Space Battleship Agamemnon

by Calculonius

In another universe, a genius inventor born in future Japan would create the Space Battleship Yamato. In this universe, he was born in 1910 Britain. In 1927, HMS Agamemnon was sent to his family's scrapyard. He kept it and tinkered with it for fun for 60 years, resulting in the Space Battleship Agamemnon. This is the story of the Space Battleship Agamemnon and its crew.

13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

With a roaring sound that suddenly went silent, six rocket-planes flew above three ferry-boats, then suddenly disappeared.

The planes were replaced moments later by 6 rectangular parachutes, drifting down towards the ferries, which were themselves moments away from reaching the shore by the city of Brockton Bay.

Each Duplicate of Abe, parachuting down from the planes they'd dismissed, tried to outdo the others in the panache and skill displayed by his landing.

The first to land just went for a simple standing landing in some open space between two vehicles.

He flared his over-sized 'chute at the right moment, and pulled it off like a pro.

The second did the same, except he landed on the engine deck of the tank he would soon be driving.

The third did similarly, but landed on top of the turret of his tank.

At that point, the remaining three finally complied with Boz's frantic appeals to cut it out - he knew Abe and was sure they'd start getting hurt in attempts to pull off more and more extreme stunts.

They didn't have time to go back and get them healed or replaced.

The fourth Abe had been aiming at the open commander's hatch on top of the tank turret, but altered slightly to just land standing on top of the turret, rather than going in through the open hatch.

The fifth and sixth both landed on the largest open flat surface nearby - the top of the 10-wheeler truck - and then each made a show of moving slowly and carefully, and greatly exaggerating how careful they were being to stay safe.

Bas-Oon waved his thanks to them, and turned back to Ron-1.

"Anyway, as I was saying, " Ron-1 gestured at a vehicle, "these I understand: armored transport with an even bigger gun than the combat robots."

"Well, technically the LAV-25 is a recon vehicle..." Bas-Oon began, but got cut off.

"Yah yah yah, I know what the Marines like to use them for. But whatever they call it, it will serve present purposes nicely. It has a big 25mm autocannon and 2 machine-guns, with 3 crew, and room for 6 passengers in back, with enough armor to protect them all from rifles, pistols and shrapnel."

"Actually Grandpa improved the armor and replaced the pintle-mounted machinegun on top with a small and fast cupola-turret mounting a laser and a particle beam for shooting down missiles, just like on the tanks..."

"Even better," Ron-1 smiled, "The LAV's are great - we can fight our way in and out, rescue the captives and have some armor between them and any remaining unfriendlies. And I understand bringing some tanks for handling special cases through heavy firepower and armor. But I have to come back to the question: why the Tiger I? OK, you've said your grandpa liked it. But many tanks have been developed since then which are more effective."

Bas-Oon grinned, "Grandpa was really fond of the Tiger I. He analyzed captured specimens during WWII and really got to like and respect it. He said it had, for a brief time, what all tanks and battleships try for and very few ever achieve - invincibility. It could advance on the battlefield confident that no ordinary measures could stop it. It could take hit after hit with impunity while striking down its opponents. There were documented stories of some of them driving back for ammo reload, and, while reloading, counting dozens of dents in their armor from hits that failed to penetrate. That's what everybody likes to imagine tanks are like, but very very few ever achieve. And, having achieved it, the Tiger I earned a reputation as an absolute beast. Whole divisions of allied troops avoided mere battalions - a formation 3 sizes smaller, since it goes division, brigade, regiment, battalion - of Tiger I tanks. That reputation, plus its very distinctive appearance, gives it a distinct advantage in breaking an enemy's morale - his will to fight."

"That's fine as far as it goes, but that morale effect and reputation will vanish like snow on a stove when modern weapons start hitting them and tearing them up."

Boz smiled, "We'll see. Modern weapons mostly means missiles, and I already mentioned these can shoot down missiles. The little turret on top of the commander's cupola moves quite quickly on automatic, and it's plugged directly in to the tank's sensors, which, unlike the original, are pretty good. Grandpa took out the big bulky inefficient 1940's radio and replaced it with a small modern one. Then he used the extra space to install additional sensors. These Tiger Tanks - let's call them Tiger G, for Grandpa - have radar, infrared, sonar like a bat, x-ray, and excellent visual sensors - there are little cameras mounted all over the outside of the tank. So, missiles coming in from any direction, in the clear, or in smoke, fog, snow or whatever, will be seen and will be shot by the laser - if the air is clear, since they're even more accurate - or the particle beam if there's smoke fog or whatnot in the air, since it can cut right through those with ease, and is only marginally less accurate than the laser."

