Echo Effect by Robert D. Armstrong

Author:Robert D. Armstrong [Armstrong, Robert D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Robert D. Armstrong
Published: 2017-04-20T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Agent Casser booted up all his command room cameras. The system was cutting edge, for the mid-2060s at least, but it was due for an upgrade. He’d been using this same setup since the Crucible started. That was before SolarSystems was even conceived.

He wondered when he would get funding for newer holographic 3D cameras that could see through walls. For now, he could see and hear most everything, Saven’s perspective, the drone’s, Keith’s control room, and all the Marine stations. He had eyes and ears everywhere down to the smallest detail.

“Well, people, we have a visual...” Casser said as their cameras displayed images and audio. Agent Niven came in and sat down beside him, giving him a tally of agents watching the various cameras, including himself.

“Did anyone bring popcorn?” Niven joked.

“This is serious business. If we miss something, it could be dangerous,” Casser said, sternly looking over at Niven. Casser leaned in, whispering, “That’s not the example I want to set for our newest agents, not that you are seasoned, by any means.”

“I understand, sir. Just trying to lighten the mood a bit.”

One hour before the drill, Casser observed Keith and Lucas glaring over at the Marines. The old, misty glass window that separated the two parties was blurred, but they could still see each other.

The Marines came alive. They moved quickly and with purpose, like an army of ants rising up to protect the hill from an intruder. Everyone had a role that appeared second nature, drilled in over hundreds of hours of repetition.

“Icepick, this is bravo actual. How copy?” the Marine prompted his drone.

The drone’s artificial intelligence pinged back a “Ready” flash on the operator’s holographic display.

The drones had an intimidating stance, tank-like tracks for movement, twin laser cannons on each arm that were gyro-stabilized, and a basketball-sized sensor array for a head. The brutes were clearly the seek-and-destroy element for the Marines.

“Copy that, Icepick. Proceed to phase one starting location. How copy?” The drone moved in for the closest possible jump on the prototype.

Icepick was the lead brute drone. Even if communications were somehow severed, Icepick could order the other brutes strategically without human intervention and was linked to five other subordinate drones.

Icepick had a series of notches all down his left and right laser cannons, each notch confirming a kill in the North Korean war. A yellow notch indicated an enemy drone kill and red for a human kill. The tally seemed to be about even, with slightly more organic kills than machine, but he was running out of room on both sides.

The other brute drones seemed fairly new by comparison to Icepick. They had shiny white armor panels, brand new guns, and only a few yellow notches here and there scattered between them.

Each brute formed a linked spherical radius of sensors that blanketed Saven’s route to the installation. Casser watched the Marines grow more excited by the second.

“Just like the last Crucible, their prototype can’t move past these sensor zones without us knowing it. Once it crosses, it’s over,” Garza said to one of her newer Marines, pointing at the screen.

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