The Dark Between The Stars

THIRTY-SIX
EXXOS

The black robots had bided their time for centuries, surviving apparent extinction, two major Klikiss swarmings, and the Elemental War. Now, from their last redoubt in an unnamed icy moon orbiting an all-but-forgotten gas giant, Exxos had made plans for the past twenty years.

After the disastrous end of the recent war, his remaining black robots tunneled deep into the frozen crust, setting up this base, while others gathered useful scrap components from secret searches around the Spiral Arm. The machines constructed industrial equipment, extracted metals, manufactured new vessels and weapons.

Following their utter defeat, the resurgence of the Klikiss robots required careful planning, and patience. His hundreds of robots pooled their immense calculational abilities, casting a wide net of projections to capture every possible scenario. Exxos had analyzed the entire scheme—it could not fail. They had only to hide and wait. The black robots could brush aside the immensity of history and simply consider the final result. The conclusions were indisputable.

But first, they had to survive.

In establishing their redoubt, Exxos had considered it extremely unlikely that any ship would investigate the Dhula system, although humans were persistent, ambitious, and unpredictable. Should the robots be discovered by an unexpected scout ship, perhaps some naïve miner poking around the moon cluster, Exxos had planned a response. In one scenario, he had projected that a Solar Navy warliner might detect them in the course of inspecting Ildiran planets. The black robots had assumed they could simply lie low and hide their base. Barring that, as a last resort, they could destroy any ship that displayed too much curiosity.

In no scenario, however, had Exxos anticipated an invasion by ten human battleships and seven Ildiran warliners!

While assembling six last-ditch evacuation ships under the icy crust, the black robots had constructed and expanded their base, embedding defensive weapons in the ice. Exxos had to hope those weapons would be sufficient against such a massive military force now. External imagers mapped the primary warships and the much closer scouts.

“We have been discovered,” Exxos transmitted from robot to robot in their industrial tunnels. “We must defend ourselves.”

Another robot came up to him, crimson eye sensors glowing in the dim airless tunnels. His flat head moved up and down as he raised segmented claw legs. At the end of the Elemental War, Azzar had disagreed—as he often did—when this contingent of robots went into hiding, as a guarantee that some robots would survive the worst possible outcome. Such a measure had seemed unnecessary, given the assumed victory over the humans and Ildirans.

But that was the only reason any Klikiss robots had survived at all.

Now Azzar reported, “Our weapons are insufficient against that military force. Conclusion: we cannot destroy all of those battleships.”

Exxos agreed with Azzar, which was unusual. “We cannot hide, and we cannot defeat them. Therefore, we must escape—at whatever cost.” These robots were the last of their kind.

As the three suited Ildiran scouts discovered the access hatch into the tunnels, Exxos knew he had to take advantage of the element of surprise. He sent signals to arrange a multipronged response.

Many robots volunteered to attack the suited Ildirans at the hatch, not because those three deaths would materially improve their chances of escape, but because they had always enjoyed killing. Exxos transmitted his approval, then initiated an immediate full evacuation.

When the suited Ildirans opened the hatch, the attacking robots swarmed forward, transmitting every detail and every sensation. Synthetic claws ripped open the protective suits, smashed the Ildiran helmets, dismembered the freezing and jittering bodies.

As he expected, the human military and the Ildiran Solar Navy reeled in shock, taken aback by the ferocity of the robots. Two Remora scouts flew overhead, diving low to target the blood-spattered robots that milled around the entry hatch. Though the volunteer robots retreated as efficiently as possible, Exxos had made calculations and decided to sacrifice them, if necessary.

The Remora jazer blasts melted the hatch, destroyed four black robots.

Exxos seized the chance and opened fire from within the base. Catapults launched projectile cylinders of solid ice at five hundred kilometers per second. At that velocity, the kinetic energy from impact was like a small nuclear explosion, and both Remoras were vaporized as they passed overhead.

The pilot of the Ildiran scout cutter struggled to lift off from the icy surface after the three explorers were killed, but Exxos triggered the first wave of trench-opening explosions. The blasts were designed to free the evacuation ships from beneath the frozen crust, but they also served another purpose when the ice collapsed beneath the Ildiran cutter, which rolled down into the chasm, crushed.

“The larger battleships are now alerted to the threat,” Azzar said.

“Commence full bombardment with as many projectiles as we can launch,” Exxos ordered. “Meanwhile, load our evacuation ships with all possible speed.”

Each of the thousand surviving black robots had an assigned role. A small group worked the base’s weapons controls, while the remaining robots marched aboard the six enormous underground vessels. Programmed pilots prepared the engines for takeoff and escape as soon as the obstructing ice sheet was removed.

The magnetic cannons fired cylinder after cylinder, damaging the nearest warliner. The shields of the human flagship deflected most of the ice projectiles, but some penetrated and damaged the hull. Atmosphere vented out into space. Other ships patrolling the outer Dhula moons raced in, preparing their weapons.

Both Ildirans and humans began to bombard the crust above the base, and the explosions unwittingly helped Exxos’s plans. Detonations shook the underground base, and fissures appeared in the ceiling as the thousand robots continued to flood aboard the six ships. Part of the frozen ceiling had already collapsed, but did not damage their sturdy vessels.

Exxos entered the primary ship and went directly to the piloting deck. By now all robots should have been aboard, and he could wait for no stragglers. He remotely sealed all hatches and fired his engines, clearing the way for liftoff. The blast of heat melted more ice shards.

In the sensor view, he watched as three black robots were caught in the backwash of his roaring engines. Each loss was significant. Of the million or more Klikiss robots that had fought at the height of the Elemental War, only this handful remained. Though it might take centuries to create more Klikiss robots, Exxos could find a way—but long-term plans did not concern him now. They were relevant only if he and his robots escaped.

When all six escape vessels were ready to rise, Exxos triggered the rest of the trench detonations. Lines of explosions vaporized the ice sheet overhead and shot geysers of vapor and debris into the sky, which served as a momentary smoke screen. He felt the rumble of his ship as the levitation engines activated.

The loaded robot vessels rose away from the moon, firing weapons indiscriminately as the human and Ildiran warships closed in. Unfortunately, the high-velocity ice projectiles had not caused enough damage.

He anchored his armored body against full acceleration. Leaving the frozen moon behind and escaping the rubble of their base, the robot ships fled into space.