"Nice," Ron-1 admitted, "but if they come up with anti-tank artillery, or roadside bombs, or even just super-strong bad guys or something, the 100mm of armor that used to be so impressive on them may not stop those attacks."

"Yah," Boz nodded, "Grandpa was worried about that too. Did you know he was on the project that came up with Chobham Armor - the composite armor used by modern American and British tanks? It uses layers of different materials, some of which include non-explosive reactive armor, to be, in aggregate, far more effective than the same weight of steel armor. He used the same approach to re-armor the Tiger G. But, for the USA and UK governments, with thousands of tanks each, they had to be at least somewhat concerned about cost. Grandpa only had to armor one tank, and cost was not an issue. He wanted to keep the tank's appearance the same, so didn't go with angled armor. But he did go with multi-layer composite armor, thicker than the original but with the same appearance and weight - well, just a little heavier. He wanted these to maintain the myth of being unstoppable, and seemed confident he had achieved that."

"Let's hope so," Ron-1 said, as he climbed up to the tank's hatch and began to enter. "It's time."

All over the 3 ferries, Duplicates started getting into their vehicles.

Most of the Duplicates were dressed in one-piece, flame-retardant, tough canvas jumpsuits with plenty of pockets - simple and practical.

Simon's Duplicates, however, were impeccably dressed in high-quality 3-piece suits, as he usually did. Nobody had bothered trying to argue him into choosing otherwise.

They had judged that Abe was the best driver, so his 10 Duplicates got into the driver seats of the 4 Tiger I - aka Tiger G - tanks, and also the driver positions of the 6 LAV-25's.

They'd figured that Simon was the best shot, so his 10 Duplicates took the gunner position in those same 10 vehicles.

Somehow, he got through the hatches without rumpling his suit.

Captain Boz took the commander's position in the same 10 vehicles.

GP robots, scaled down to 75% of their normal size so they'd fit better in a tank, took the loader's positions in the 4 Tiger G tanks.

Ron took the last crew spot in the Tiger G's - what would formerly have been the radio operator's spot, but now, with much simpler modern radios, plus lots more sensor apparatus, was really a sensor operator's spot.

That left 6 of Ron's 10 Duplicates available.

Boz had known that Ron did not relish the idea of joining the assault squads riding in the backs of the LAV-25's. So he'd asked him what he'd prefer to do.

Ron had joked, "what we really need is an 'all Ron, all the time' tank. But you've already got one Abteilung of Tigers." He grinned, "That's a unit of 4 tanks, if you're so uneducated as to not recognize the term. And 4 being the unit size that the cosmos seems to have decreed for Tiger tanks, I dare not get another one. Too bad you haven't got any King Tigers - I've always been partial to those."

"Well," Boz had smiled, "Abteilung actually just means unit and does not specify a certain size - it was often used to refer to Tiger battalions of 45 tanks each. But that's neither here nor there. I do actually have a King Tiger - aka Tiger II - you can use. Grandpa worked on those too, though as far as tanks go, the Tiger I was his first love and got more modifications and upgrades than his King Tiger did. Still, it should be fun and fully capable."

So they had Replicated a Tiger II and loaded it onto the ferries too.

Five of Ron's Duplicates got into it now, manning all the crew positions.

Ron's last Duplicate got into the passenger seat of the 10-wheeler truck, sharing it with a GP robot and the only Duplicate of Big Tom that wasn't in the back of the LAV-25's forming, with more GP robots, the assault squads.

As the 3 ferries pulled up to a gravelly beach at the edge of Brockton Bay, Ron's voice came into the inner ears of all the members of Wave 2, transmitted clearly by the Communications Console, despite most of them wearing noise-canceling radio headsets covering those ears.

"Hey, this thing has an entertainment center like on the ship but smaller, and some kind of video game console that looks a bit like Pong. And Ooh!"

He paused a moment.

"It has the 105mm L68 gun - I thought it was just an unsubstantiated rumor that the Germans experimented with that gun on this tank."

He sounded like a little boy on Christmas.

