum rate of fire for the guns.

The battle became frenetic, with the air filled with laser fire, missiles, and tank shells.   A flanking spider-mech suddenly exploded from either an armour piercing round or a missile hit – no one was sure.  A tank exploded, multiple heavy lasers burning through the ablative armour and the composite armour underneath.  Infantry fired grenades from their launchers and emptied clips of ammunition into the spider-mechs. More anti-tank missiles fired off.  The combat walkers fired off their second wave of missiles then engaged with machineguns.  Machine guns had little affect on the spider-mechs, but they could damage sensors, and distract the enemy.  Spider-mechs had their primary beam cannon, but they also had a secondary laser for use against softer, non-armoured targets.  These rapid fire guns began firing back at the combat walkers and infantry, suppressing and killing them.

Another spider-mech exploded, then two more tanks.  Smoke filled the air from burning wreckage, burning trees and brush, and all of the explosions.  Yet another tank exploded, it’s turret hurled up into the air.  God, that was Zawadski’s tank, Ericson thought to himself.  Zawadski’s wife was now a widow, but he didn’t even have time to think her or even his own wife as events were moving too quickly.  The alien spider-mechs kept coming, attacking, and were breaking out of the ambush.  The range was now down to 900 metres.  Two more  spider-mechs were damaged and limping, but they kept coming.

Nothing breaks these guys, he thought.  We need more firepower.  He was strangely calm – beyond fear now that combat was underway.  This was a battle the tanks wouldn’t be able to disengage from too easily due to the speed of the alien mechs.  The battlesuited infantry might be able to escape as they could use the woods for concealment, but the tanks would win or die on this battlefield.

“Gunner.  Target mech right,” he yelled, feeding coordinates at the same time.  A spider-mech was targeting them.

His tank rocked from the recoil of  its main cannon.  “Sabot. Away,” the gunner called out.

At the same time, his tank was rocked by a direct hit on the turret from the alien’s main beam.  Ablative armour erupted in a incandescent blast cloud, absorbing the high-energy pulse.  It suddenly got warm inside the tank.  Looking through his viewfinder, he could see smoke billowing out of the alien mech from their hit.  It fired at them again, but missed.  “Driver, back us up.  Secondary fire position,” he ordered.

Suddenly, a half-dozen, laser-guided artillery rounds directly struck the spider-mechs.  The forward observer had called in the fire mission and infantry with laser designators guided them in.  Huge explosions from the 155 mm artillery shells knocked the spider-mechs off balance while blowing off legs and sensors. One more spider-mech went down, but it was trying to get back up. The artillery had bought them some time, breaking the enemies momentum, but it would be temporary.  After firing one salvo, the artillery would need to scoot to a new firing location as the aliens also had counter-battery fire.  Even now, specialized support spiders further in the rear would be firing off homing missiles to try and kill off the artillery units.

The two sides were now just over half a kilometre apart – 600 metres – too close.  The lasers stabbed out again. Tank guns fired.  More vehicles exploded.  Two more tanks and three of the damaged spiders were destroyed.   That left only three tanks and five attacking spiders.  Only two of the spiders were still undamaged.  All the main weapons were very lethal at this range.  The tanks had launched smoke grenades and were firing as they backed up into new positions.  Ericson’s tank and a couple of re-armed combat walkers were back up on the overpass shoulder trying to provide fire support.  Fire from the woods had slackened considerably after being heavily suppressed by enemy fire.  Both the combat walkers and the infantry had expended their missiles and had taken considerable losses in the fight.

Even as Ericson watched, a beam burned through the turret armour of another tank which exploded in a brilliant fireball.  His tank fired again.  This time one of the damaged spider-mechs blew apart, collapsing down on its now limp legs.

His tank was suddenly hit by a hammer blow that knocked the breath out of him.  A laser blast had blown a hole in the front left of the tank’s body.  The interior filled with thick acrid smoke while the power went dead. A fire suppression system went off filling the lower interior with foam.  “Sam, Evan, you guys okay?”

Sam, the gunner, called back, “I’m okay.  Think Evan’s dead though.  The blast caught him, and there’s blood everywhere. Smoke’s getting thick.”

“We gotta get out,” Ericson replied, “tank’s history.” He turned around and opened the turret hatch.  He climbed out and helped to pull his foam soaked gunner out of the burning tank.  They would have to run for cover.  The battle would be over soon as it was one tank against four mechs.

      

***

 

Only a kilometre separated Joshua from the spider-mechs attacking Bravo Company.  His HARM crashed through the woods, knocking down branches and crushing vegetation under foot.  His tactical display showed rapidly disappearing friendly units in real-time.  They had done far better against the spider-mechs than he had anticipated.  The ambush worked amazingly well against the far superior foe. Those guys deserve a medal, especially the armour commander, Joshua thought.

"Damn," Joshua whispered to himself.   One tank left, some walkers, and scattered infantry everywhere.  The Blue Newts were pretty much about to overrun the blocking force despite their heavy losses.  There was definitely some truth to the stories about Newts not breaking easily.  It would be up to him to stop them.

