HEART OF THE WORLD
MACKENZIE COUNTY, AB
11 NOV 2011, 01:32:03 MST
Dia jumped their mental speed to buy time to deal with the swiftly encroaching mites. While they only had seconds before the wave would hit the core, they at least had time to think through their response.
Duncan lined up another shot with the plasma launcher, but it was still recharging and would only get one shot off on the approaching swarm. They also started the pop-up turrets emerging, but it would be at least a second before they could start to acquire targets, and the ones nearest the swarm had been damaged by the earlier plasma barrage.
The existing turrets to either side of the monkey-carved channel opened up on the mites, but to little effect. The mites were somewhat blurry-looking, and never quite where they appeared to be except when up close, so the flechettes kept missing. Duncan launched a crystalline sensor into the midst of the swarm to see if there was a deterministic shift that could be compensated for, but found that not only was it random, it shifted rapidly. Still, the displacement distance was comparatively short, so they set the turrets to randomly spray. The kills started racking up.
“We need more of those. Their kill rate isn’t high enough to take out more than a quarter of the swarm before they hit us.”
Duncan pinged agreement, and turned to the drones. They had dozens ready to go, and fired two of the Type-VII turret-drones into the heart of the swarm, kicking them closer with a quick teleport. The close-quarters micro-turrets had a much easier time tracking the nearby targets, and scored hit after hit. To Duncan’s dismay, only about a third of the micro-flechette hits killed their targets. They tried to study the effect, to understand if it was a targeting problem, but got yanked away by Dia. “Stay inside the crystal, it’s not safe out there. We need to up the kill rate further.”
“That’s what I was trying to figure out! Some of the cobalt isn’t working.”
“Too small?” suggested Donna.
“Maybe. So we need bigger pieces with targeting. Do we have enough for ten thousand rounds?”
“Nope.”
“Shit.”
“Steal from the turrets on the other side,” ordered Dia, exasperatedly.
Duncan did so, teleporting several turrets to their side of the hub. He crafted a magical seeker kit to add to the flechettes, then duplicated it. Donna and Dia helped, and within a second they had many thousands installed. Duncan detonated an explosion behind the magazine, and thousands of flechettes tore into the approaching wave. Each flechette found a target, and the mites died by the thousands. Many flechettes had enough energy behind them to take out a second or even a third mite.
While the ranks of the mites had been drastically thinned, there were still a few thousand left, and as they crossed the launchers they left twisted metal in their wake. Duncan cursed, and lobbed more drones into the swarm as they backpedaled. The swarm seemed to know what the drones were, and kept just outside their effective radius. Even detonating the warheads only took out a few dozen.
“Now what?”
Duncan armed an antimatter grenade. “Get ready to port.”
“That’ll take out the wellhead, you idiot! Gwen needs the magic to keep working.”
“It’s not that big.”
Dia still moved them forward, away from the hub and toward the swarm. “Time to take the fight to them.”
Donna scooped up as many flechettes as she could find, and Dia did likewise. Belatedly, Duncan joined the effort and soon there were hundreds of cobalt-tipped missiles whirling around them like an electron shell.
Then they were among the mites, scything through them effortlessly. Hundreds died to their blades, but one slipped through. “Fuckers are too fast,” growled Duncan as it darted toward their crystalline core. A dart was arcing toward it as swiftly as they could manage, but it struck a moment late and the mite touched them a moment before it died.
The mite’s touch left a blackened crater in their body. There was a moment of shock shared by all three of them before the pain hit. Dia had never experienced such pain before, and their scream set off Donna as well. Duncan just grunted, and tried to keep focus on the darts, which were now whirling off in all directions, unguided.
The mite swarm saw its chance, and flooded toward the damaged crystal. Just before they arrived, it flickered out of existence, leaving a small sphere of cobalt behind in its place. Inside that sphere was a tenth of a gram of antimatter, and as the mites converged on it, the magic holding it in place shattered.
*** *** ***
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
11 NOV 2011, 01:32:05 MST
The telex suddenly chattered to life.
NDS DETONATION REPORT
LAT 59.1598 LONG -115.1193 AGL 0.00 MI [LA CRETE,AB,CA 92MI NE]
YIELD 00004 kT MATCH AM01 97%
“What the hell are they doing up there?” asked the General.
“AM01? I don’t remember that code...”
Agent Brown thought for a moment. “Antimatter.”
“Holy Shit.”
Brown’s phone beeped a moment later. “Did we get them all?”
“Duncan, you’re alive!”
Duncan chuckled painedly. “For limited values of alive. We flashblinded ourselves, cut the port too close. Think we bagged all the mites, but...”
“Anything?” Brown asked the sensor team.
“No traces near them. But it looks like they riled up the main mass...”
“Show me.”
A wave of red was racing toward the core.
“You’ve got about ten minutes before they hit you with everything.”
“Fuck. They figured out how to hurt us. This could get fucking bad. Gotta go.”
*** *** ***
THE BLUE VIXEN
VICTORIA, BC
11 NOV 2011, 00:33 PST
Ray’s comm crystal pinged. “I need an answer fast. Can you reach Dr. O’Brien?”
“Hi. He’s right here.”
“Thank God,” replied Duncan. “Colin. Only some cobalt works on the demons. You said ‘Cobalt Therapy’. What isotope?”
“Oh! Radiotherapy, with Cobalt 60. Touching cobalt only stabilized them, irradiation healed them swiftly.”
“Fuck, of course. Thanks. You may have just saved the world.”
The crystal went dark.
Colin looked over to Ray. “What on earth was that about?”
“Weapons against demons, I should think. They’re doing something that will force the demons to leave.”
“And the demons would rather stay. I don’t suppose negotiation is an option?” asked Colin.
Ray’s expression darkened. “You saw the news. This is an existential war.”
“That’s why I came here. Donna said that this was the safest place on the planet. What I don’t quite understand is what Kelly’s part is in all this.” He gestured to where most of the girls were sitting at the edge of the stage, with Vanessa standing in front of them, directing them like a choir.
“Faith has a power that is different from Moon magic. Vanessa’s conveying their faith to Gwen, who needs it for their project.”
Colin studied them for a little longer. “Yeah, but why does it seem like work? Some of them are sweating, and don’t tell me it’s just the stage lights.”
“It’s good that you’re here. Do you have any kind of medical kit with you?”
Colin nodded. “I’ve got a hospital-grade kit in the trunk of my car.”
“Go get it.”