The 3 ferries started lowering their ramps onto the gravel.

Bas-Oon chuckled and responded "Grandpa liked the rumor, so he found a way to make it work, and put it in. He also gave it, and the Tiger G, engine upgrades, from the standard 690 horsepower one, to a later model that makes 1200 horsepower. But most of the extra goes into running generators that fill capacitors to run some special systems, like the sensors and lasers."

Lightning crackled on the edge of the beach, well in front of the ferries.

There had been a burned-out pickup truck hulk there, blocking access to the beach, but Abe had just disintegrated it, using the hull-mounted disintegration ray that had replaced the hull-mounted machine-gun.

"And those," Bas-Oon continued, "That's what the disintegrator is for - clearing obstacles - but use them sparingly, since we'll need the capacitors at full when we go into combat."

"Roger that," Abe-1 said, as he drove the lead Tiger G down the ferry ramp and onto the gravel beach.

When he hit dry gravel partway up the beach, he "floored it" briefly in an attempt to "lay rubber", or the version of that which a tank might do.

He was hoping the tracks would spin for a moment, flinging up high 'rooster-tails' of gravel before the tank surged forwards. But while the engine was powerful, it wasn't that powerful. Tanks have a lot of traction.

"Don't even try to do donuts and j-turns," Bas-Oon cautioned. "you'll throw a track and we'll have to leave a vehicle behind. I promise you an opportunity to try all that later, after this mission, you adrenaline-junkie. Sheesh, sky-diving instructors!"

All the Abe Duplicates whooped in response.

This was fittingly punctuated by the second crash of lightning from the disintegration a minute ago.

Ferry 1 and ferry 2 each let out two Tiger tanks, then 2 LAV-25's, while ferry 3 let out the King Tiger, the last two LAV-25's, then the 10-wheeler truck carrying 10 combat robots and 3 GP robots stuffed into anyplace they'd fit.

The steel tracks of the 5 tanks did a great job of crushing and compacting the gravel on the beach, making it safer for the rubber tires of the following vehicles.

The dozen vehicles drove up the beach about 200 feet, then passed through a ruined fence, where the burned-out truck had been, and onto a road.

They were on their way.

On the road, they arranged themselves so two Tiger G tanks were leading, followed by the King Tiger, then 3 LAV's, the 10-wheeled truck, and another Tiger G. After that, came the last 3 LAV's and the last Tiger G.

In that formation, they drove down the road, going first through an area primarily consisting of abandoned warehouses.

Beth's voice spoke, to all of Wave 2, over the Communications Console. "There are several people in the buildings around you, according to the Detect Mind Console. None of them are either dangerous or hostile, according to the other consoles. Dinah says they are probably homeless and either drunk or stoned. We'll keep you informed as you go."

"Roger that." replied Ron-1 in tank #1, then spoke to Bas-Oon commanding the same tank. "These tanks sure are loud. I can see why you dismissed the idea of trying to hide the assault behind rolling smoke-shell barrages from the ship. Sure they wouldn't have been able to see which line of advancing smoke hid an attack and which were just there to confuse them, but they'd sure have heard the difference!"

The microphone on Ron's headset carried his words to Bas-Oon's ears while canceling out other sounds, so Bas-Oon could hear clearly. These headsets had been designed for such purposes, and tank crews everywhere wore something like them.

If not, they'd have had to shout or use other signals to be heard over the noise of the steel tracks going round and round.

Some tank crews had worked out signals, where the commander would do things such as kick the driver's right shoulder for a right turn.

These headsets were much better than that.

Faces began appearing at windows in the buildings along the street, wanting to see what was making such a racket as it went down the street.

The various onlookers peeked, but made sure to stay as safe as they could - in a world with superpowers, loud unusual sounds were usually dangerous.

So the column of vehicles advanced down one street, turned onto another street, headed towards their objective..

The abandoned warehouse district gave way to an abandoned factory district.

The movement of the column was unnaturally coordinated, since every driver was Abe, and all Duplicates of Abe knew everything each-other knew, the moment they knew it.

So dodging potholes and other obstacles was a maneuver so synchronized it looked like ballet, or synchronized swimming..

Conversation was odd as well - the only things that needed to be said were between different people, not between different vehicles. So Ron would talk to Boz, or Simon to Abe etc, but no tank ever had to contact another tank, because the Duplicates in each already knew what each-other knew.

