Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [44]
"Sounds like it's still cranking out compies," Paxton said. "Mr. Swendsen, do your stuff."
"That's Dr. Swendsen. I'm--"
"I don't care if you're a grandmother--move!"
Near the head of the assembly line, spotlights shone upon three mangled human bodies dangling by chains high above the assembly belts to keep them out of the way. "There's a few of your workers," Paxton said in a flat voice. "Still think this is a minor glitch?"
Swendsen stared aghast, watching blood drip down from torn skin. "I . . . I'm on my way."
As the team ran past the assembly lines, Soldier compies emerged like army ants from production stations, storage areas, offices, and monitoring enclosures.
"Oh, goody--we found the missing clankers," Elman groaned. "We're not going to start pushing deactivation buttons one by one, are we, Sergeant?"
"Not a chance. Open fire."
As the compies came forward, silver berets fired small artillery shells and electronic scramblers. The approaching compies toppled as jacketed projectiles struck their body cores. Some circuit-scrambled compies pitched forward into one of the production lines, jamming the gears and rolling belts.
"Swendsen! Tell me where you need to go!" Private Elman shouted. "Me and my weapons will escort you."
Flinching from all the noise, the engineer snapped his attention back to the mission. He pointed a trembling finger. "That control tower. From there, I can deactivate the whole assembly facility . . . I think."
Half-completed Soldier compies rolled down the lines, torsos with heads attached and skeletal arms, not yet covered with armor polymer skin. As the humans continued shooting at the converging compies, the incomplete machines lurched up, optical sensors glowing. Legless compies reached out for the silver berets. Metallic arms grabbed four soldiers by the throats. Other silver berets opened fire, knocking the half-assembled horrors away. More enemy machines dropped from the assembly line, dodging the gunfire and crawling across the floor like bizarre paraplegic crabs.
Five compies emerged from under a low support bridge and snatched a female silver beret by the legs. She turned her weapon toward the floor and kept shooting, but the compies swarmed over her like insects. She went down.
In a daze Swendsen was barely able to keep moving as Elman pushed him toward the control tower, but now the engineer was having second thoughts. Even if he shut down the actual machinery, he couldn't do anything about the Soldier compies that were already activated.
Paxton yelled into his collar microphone, transmitting outside. "We need reinforcements! Blockade the doors with heavy armored machinery so the damned clankers don't get out."
"Then how are we going to get out?" Swendsen asked.
"We're not even all the way in yet." Elman shot two Soldier compies rising up in front of them.
A hundred more military robots emerged from other sections of the facility. The new compies surrounded the control tower in an impenetrable barricade, standing there as if daring the humans to come closer.
"This is like one of those old shambling zombie vidloops," Elman cried, "only with robots."
Looking at the sea of angry compies, Swendsen paused. "We'll never get through that. There's only thirty of us."
"Only twenty left by now. But who's counting?"
Compies closed in from the sides and the rear, while the silver berets fired and fired. One man drained his energy-pulse charge, tossed the weapon aside, and pulled out a smaller projectile gun. "Running low on ammunition, Sergeant!"
"Same here!"
Paxton made a snap assessment. "We're not going to make it through. Not this time. Better fall back and try again with bigger guns and more personnel."
Swendsen had never heard such good news.
A flurry of communications ricocheted around as orders were passed. "Pull together, let's get out of here! We need a unified front." The silver berets retreated, still shooting.
One commando