Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [169]
The Roamers howled in an annoying cacophony across the communication bands. ‘All right, you Eddy bastards, we surrender! Damned pirates! Barrymore's Rock may be a small facility, but we are a member of the Confederation. By the Guiding Star, we demand that you take us to King Peter. The Earth Defence Forces has no right--'
Three other Roamers crowded closer to the screen. ‘You destroyed our life support. We won't survive long--'
Sirix opened the channel, allowing them to see his black geometrical head and his squat beetlelike body. ‘No, you will not survive long. And we are not interested in your surrender.‘
He closed the channel and dispatched crews of robots to the depot. They needed no atmosphere or docking bays. They simply dropped out of the open bays of the EDF ships and streamed over to the small rotating facility, manoeuvring under their own power. This was the way battle was supposed to be.
The humans had barricaded themselves inside, but the robots cut directly through the outer hull, releasing a blast of stale air in explosive decompression, spilling the atmosphere into space like blood. Some sections of the metal walls caved in, too thin to support themselves without air pressure. As the power generators died, lights inside Barrymore's Rock shut off, leaving only dim tell-tale emergency glows.
The robots entered in pitch darkness. Shifting their optical sensors to infra-red, they hunted down any humans who hadn't been killed by decompression.
The cleansing was methodical and merciless. It was also unhurried. Sirix took part in the massacre himself. These helpless victims were surrogate targets for the black robots' anger, compensation for all the losses they had suffered in the recent failed battles against the Klikiss. To him, the screams of the last few humans barricaded in sealed compartments were the equivalent of the music the breedex so enjoyed. It could never be sufficient Sirix thought, but it was a start.
Two hours later, no further life signs remained aboard Barrymore's Rock.
He marched through the habitation domes, cargo compartments, and storage chambers, relishing every moment. Torn bodies were strewn about, leaving bloodstains on the decks and walls. He found a thin young man with a red scarf and a pilots uniform near the docked cargo escort. The others, presumably a family, consisted of three children, four men, three women. The private quarters were cluttered with useless keepsakes and extensive recorded journals of their daily lives. Sirix had no interest in such irrelevant information.
Working together, black robots drained the outpost's ekti tanks, obtaining much more stardrive fuel than the single cargo escort had carried. They remained in the vicinity of the outpost for several days, refuelling all of the battleships. Conscious of how many vessels he had already lost, Sirix ordered Soldier compies to seize the four small passenger ships and the spidery cargo escort docked outside of the depot. Those craft could be useful for subterfuge, if nothing else.
All the robots returned to their EDF ships, which then drifted away from the uninhabited outpost. Sirix, though ready to move onward, now feared that the infestation of the creator race had spread far beyond his small group's ability to stop.
When all viable equipment was secure, he brought his Juggernaut back around and allowed PD and QT more target practice. The pair of compies fired repeatedly upon the domes, empty stardrive fuel reservoirs, and core asteroid. Sirix instructed them to continue the high-energy bombardment until nothing but unrecognisable rubble remained of Barrymore's Rock.
Then he directed his ships to move out again in a strong battle group, pleased with their efforts. ‘Now we continue… until the very end.'
One hundred and four
Mage-Imperator Jora'h
Adar Zan'nh's ships returned from the Mage-Imperator's mission of mercy with the human refugees from Cjeldre. I Followed closely by Nira and her children, as well