In the King Tiger, crewed entirely by Ron's Duplicates, nothing needed to be spoken at all.

Still, Beth regularly communicated to them from the ship, telling them what the sensors there said.

So it was no surprise at all when they crested a hill and came into sight of a police roadblock across the street up ahead of them.

"Execute Brown Alert." Bas-Oon enjoyed saying that. It was a semi-humorous reference to trying to scare others into losing bowel-control.

All vehicles in the column simultaneously rotated their turrets - which had been aimed left or right to varying degrees - to aim their main guns at the roadblock.

At the same time, and without slowing down at all, tank #1 slipped a little to its left, tank #2 moved a little to its right, and the King Tiger moved up in-between them, forming a solid wall of tanks from one sidewalk to the other as they advanced down the road.

Police usually expect cars to either flee, stop, or slow down to approach non-threateningly and interact with a roadblock.

It was hoped that, by instead preparing to shoot them and crush them under tank treads, they may change their minds about who was in control of this situation.

Ron-5, commanding the King Tiger, hit the play button on a recording he'd prepared, and the loudspeakers on his tank blared the sound of a shotgun pumping a round into the chamber.

It didn't exactly fit the situation, but he'd used it anyway, telling others that that sound was very well-known and the reaction to it was visceral - they'd be afraid without thinking about it.

Immediately after the shotgun sound, Ron's voice came from the loudspeakers.

"Attention police. We have no desire to crush you. We're just passing through, headed to 5th and Mulberry on a mission to rescue our friends being held captive there by the gang known as ABB. We have no plans to bother anybody but them. You need to quickly decide whose side you are on. Hopefully you will stand aside and let us pass. But stay where you are if you are on the gang's side, and we'll get to you very soon. We will not slow down or stop. If you fire, so will we."

The cops at the roadblock went into a huddle behind the 3 squad-cars which formed the roadblock.

Beth's voice spoke in the inner ears of all members of Wave 2.

"They're talking themselves into leaving," she said, "using various excuses such as this being a matter for the Protectorate or PRT - the government organizations made up, respectively, of super-powered people aka 'Capes' and 'non-capes', who are tasked with opposing super-powered crimes."

The police all got into their cars and left.

Beth's voice said, "the deciding factor seems to be the Union Jack flag painted on the sides of all your vehicles - they said that proved you were not the gang called 'The Empire' since they certainly would have had a swastikas, or at least a black cross there. Apparently gang-on-gang fights are their problem, and some were inclined to stay if that were the issue."

"Very brave men," Bas-Oon remarked. "I saw nothing bigger than a shotgun among them - certainly nothing that could stop a heavy tank."

"Very smart men," Ron-1 countered. "They're going to let us go take care of their gang problem for them - at least for one of the gangs here."

"Yup," Bas-Oon agreed. "They made this our fight and we'll show them what a real fight looks like - at least until we get our folks back safe. After that, the crew still want to go home to Mars Colony: now more than ever, after simple tourism turned into a series of fights in this crazy town."

Beth answered "I'll tell them you said that. They'll be glad to hear it - some of them were thinking you may need a reminder. By the way, be advised that two dump-trucks full of fish have pulled up to the beach where you left the ferries you arrived in... the drivers are getting out... they are soldiers in PRT uniforms... now they are getting in chase cars and leaving the vicinity. What could that be about?"

There was a pause, then the Basil Duplicates started laughing. Bas-Oon spoke for them, "Those are lures for Go-Jira! The people we released from our brig saw him loom above our ship as if he was on our side. They didn't know it was only part of a movie projection and they are now taking steps to distract Go-Jira in case he shows up and comes ashore to help us!"

He broke down laughing.

A moment later, Simon-1 observed, "I think you're right, but you know what that means? Divide and conquer: the main reason anyone acts to separate you from your support is that they plan to oppose you. They don't want Go-Jira helping us through whatever it is they are planning to do to us. I'd say we need to be vigilant and ready for the unexpected...but we already are. So... just be ready to be opposed not just by the ABB gang, but by the PRT as well."

Everyone replied, "Roger that."

The column started passing into a commercial area.

"Nobody wants to play with me!" Ron joked, in a mock-whiny voice, as people in sidewalk cafe's fled.

"There-there, It's not just you," Simon pretended to comfort Ron. "There goes the tenth car so far to turn onto our road, see us, then make a u-turn and flee. It's all of us they don't like."

