The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [211]
These new Klikiss had significantly advanced their technology from their race’s previous incarnation. Their swarmships flew faster and could accelerate more dramatically; no doubt their armaments were improved as well.
But his black robots had made advances, too. The new framework battleships were far superior to the old Klikiss vessels, and he also had his stolen EDF ships. Sirix believed that his robots had a statistically significant chance of surviving against two swarmships, but only if he used sufficiently aggressive tactics.
The swarmships managed to close in on his fleeing group before they made it out of the solar system. Desperate to delay them, Sirix ran an assessment of the vessels accompanying him. Obviously, some would be destroyed, and he needed to choose. The slowest of the fifty-six craft was a battered Thunderhead weapons platform that had not been completely repaired. The platform lagged behind, and the swarmships were almost upon it.
Sirix decided to sacrifice it.
None of the original black robots were aboard the Thunderhead, only thirty-seven of the new robots released from the Hansa compy factories. Considering the circumstances, Sirix decided the loss was acceptable, if it bought enough time for his comrades to escape.
Without remorse, he transmitted instructions to the Thunderhead, and the new black robots dutifully accepted their orders. The weapons platform slowed and turned about to target its jazers and projectile weapons toward the swarmships. “Destroy as many of the component ships as possible.”
But the Thunderhead’s jazer ports and projectile launchers remained dark and closed. The weapons platform hung motionless, completely vulnerable. Something was clearly wrong.
Alarm surged through Sirix’s cybernetic mind. “Open fire.” The new robots aboard did not respond.
Because of their frantic exodus, this particular Thunderhead was still under repair. Had its weapons been disabled? In a frantic staccato he repeated his order to fire, but before the robots aboard could obey, the swarmships were upon the faltering platform.
Bristling with a thousand bright needles, the two Klikiss vessels opened fire, and within moments the lagging Thunderhead exploded, spraying molten debris in all directions.
A complete failure. And now the black robots had lost time and any advantage they might have gained by the sacrifice. As the explosion’s flare dissipated, Sirix commanded his remaining ships to fly faster.
The two swarmships suddenly disassembled themselves, and each spewed a heavy stream of component ships forward at impossible accelerations, like thick jets of particles. The flare of component vessels arced around to recoalesce as a third, smaller swarmship directly in front of Sirix’s fleeing fleet. From behind, the two original swarmships began to open fire on the rearmost black robot ships, while the newly formed cluster shot at the lead vessels.
Two of the repaired EDF Mantas were destroyed; one of the new robot-design ships was disabled and reeling out of control.
Sirix would have to make his last stand here, at the fringes of the Earth’s solar system. He continued to run calculations and reevaluate his plans. Very few options remained.
PD and QT stood at their weapons stations, ready to strike out against the enemy that Sirix had programmed them to hate. He was gratified that these two compies had not proved to be disappointments, as DD had.
“With our enhanced new weaponry, these ships are not demonstrably inferior to the Klikiss,” PD pointed out. “Our odds of success are non-zero.”
QT agreed. “If we attack them now, we have a small probability of victory. But we must attack.”
Sirix had come to the same conclusion. Linked by instantaneous communication and programming, all his robots could command their ships to reverse course in an instant, a perfectly coordinated maneuver. A surprise turnabout — as surprising as his new weapons would be. And the sooner he did this, the less