Author: Dan Upton
Commander Davis surveyed his base from on top of its protecting ridge before returning. The building facilities were all centered inside the base, fully protected by Defender missile towers and Sentinel heavy laser towers. PeeWees milled around, antsy for action; Fidos stood in even rows; Flash tanks maneuvered to find a place to park; parked Brawlers littered the ground of the base. As one more Brawler lifted from the air construction pad, he radioed in.
"Aircraft Construction Plant, switch to Phoenixes."
"Commander, there are still a dozen Brawlers queued."
"Well, cancel them! We're going to need some heavier attack power than just what ol' Bertha's gonna rain down on them."
"Acknowledged, sir. Brawler production cancelled; Phoenix production started."
Davis walked down the ridge to the edge of his base. The grass was slick, and the soil was just damp enough that he sunk in with each step. He turned to look at the two dozen Fleas following him; they seemed to have no trouble walking through the poor terrain.
The red-haired researcher emerged from a large black crate. Davis scanned the outside of the crate; most of the men he remembered being assigned to control the Fleas were wandering around outside, joking and smoking. The researcher waved her arms to get Davis's attention. "Commander!"
"I'm listening." Davis hated to come off as cold and uncaring, but right now, he was. The Bertha had been active for plenty of time, and the Peepers should have long crossed the base so the cannon could be targeted, but there were no tell-tale explosions marking damage to the Core base.
"So, how'd your test run go?"
Now there was something to be happy about. "Excellent, actually. A Pillager snuck up on us while we constructed the Bertha cannon, but the Fleas surrounded and destroyed the Pillager with no damage."
"Great!" Davis hadn't remembered her being quite so bouncy. "My last project failed, so I hoped this one would work out right."
Davis's attention drifted as he saw a Phoenix land. "Well, congradulations on this one. Be sure to bring any other designs here." He turned away to count how many Phoenix's had been built.
"Are you dismissing me?"
He waved her off without turning. "Sure, whatever. You can go home now."
She opened her mouth, then thought better of it. Instead, she jumped back into her Jeffy and drove quickly out of sight. Davis sighed as he still didn't have any indication of explosions in the Core base. "Radar base! What's the story?"
"We're not sure--the radar reports from east of Althees Ridge went out."
"Core must have put up radar jammers in their base. But that doesn't explain why we're not getting sight reports..."
"The Peepers are still on my map, sir. They're just not trasmitting anything." The voice on the radio paused, then said, "Ditto for Bertha. We see a blip on the map, but no viewing information."
Davis heard a loud explosion, which he figured meant the Bertha had finally been able to draw a bead. "Back on line?"
"Uhh..no, sir. In fact, the Bertha just disappeared." As if to affirm their assumptions, the end up the Bertha's cannon fell down and bounced off Davis's commander suit, streaming flames and smoke.
Davis swore. "Get an Eagle in the air with two Brawlers and scope that location!"
No answer.
Davis waited. Still none.
"Is anyone paying attention?"
Davis heard the roar of another explosion, this one much closer to home. Parts from several Defenders splashed up over the ridge. Davis ran to the top of the ridge to see what was going on. When he reached the top, he stared down at a Core assault force. Pillagers were destroying missile towers, which were already outnumbered, as Diplomats and Goliaths attacked from the front. Davis spun, and noticed several towers weren't firing. The ones protecting his construction facilties were out of range, but several on the ridge should be shooting.
He scanned the attack force again as he let out a blast from his D-Gun. In the midst of the Core forces were two Deleters and three Spectres. "No wonder we couldn't see them! All Arm forces, respond to defend your base! Jammers take top priority, so we can get towers back into commision." As he paused, several Phoenix bombers rained destruction on the Deleters, as Spectres went down from Brawler and PeeWee fire.
"Radar online!" came the call across the radio. Missile towers spurred back to life, raining missiles on those who came close enough. Davis's defenses were destroying some enemies, but more and more rockets rained down as extra Diplomats pulled into position. Davis looked up to see A.K.'s entering the fray as well. He released another D-Gun blast, figuring it was hopeless. He would at least destroy as much as he could and hopefully slow down the Core advance enough that the researchers could get away.
And then, the Fleas came over the hill. There were the two dozen he already knew about, but then dozens more followed as they crawled down the hill in a ragged mass. Goliaths picked a few off by the sheer power of their cannons, but none made direct hits. As Goliaths and Diplomats fired at the Fleas wading through Core forces, they destroyed more of their own than the Fleas.
Davis fired another blast with his D-Gun, clearing a path for the Fleas. A.K. laser fire flew at them, but the first several volleys passed over the low-to-the-ground bots. By the time the A.K.'s realized they were firing too high, all that remained off the Core attack force was a half-dozen surrounded A.K.'s and smouldering remains of tanks and rocket launchers. The mass of Fleas fired their own laser cannons as one group, destroying each A.K. in turn.
Another battle won thanks to the Fleas, Davis thought. "KBot plant! Did that woman leave Flea plans with you?"
"Yes she did, sir."
"Good. Divert all non-required resources to the KBot lab and build nothing but Fleas. Come sundown tomorrow, we attack the Core base. For now, construction craft, reclaim all that metal. We've got plenty of storage space, and what we can't store, we'll not leave for Core either. Construction bots, get to rebuilding our defensive towers."
Who would have imagined it? Davis thought. Little bots like those, carrying the battle twice in one day. He smiled and realized he'd better go find that researcher.