Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [37]
'Perhaps the wall is for your own protection,' DD said. 'It is reminiscent of the fortifications around a medieval town.'
'And if pigs could fly,' Crim Tylar groused.
'I know of no species of pig that can fly. Aerodynamically, it seems impossible.'
'It was a joke, DD,' Orli said.
Metre after metre, moving along a perfect geometrical path, the Klikiss builders continued to erect their wall.
'We'll just have to cooperate with the Klikiss and hope for the best,' Ruis said. Even to Orli he sounded naive.
Mr Steinman wearily shook his shaggy head. His eyes were red. 'I don't like this. Not one bit. I'm getting way too many images of concentration camps, barbed-wire fences, and gas chambers.'
'That was centuries ago. I read about it in school,' Orli said.
There are some things you should never forget. Worse than forgetting, though, is if you let it happen all over again. And we walked right into this.'
Twenty
Sirix
Once the black robots had cleansed Wollamor of the human taint, Sirix set his Soldier compies to work rebuilding. The black robots did not need the remaining dwellings and towers for any functional reason, only as a symbol to show how resoundingly they had defeated their long-extinct creators. Sirix was proud.
Wollamor's large, ancient transportal stood as a blank stone gateway in the middle of a street. Beside PD and QT, Sirix contemplated how those coordinate tiles led to further possibilities for conquest, abandoned worlds to reclaim, one after another. The black robots would have their own Swarming. They would spread, overwhelm all resistance, and take control. His eye sensors glowed at the thoughts churning through his cybernetic mind.
QT was the first to notice the change. 'Look, the transportal is activating.'
'Someone is coming through,' PD added.
The sheet of stone hummed, became a wall of static, then opened. Sirix reeled backward on his leg clusters and emitted an electronic burst to alert the robots and Soldier compies.
Five armoured Klikiss warriors strode through raising strange weapons with their sharp, segmented forelimbs.
Sirix scuttled in full retreat while the two Friendly compies stared in fascination. 'Are those the original Klikiss?' PD asked. 'Are they not extinct?'
Black robots rushed from the construction sites. Soldier compies marched down ramps from the EDF ships. When the Klikiss warriors saw the robots, they set up a warbling battle cry and surged to attack. Dozens more, then hundreds, poured through the transportal after them.
The first warrior leapt forward and crashed onto Sirix. He fought back, extending his articulated limbs to drill and cut into the Klikiss's exoskeleton. Ancient echoes of oppression, even fear, rang through his mind as he struggled. The black robots were powerfully built, nearly three metres tall and encased in glossy armour, and the Klikiss had designed them with fighting skills nearly equal to their own. Sirix sent out a burst to the two confused Friendly compies. 'Protect me.' He pushed hard, snapping off two of the warrior's limbs. The stumps oozed viscous green fluid.
PD and QT scurried to grab the warrior's additional limbs, throwing the creature off balance. One of its pincers broke apart.
Sirix shoved a cutting stave into the enemy's thorax and ripped sideways, nearly decapitating the creature. Twitching, it fell over, still grabbing at Sirix, but the robot tore himself free. PD and QT hurriedly followed him.
A clamour of thoughts and questions burned along his inner mental channels. Confusion, disbelief, and shock slowed crucial reaction times. How could the Klikiss have survived the rigged swarming into hydrogue planets? This was not possible. The return of the creator race had not been part of his detailed plans.
More and more Klikiss marched through the transportal - warriors, diggers, builders - and one of the black-and-silver striped domates. Was this another Swarming? Had the Klikiss survivors stumbled upon Sirix and his robots by accident, or had they come to Wollamor with a specific intention? No