"Heads-up," Beth's voice interrupted, "One pompous glory-hound inbound - the intensely self-centered, armor-wearing, halberd-wielding motorcycle-rider we had in our brig is riding to meet you. He should be visible in a moment about a block in front of you. You kept getting his name wrong, but the version I liked best was Tin Woodsman - he's metal, carries an axe, and has no heart."

Beth had tried talking to the man calling himself Armsmaster, while he was in the brig and had not enjoyed the experience. Everyone chuckled at the memory.

A block in front of them, a speeding motorcycle suddenly entered their road from a side-street, slammed on its brakes, and slid to a halt in a dramatic stop, right by the large plate-glass window forming the front wall of a busy restaurant.

The armored man hopped off his motorcycle, took a dramatic pose in the middle of the street, and held out a single upraised palm to stop the column of approaching tanks.

He yelled "Halt!"

The tanks were loud enough that only those in the first two heard the amplified voice of the one-man roadblock.

The rest of the tanks and LAV's knew what he said anyway, because they had Duplicates in the lead tanks.

But Big Tom, driving the 10-wheeler truck in the middle of the column, didn't have any Duplicates in the tanks.

He asked Beth "what did he say? It sounded like he asked for salt from the restaurant."

She answered, "He said 'Pretty-please may I have a moment of your time, if you can spare it?'"

Big Tom laughed.

The tank column continued exactly as it had before, neither answering nor slowing nor swerving.

Nobody in it wanted to bother talking to the blustering prima-donna who was trying to stop them.

The bearded one-man roadblock yelled again, "Stop in the name of the Protectorate! You've broken 9 laws just with this display alone. You will stand trial for that, and your vehicles will be impounded. Now Halt, or else!"

For Big Tom's benefit, Beth translated that as "Hey, that's a pretty vehicle, can I have it?"

The column continued to advance and ignore him.

The armored man took his halberd from its scabbard on the motorcycle, used a remote-control to send the motorcycle just past the intersection and out of harm's way, and took a menacing pose.

He said "I shall be forced to disable your vehicle if you do not respond."

Beth translated that as "gimme or I'll have a tantrum."

All of Wave 2 heard her and laughed.

The tank column still maintained its speed and direction, with no response to the man.

The armored man with the halberd edged to the side as the nearest tank approached. He was trying to avoid being run over yet stay close enough to get a swing at the tanks steel tracks.

The tank altered course to keep him directly in front of it - right in the middle of its 12-foot width.

The armored man edged away more. The tank altered again the same way.

The distance narrowed rapidly as they kept edging away and countering.

Finally the armored man had to dive for cover to avoid being run-over. The distance he had to dive was far enough that he could not spare the effort to try slashing at the steel tracks of the passing tank.

At the far end of his power-assisted dive for cover, the armored man hit a dumpster by the side of the restaurant. He hit headfirst, and his armored helmet penetrated the old rusty metal of the dilapidated dumpster. His shoulders hit next, tearing the hole bigger, and the rest of him followed into the dumpster before he came to a halt.

The armored man stood up in the pile of rotting food and garbage in the dumpster and shook his fist at the tail end of the armored column just passing by at about 35 miles per hour.

He spotted a hose on the wall by him, gave himself a quick rinse to remove the worst of the filth all over him, then repeated the rinse after finding and removing a full diaper from his left shoulder.

Then he hurried to his motorcycle to give chase.

All the ears in Wave 2 heard Beth's voice say "Pompous glory-hound inbound again. He's riding up the street behind you yelling about pretty flowers, good will, and the smell of roses. Or something like that."

The motorcycle caught up in moments, and its rider wasted no time before flinging a grenade of some kind at the trailing tank.

But the grenade had flown no more than 2 feet before the defensive laser on the small cupola-turret perched high atop the tank, fired and hit it.

The laser detonated the grenade, which exploded into a big ball of rapidly-hardening foam which settled around the man on the pursuing motorcycle, having been too close for him to dodge it.

Beth's voice said, "Dinah says that is Containment Foam - used to restrain even super-strong criminals and pretty much anybody the Protectorate or PRT want to arrest. She says it can hold most anything, possibly even your tanks, and it can definitely hold the glory-hound and his motorcycle. Apparently he won't be going anywhere until his friends bring some foam-solvent."

