Counting Heads

2.7

The Orange Team bee, with its wasp escort, flew a meandering route that hugged the contours of the countryside. Ten kilometers from the Bloomington canopy, it was challenged for its ID and writ of passage by a flying scupper that popped up from a covert security blind. The scupper was a meter in length and modeled after a HomCom assault car, with a mirrored body and six miniature fans for lift and propulsion. A capture scoop was mounted on its bow beneath a pair of fully charged laser cannon.

The Orange Team hovered in place, while its bee squirted false documentation to the scupper that identified it as a process server for the UDDI, engaged in official business. It provided a forged writ of passage and verification codes. At the same time, the bee assessed its team’s location and assets and raced through its extensive bank of tactical fight, feint, or flight scenarios for appropriate action plans.

The HomCom scupper ordered the Orange Team to turn around, descend to the ground, and power down. As the team complied, the bee analyzed the scupper’s transponder signal and wing markings and found them legitimate. However, it detected subtle design anomalies in the scupper’s construction that did not match HomCom specs stored in its library. There was a possibility, it concluded, that the scupper was an impostor. But whether impostor or the genuine article, the bee could not risk capture.

The bee squirted an action plan to its escort. On a signal, the wasps peeled away in opposite directions, looped around, and raked the scupper with laser fire from both sides. At the same instant, the bee power-dived under the scupper, out of range of its cannon, and dropped to ground level. The wasps’ fire reflected harmlessly off the scupper’s mirrored skin, and the scupper went on the offensive. It extended its bow scoop and tried unsuccessfully to shoot down or swallow the defiant mechs. The bee used the diversion to flee the scene behind a row of agriplex buildings.

A lucky shot by an Orange Team wasp revealed a hairline crack at the base of the scupper’s stabilizer vane armor, and the wasps concentrated their fire on it, forcing the scupper to disengage and retreat.

The wasps flew off in opposite directions. After a series of evasive misdirections, they joined their bee, somewhat depleted but no worse for wear. The Orange Team continued on its way to Starke Enterprises headquarters.

THE GRAY TEAM beetle, with its wasp escort, located its prime destination, a series of fish farms between Lake Decatur and the city of Tendonville. Hovering a meter over the water, the beetle opened its carapace, allowing the breeze to scatter a pinch of green flakes across the surface of the pond. As the flakes swelled and sank, fish gathered to snap them up. Gray Team flew from pond to pond dispensing its load.