Surprise was on his side again.  If the humans had any one advantage on the battlefield, they seemed to have better tactical information from a wider array of sensors and drones.   There were four Black Widows left, two of which were damaged.  He was coming in on their southern flank and should be able to bag one or two of them quickly.  Even odds, Joshua figured, if he didn't get pinned.

All of the alien mechs had heat sinks deployed in their rear quarters to bleed off the massive amounts of excess heat being generated by the continual firing of their beam weapons.  There were huge blooms of heat on thermal displays.  Joshua selected one of the  damaged mechs to finish off.  "Coil gun to single mode," verified the AI.

His legs mimicked a slight jumping motion, leaping his mech up into the air. "Low jump, 10 metres," the AI verified.  In the air, he quickly targeted the dead center of the heat bloom on the damaged mech.  Adjusting his aim, he fired at apogee.  Less than a second later, the spider-mech blew apart, the power plant hit through it's weak spot.

“Target destroyed,” the AI announced.  The AI then fired landing rockets and he twisted to the side to change his approach path.

One down, he thought to himself.  Joshua continued closing in, under the cover of the woods.  The alien mechs turned to face this new threat.  They fired semi-blindly into the woods, not knowing his exact location.  The spider-mechs were tall though.  With their height they could see  the occasional movement from Joshua as his mech crashed through the trees.

A few beams passed near Joshua, leaving great burning swaths of trees behind them.  They were not close enough to seriously worry him, but he put more caution into his approach.  He was 700 metres out now and had worked his way clear of the enemy fire by moving more slowly away to avoid giving his location away.  He didn't want to expose himself too much, but he needed to keep the pressure on the enemy.  He picked the remaining damaged mech as his target.  Performing another low jump, he fired again.  The enemy mech took the penetrator hit off to the side, but it took out two leg joints, crashing it to the ground.  On the way down his HARM took a hit to his left side from a beam cannon.

Wham!  A portion of active molecular armour vapourized in an exploding cloud that rocked his machine.  An alarm buzzed and indicators began blinking. "Left side damage," the AI called out.  "Minor damage to torso servos.  Rerouting servo circuits 8 through 10. Armour is 85% intact.”  Joshua landed safely then rolled right, noting that the controls felt a tad sluggish.  Crouching down he then moved off on a tangent.

With the third mech immobilized, the remaining spider-mechs spread out and advanced into the woods toward him.  They fired as they went and locations near where Joshua’s HARM had landed were engulfed in flame.  After a minute the fire slackened off when the aliens realized they were not going to hit him or flush him out.

They’re trying to catch me in a cross-fire, Joshua thought, good move on their part.  He quickly studied the tactical display.  He was slightly off center in between the advancing mechs.  His bunny jumping to fire would probably not be a very good idea now that both Black Widows were focused on him.  He would probably take damage from another attempt.  Instead, he would try and work his way towards the nearer mech and take it head on.

Staying low he crouch walked through the woods, coil-gun ready.  He noted the contour map indicated a bit of a rise ahead and used it to keep a little extra cover between them.  He was getting close.  He finally found a bit of a clearing, something that gave him a slightly longer sighting distance.  Kneeling down, he waited for the enemy mech to appear.

It wasn’t a long wait, his audio pickups at maximum, he could hear the enemy mech coming through the woods before he could see it.  Trees began to shake and then the mech appeared.  He aimed for the junction of the primary weapons blister and the body, knowing a shot against the heavily sloped armour of the spiders front-end would be tough kill.  Joshua fired slightly faster than the Newt and his full power penetrator nearly blew the blister right off the enemy mech.  A laser blast scorched the air right by his shoulder, peeling back the yellow paint from the near miss.

One hundred meters. He began running through the trees towards the now damaged spider-mech, putting his gun into burst mode.   The enemy mech’s secondary laser battery began firing.  He took a hit to his other shoulder, but the lighter laser didn’t penetrate.  Getting a good angle he fired two more penetrators into the mech’s thinner side armour, killing it.  Thick black smoke billowed out of the now dead, but still standing enemy mech.

 A laser blast passed close to his mecha’s head and Joshua ducked down again.  That was too close.  His adrenaline had been pumping for awhile.  One left, he thought.  One on one now.

A good stretch of woods lay in between him and the last spider-mech. He didn’t have good shot at it unless he exposed himself again and that wasn’t going to happen.  On the other hand, the enemy didn’t have a good shot at him either.  This fight was going to end close-up.  A dog fight.

He was all for that. Get in close and get a kill, just like in a fighter.

Running his mech, he closed in with the enemy unit in a zigzag pattern.  He jumped his mech over gullies, crashed through more trees, while utilizing all the cover he could.  Every so often a laser blast would come close, but his dodging was working.  Using the AI’s assistant he snapped off several shots just to keep the alien mech off balance.  Still, the laser blasts came on stronger as he closed the distance, his cover reducing as he went.

“Target is within 200 metres.  Kill can be achieved with a single shot through the front armour,” the AI announced.