Indeed, the blob of foam holding the motorcycle and its rider slid to a halt and remained immobile.

But inside the foam, a functioning radio sent a signal ordering a helicopter forward.

The armored column continued onward through the commercial district.

As they were passing through a small district of office-buildings, a helicopter suddenly darted out from behind the tallest building and dropped a bomb towards the vehicles of Wave 2.

Beth had warned them, and tracked it, so they had been expecting it ever since it took off from Brockton Bay Airport and flew towards them, while keeping obstacles between it and them as best it could.

So there was no delay in their response.

The battleship offshore used its telekinesis power to grab both bomb and helicopter and lift them up as rapidly as it could, in an attempt to avoid letting the bomb blast hurt anything other than its perpetrators.

They both flew upwards nearly a thousand feet before the bomb burst and released a huge blob of Containment Foam.

When the main screen in the ship's command center showed that, Ron, at the Telekinesis Console, released the helicopter and blob of Containment Foam, which both started falling.

When Simon pointed out that things on the ground would be damaged when the helicopter hit, Ron grabbed it again. The foam, rapidly congealing around it, stayed with the helicopter.

Ron and Simon were both jokers, so it was no surprise to anyone when, after a brief discussion, the helicopter, in its blob of still-sticky Containment Foam, got stuck to the side of the tall building it had used as cover - the tallest in the city, with a sign reading Medhall.

They hoped that the inconvenience of retrieving their helicopter from such an awkward place would disincline the PRT from trying such a thing again.

And maybe the PRT would also get some push-back from the building occupant whose top-floor office window was now completely blocked by a blob of Containment Foam containing a helicopter. The denizens of top floors usually had money and power, so they hoped that whoever it was could really give the PRT some grief over the inconvenience.

At least thoughts along those lines amused them as they drove.

But they were not yet done with the PRT.

Two blocks later, in another commercial district, the column ran into a roadblock consisting of four PRT armored personnel carriers and almost 50 PRT troopers.

As the armored column that was Wave 2 came into sight of the PRT roadblock, some of the PRT troopers started firing.

Two dozen PRT troopers fired grenade launchers at the approaching armored column.

For Ron-9, sitting at the sensors station in the King Tiger and next to what had looked like a Pong video game console, time seemed to stand still.

On the Pong console, the graphic of a simple ball being endlessly batted between two paddles vanished. It was replaced with an overhead view of the area around the tank, with one big glowing paddle just outside the tank, and, highlighted in flashing red, each of the incoming grenades.

A grenade launcher is a low-velocity weapon, designed to lob a payload to a distant target. It's size is minuscule when compared with a cannon designed to fire the same-size of projectile, since a cannon fires things at high-velocity and needs to be built tough to withstand the enormous pressures that generates.

So the grenades would normally have had a flight time of around two seconds to reach their targets.

To Ron-9, they seemed to be moving slow enough to take 40 seconds before impact.

He reached out and spun one of the trackballs on the console.

In the screen, the big glowing paddle outside the tank, moved in a horizontal circle around the tank.

He spun the next trackball and the glowing paddle moved in a vertical circle around the tank.

The third trackball moved the glowing paddle away from the tank. It stopped about two hundred feet away.

Ron grinned and used the 3 trackballs to move the big glowing paddle just in front of an oncoming grenade.

Then he watched as that grenade hit the paddle, and bounced, now heading back the way it came.

As soon as that happened, time resumed its normal speed.

In other circumstances, Ron would have dismissed the slowing of time as a trick of perception. But in this case, he and his other Duplicates were certain it was real and no simple trick of perception, because none of the other Duplicates had experienced it, and, while Ron-9 was, his thoughts were sped up and sounded like a buzz to the rest.

The Rons noted that for later discussion.

But for now, they were in a battle.

Not much of a battle, but still a battle.

The eleven defensive laser turrets in the column - 5 on tanks, 6 on LAV's - each fired two or three times and had no trouble detonating all the Containment Foam grenades well before they, or their foam, could reach the column.

Those same 11 vehicles all fired smoke shells, set to explode in a box pattern around the PRT force, leaving that force unable to see anything except each-other.

And a full broadside of Confusion shells from the battleship saturated the area inside the smoke barriers.

Every PRT trooper was affected by at least 3 Confusion shells.

