John Ringo: Von Neumann’s War

“Dat’s da guy in Huntsville, right?” Helena said, raising an eyebrow.

“The same,” Richard replied, shutting down the laptop. “I finally determined that he was working with Dr. Alice Pike, which explains many things. She was a bright girl, Alice.”

“Well, if you wanna tell Huntsville somet’ing, you better hurry,” Helena said. “Dey’re under attack.”

“Good Lord,” Richard said, picking up the laptop and hurrying towards the laboratory. “You could have told me!”

“I jus’ did,” Helena pointed out.

“Ten percent and climbing past Phase Line Deadite,” the J-3 tac NCO said.

“Fire rockets,” General Riggs responded.

“Firing.”

Jones slapped his hand over his ears as one thousand J-type rockets launched with near simultaneity.

“Jeeze that was loud!” he yelled over the ringing in his ears. “They could have warned us!”

“Go baby go,” Mahoney said, ignoring his bunker mate.

“I wonder how they’ll…” Jones said and then paused. “Aw… shit.”

“Oh, yeah, and updating their defenses against the rockets,” Shane added to himself, grimacing.

The mass of probes was rapidly spreading across Huntsville and on the vids it was easy to see the buildings crumbling as they passed. The wide-angle vid had a great shot of the rockets flying towards their mass, currently passing over and spreading out along South Memorial Parkway, or “Phase Line Deadite.” It also had a great view of the odd… tubes that extended from the mass, spreading out around the incoming rockets. The tubes were about ten meters across, probes making up the wall of the tubes, and extended along the ballistic flight path of the rockets so that the rockets had to fly down the center. As he watched, the rockets also began to shred and then disappear, without so much as the slightest explosion.

“Major Gries,” the general said quietly over his headset. “Comments?”

“We can now anticipate some reaction against the lasers, sir,” Shane replied tightly. “They didn’t hit the mines on this attack, so those might have an immediate effect. And they haven’t run into IBot yet.”

“Concur,” General Riggs said. “On the eventuality that they will attempt to close with the lasers, I want you to pull your platoon and redeploy them around the East Weeden laser site. Make sure they carry breath-masks.”

“Yes, sir,” Shane said, starting to stand up.

“Turn over control to your sergeant major,” Riggs interjected quickly. “I want you here.”

“Yes, sir,” Shane said with a grimace.

“On it,” Cady added, keying his mike. “Platoon, unass your positions. Move to the armory. Draw nonmetallic weaponry and masks. You got two minutes. Haul!” He reached under the console and pulled out his war-stick. “Time to go swat some bugs.”

Fortunately there were elevators to the summit position where the lasers were mounted. Just as fortunately, the probes were taking their time stripping Huntsville of all its useable metal. But the troops were still panting by the time they got to the summit.

“Top, now that we’re here, what are we doing here?” Mahoney asked as the platoon spread out from the flush-mounted stairwell by the laser bunker. The same guys who had designed the whole mountain complex had designed the laser position and, in keeping with the NASA theme, Mahoney recognized the design from a trip to Kennedy Space Center. It was the same sort of massive structure as the ones used for observers of the Apollo launches. The two-story structure consisted mostly of very large concrete-filled sandbags. More and stronger seemed to be the idea. The tiny projector was mostly hidden on the very top, a glittering ball of crystal catching the last rays of the sun.

“The Old Man and the general think the probes are gonna go for the laser as soon as it opens up,” Cady answered. “Our job is to make sure they don’t get here.”

“Top,” Jones argued, “if they can take out the laser, we’re not going to be able to do much.”

“That’s to be seen,” Cady answered equanimably. “There’s a dead zone here under where the lasers can fire. That’s our priority. You let the big boys handle the rest. For now, spread out around the laser. Everybody gets a zone. If a probe comes into your zone, kill it. It’s that simple.”

“Simple,” Jones muttered as Cady and Staff Sergeant Gregory spread the short platoon around the perimeter.

“Very,” Mahoney said from his position. He and Jones had managed to snag the best view, which also meant they were probably going to be the first hit. “Very simple. But important point, keep your head down.” Mahoney was leaning up against the concrete bunker, apparently enjoying the view of Huntsville being chewed to bits. The laser bunker was mounted on the very summit of Mount Weeden. Off to their left was a lower bit with, of all things, a small swamp. It was an odd feature to see on the top of a mountain.

“Why?” Jones asked.

“Because, if your head gets too high…” the other specialist said and then thumbed over his shoulder. “Those lasers don’t have target discriminators. They’ll shoot you just as soon as one of the probes. And it’ll go through you easier.”

“Ouch,” Jones said, glancing nervously over his shoulder. “I don’t like being out here; we’re exposed as hell.”

“Tell me about it,” Mahoney replied as Sergeant Gregory came back around.

“Listen up,” Gregory said, waving them over to huddle around him. “Couple of safety points. Top was watching the video from Monte Sano Mountain. First point, watch where you move. The laser’s not going to miss you if you get in its path—”

“I already pointed that out to Jones,” Mahoney said.

“Right, good…” the staff sergeant replied. “Stay close into the bunker. The laser is set to skim the edge of this ridge. If you’re close into the bunker, you’re out of its line of fire. Second point, when the laser hits these things it chops them up. When they get close, we’re going to have pieces of probe slamming into the ground all around here. And into us. Keep your damned helmets and armor on. It might keep the damage down. When they get real close, the air starts getting filled with burned up metal. It’ll rip up your lungs. When they close with us, go to MOPP one, mask only. The mask will keep you alive. Clear?”

“Clear,” Jones said. “How’d we draw this shit detail, Sergeant?”

“Somebody’s got to do it,” Gregory replied with a grin. “You don’t expect them wind-dummies to get their berets all dirty, now do you?”

“Got it,” Shane said, keying the com for the intel section. “Sir, would you take a look at the group of probes located at 5413 by 3845? That’s right by the Oak Park athletic field. Looks like about… hell, maybe a thousand of them. I don’t have backtrack, but it looks as if they stopped there and are just… sitting.”

“Good eye, Major,” the J-2 colonel said. “Let me get a couple of people to eyeball them.”

“Over fifty percent across Phase Line Groovy,” J-3 reported.

“Prepare to lase—” General Riggs said and then stopped, holding his hand to his earbud. “Roger.” He looked up and then clicked a control, zooming the main viewscreen into the group that Shane had spotted. With the zoom cranked up, it was apparent that the probes had changed shape slightly. There was now a circular opening that looked very much like a cannon mouth on the front of the probes.

“Laser targeting, Weeden East only, designate that group of modified probes as high priority.”