Several trees blew apart next to him.  Joshua used his mecha’s agility to leap clear to the side and rolled.  For such a heavy machine, the advanced construction, and artificial muscles made his machine amazingly nimble.  Coming out of his roll, he fired a full power shot at the front quarter of the enemy mech.  The angle was slightly off.  The penetrator created a huge flash as it cut a huge gouge in the frontal armour, not quite penetrating.  The enemy rocked with the hit and seemed almost stunned for a moment.

Joshua was already dodging to the side when the Black Widow fired back.  The laser blast struck the high and right on the HARM’s chest.  The active molecular armour plating tried to redistribute the intense heat and vapourized in a great flash to ablate the blast energy.  A deafening loud bang was muffled by Joshua’s helmet.  This time, red indicators lit up right across the board.  His visual display blinked on an off rapidly then stabilized.

The AI blared, “Major damage. Stabilizing power systems. Right arm function impaired.”  Joshua barely heard the message though.  He was watching the last few seconds of the charging timer count down for the coil gun.

2… 1…  He raised the right arm to fire, but the artificial muscles in the arm were damaged and unable to move straight out in front of him.   “Damn!” he yelled.  On instinct, he tipped backwards to get the right angle and fired again.  This time the penetrator struck true, passing into the power plant.  The spider-mech exploded in a great ball of flame, the weapons blister on top blasted into the air.  His visual display dulled momentarily to block the flash then returned to normal. That probably singed the paint on his mecha Joshua figured.

Being out of immediate danger, Joshua took a deep breath and let it out.  “Whoeeh!  That was close.”

“Command not understood,” the AI responded.

“Disregard. Human expression of relief,” he replied.  This AI response normally bothered him, but not this time. Besides, it did learn his expressions and filtered them out from commands.  “HARM Status,” he asked.

“Power systems restored.  Right arm muscles are partially functional.  This unit is requires repair but is functional.”

“Good,” Joshua replied.

There was a message ping from Dr. Chan.  It was just a simple text.  “ON WAY TO RENDEZVOUS.  EXCELLENT WORK!  NO MORE SCRATCHES ON X-14 OR I TAKE AWAY THE KEYS.  MEET YOU THERE.”  He took another look at the message.  No more scratches?  He’d hit her up for extra insurance coverage next time.  If he knew the doctor, she would probably be studying the damage right away to see how they could improve things.  Joshua then turned his attention to the tactical display and saw the survivors of Bravo Company pulling themselves together.   He started walking in their direction to see if he could help.

As he emerged from the woods, he could see the medics treating a few wounded tankers, and a half dozen wounded infantry.   Not many tankers had survived their tanks exploding.  All the soldiers, even the medics, stopped what they were doing for at least a few seconds to stare that the big robot.

“Anyone ever tell you your camouflage sucks,” a male voice cut in on his com-net.  He looked to find the source, and the head of the HARM mimicked his motion.  “I’m on the tank to your left,” the voice spoke again.  Looking down, he saw Captain Ericson looking up at him from on top of the surviving tank where he was using the radio.  He had been conferring with Lieutenant Nguyen about their next moves.

“Good save back there,” Ericson spoke again. “Could have used you earlier.  Lost a lot of good men and women today.”

“Sorry about that,” Joshua replied, some tension showing in his voice.

“I know.  Not your fault.”  Ericson replied sympathetically, “didn’t mean for it to come out that way.  General’s orders.  I probably would have done the same thing to save those people.  I’m sick of them butchering civilians too.”

“Thanks,” Joshua replied.

“Looks like you took some damage too.”  Ericson then joked, “that nice yellow paint job of yours is a little scratched up.”  He then turned to a couple of his men nearby.  “You guys think this guy thinks he’s a bulldozer or dump truck?”

The men laughed, despite the situation they had just come out of.

“Yeah, the paint job could’ve been better,” Joshua replied.

“Anyhow, thanks for drawing those spiders off.  We owe you one.”

“Wish I could’ve done more.” Joshua sincerely wished he could have arrived even a few minutes earlier.

“That’s war,” Ericson replied.  “We kicked their ass and that’s what counts right now.”  Pausing for a moment he then continued. “I’m Captain Will Ericson, by the way.”

“Lieutenant Joshua Scott,” Joshua replied. “You guys did great.  Anything I can do right now for you?”

“No.  Medivacs are on the way and we’re pulling out back to the second defensive line. I just got off the horn from General Garcia and I think you’ll be getting a call pretty quick.  They’re impressed with what you did.  That big robot of yours packs quite a wallop.  It’ll be a different war once we get more of them.”

“Yeah, these HARMs will even the playing field,” Joshua concurred.  “Okay then.  X-14 is heading out.”

“Take care.” Ericson saluted him and turned back to Lieutenant Nguyen.

Joshua selected the waypoint for the rendezvous and began heading to it.  He had heard rumours that the move to Site B was going to be big.  They would be flying clear across the country and then north to Canada.  The Newt presence was supposed to be under control there.

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