Tanks 1 and 2 turned right at an intersection blocked off by concrete barriers, disintegrated those barriers, and led the column around the PRT ambush.

It took the column only a dozen seconds to pass by, so they were well-clear before the disintegration's second lightning blast occurred.

One of the PRT's currently-unmanned armored personnel carriers got lifted into the air by telekinesis from the battleship, where it would be taken so it and its contents could be scanned by the Replication Console. Containment Foam looked useful and Boz and his people wanted to see if they could Replicate it.

The PRT didn't notice - they were busy, in their confusion, trying to arrest each-other.

They sprayed each-other wildly with rubber bullets, Containment Foam, and pepper spray, sometimes in confusion, and sometimes in trying to restrain the confused.

In any case, they were completely occupied by each-other and took no further action against Wave 2.

In the vehicles of wave 2, a discussion took place after Ron had described his experience with what he still called the Pong Console.

Bas-Oon summed it up, "Grandpa said the King Tiger was 3 feet longer than the Tiger I, plus a little wider and taller, and that he used the extra space to fit in some extra tech useful to make it a sort of command-tank. I thought he meant sensors or radios, not super-tech Consoles. This must be the Deflector Console that Grandpa was working on for years. Two parts of that had him stumped for a long time - I thought he never got it figured out but I guess he did. One part that gave him trouble was force-fields. I knew he had that working for some things - like lining the barrels of the ship's artillery so he could get higher velocities without making the guns explode from over-pressure. I didn't know, until our fight with what Dinah is calling The Simurgh - that 11-winged thing in orbit - that Grandpa had a working force-field for the ship. Apparently he got it working for the deflector too, as well as the time-dilation device to expand time enough so a human could react and direct the deflection force-field to where it needed to be. From what Ron said, it should be able to deflect attacks headed at nearby vehicles as well."

"Dibs!" called Ron-9, "That was fun. It sounds weird to say it, but I'm looking forward to the next time we get shot at!"

"You know," Simon added from the ship's command center, "there's a console here that matches your description of the Deflection Console, but this one is clearly only partially-assembled: the front panel is gone, and there are several empty slots for devices, plus some dangling wires."

"Interesting...," Captain Basil responded, "That gives me an idea. Grandpa was always tinkering with things - taking them apart again for upgrades after they'd already been 'finished', and so on. But he was also careful to follow certain procedures, like saving completed plans and making sure the repair robots had those, so they could repair things to those standards. I wonder if I can just ask the repair robots to fix that console and thereby get it working."

"Scan it's current form into the Replicator first," Simon counseled. "That way we can always restore things to the current state if needed, and we may be able to compare what it is now and what the repair robots 'fix' it to, and maybe get an idea of what was being upgraded and how."

"Great idea," said Ron, "even though none of us are genius inventors or anything even close to it, the information will still be useful if we run into a friendly one."

They all laughed.

While the armored column rolled on through town, repair robots got to work on the Deflection Console in the ship's command center.

The column reached the end of the commercial district at the edge of a large open park, and turned right to follow the road around the park.

As it was driving down the street bordering the park, it was attacked.

Four AT-3 Sagger missiles were fired from bushes at the far end of the park, almost 1000 yards away, towards the lead tanks in the column.

The speedy laser turrets shot down all four of the missiles before they'd gotten close enough for the Deflection Console in the King Tiger to activate.

A storm of return fire from the tanks and LAV's sped back - 1.1 pound 25mm shells from the LAV's, 22.9 pound 88mm shells from the Tiger G tanks, and 48 pound 105mm shells from the King Tiger.

This absolutely shredded the missile-launchers, the bushes they'd hidden in, and everything else in that general vicinity.

Loud music suddenly blared from the King Tiger - it was Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries".

Simon chided "Didn't they play that in a similar situation in the movie Apocalypse Now?"

Ron-9 semi-apologized, "Yup. I hated the movie by the way, but that scene was pretty good, and the music seemed appropriate somehow. Plus I wanted to experiment a bit with the entertainment system in here."

They accepted that and moved on.

The opposition got quiet again until Wave 2 passed by the park and entered a run-down residential area.

Then the sniping began.

Two PTRD-41 guns fired from cover at almost the same time.

Ron-9 deflected the shot aimed at the lead LAV, but didn't have time to deflect the other, which hit the drive wheel on the lead Tiger Tank.

