How to Populate a Planet: A Sci-Fi Adventure by Maddox Bevan

Author:Maddox Bevan [Bevan, Maddox]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“Don’t let it get away!”

“I’m trying. These things are so fricking difficult to pilot.”

A drone flying over the equatorial ocean halfway around the planet had spotted one of theirs, and I had taken control to go after it.

But if I had thought the rover was agile, this was a different proposition altogether. The drones were winged spheres that could spin and maneuver 360 degrees either way, meaning not just that the little fucker we had spotted was tricky to chase, but controlling ours was a real struggle.

“Do you need the games controller?”

“Thanks, Zoe, but I think it’s time I stick to the big-boy controls.”

“Then at least let me help you.”

She directed me as I wrestled with the two rotating sticks that controlled the drone’s movement, while explaining the added layer of complexity that was aiming and firing its inbuilt weapons.

“Let me get the hang of actually following it, first.”

A rally of gunfire rippled through the sky and clipped the drone’s defenses. I already knew the shields on these drones couldn’t take more than a couple of hits in quick succession—they had a tiny fraction of the capacity of those on the ship.

“It looks like you won’t have that luxury,” she said, helping me duck as the enemy drone swooped past and tried another salvo.

“Then you do the shooting.”

“Me?! Were you not listening to any of that story I just told you?”

“We have no choice, because I’m barely in control here,” I said, attempting a shot at the same time as I evaded another round of fire, only to blast it into a cloud. “And maybe it’s time you fired a weapon again.”

She scrunched her mouth in thought for a moment, and then typed in some commands to shift control of the weapons over to her station. Without the distraction of trying to shoot, I was now able to finally pilot the drone with a little more conviction. I spun it out of the next volley of shots, upwards and then back behind the other drone.

“Fire!”

Zoe tapped hesitantly and released a single bolt that the enemy probe easily swerved, before charging us and releasing a torrent of shots.

I dropped our drone down and led a cat-and-mouse chase in a zigzag low over the water, dodging shot after shot.

“In a moment, I’m going to flip right around and face it head on. Be ready to shoot on three, okay? And just hold down the trigger and give it everything.”

“Okay,” she said, steeling herself with a deep breath.

“One… two… three.”

I spun the face of the drone in a 180-degree turn as it came to an abrupt stop, and the camera feed was filled with the image of its charging opponent. Zoe let rip with a flurry of shots that caught it unawares.

Clearly neither a human nor AI enemy would have expected a remote-controlled drone that had flown this badly to stop dead over the ocean and face the line of fire, because Whitlock’s drone took an absolute pounding, its shields gave out, and it dropped like a stone before hitting the waves with a splash.

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