But if that hit damaged the drive wheel at all, nobody could tell - it continued working fine.

Return fire took out the two antitank gunners, as well as the sheds they'd hidden in.

Soon thereafter three more PTRD-41s fired at the column.

This time Ron-9 not only deflected one of the 14.5mm shots, he managed to redirect it back to its source.

Another hit the front plate of an LAV-25 and bounced off.

The third hit one of the road-wheels on the King Tiger, leaving it dented but functional.

Again, return fire was immediate, plentiful, and took out the antitank gunners along with everything near them.

As the column passed a side-street, a garage door suddenly fell off, revealing 7 men armed with RPG-7 antitank rocket-launchers.

All of them fired at the 3 lead tanks.

None of them hit - all the rockets were shot down by the speedy little laser turrets.

Return fire shredded that garage.

As the column passed a couple tall apartment buildings, gang goons on top of those buildings tossed over small suitcases full of explosives, in hopes that the makeshift bombs would damage the tanks through their weaker top armor.

But the column had been warned by vigilant helpers back on the battleship, carefully monitoring all the relevant sensors looking for trouble.

So the laser turrets were already pointed up at the right spot in anticipation.

When the bombs became visible, the lasers fired and detonated them right where they were, taking out the bombers and the top floor of the building they'd stood on..

There were no more attempts to drop bombs like that.

Roadside bombs were harder to spot. It could be done, but, as quickly as the column was moving, there wasn't time to be sure.

So the LAV-25's simply shot anything that might be a roadside bomb and which the battleship had not yet scanned.

If it blew up, then it had been a bomb.

The column got closer and closer to its objective.

Occasionally a gang member would shoot at the tires on the LAV's or truck. They rarely lived long enough to take careful aim, and never survived long after firing.

So the column moved on.

Suddenly something black flashed down the length of the column in a staccato fashion, pausing for an instant by each vehicle, and leaving a copy of itself there.

Each copy was in an all-black ninja costume, with a black demon mask, and a black belt and black bandoleer festooned with knives and grenades.

The copy by the 10-wheeler truck threw 2 live grenades into the back of the truck.

Each of the other copies, which Dinah identified as Oni-Lee, took out magnetic bombs and tried to fasten them to the driver's side doors of the armored vehicles.

The tanks and LAV's had no driver-side doors, which seemed to confuse Oni-Lee a bit.

The vehicles were also moving fast, evasively, and in perfect coordination - all were driven by Duplicates of Abe, who knew exactly what the other Duplicates were doing as they did it.

Oni-Lee's copies were afoot, so could not move quickly. He was also focused on attaching magnetic bombs that would not stick to the non-magnetic Tungsten-alloy armor which Issac Fields had used as the outer layer of their composite armor.

So, in seconds, each vehicle had caught up to and run over the Oni-Lee that had attacked the previous tank in line, then all the armored vehicles, in perfect coordination evaded as best they could to put some distance - even if just a few feet - between them and the magnetic bombs laying on the ground, about to explode.

The truck, now at the back of the column, reversed, since it was not driven by a Duplicate of Abe so could not coordinate like that.

Moments later, the bombs and grenades went off.

The layered Kevlar sides of the truck bulged outwards, and developed numerous small holes as shrapnel from the grenades pierced them and escaped.

Those in the cab of the truck escaped damage, due to an armor plate behind them.

The magnetic bombs used against the tanks and LAV's were effective when in contact with a tank's armor, but not so much when laying a few feet away on the ground.

So those vehicles got a little scorched and dented, but were effectively undamaged.

"That was close," observed Abe.

"Yah, that guy could be a real problem," responded Ron.

Beth's voice said "Dinah says he will be back, and with better bombs, since these didn't do the job."

Boz said, "start popping tear-gas grenades regularly. I want the whole column constantly covered in tear-gas. That stopped him last time, and we brought plenty, both in case he showed up again and to help with the possible room-to-room fighting within the building at the objective."

Simon spoke, concern in his voice, "I fear that won't be enough, Grassman."

Boz thought "Uh-oh, this is bad - Simon only calls me his nick-name version of my last name when he is worried."

Simon was still speaking, "... I'm looking at a closeup still-image from the video feed, and here, here, and here," he indicated points on the image, which he had put on the view screen covering the right wall of the command center, "you can see the filter intakes and gasket edges of a classic gas-mask. Apparently Oni-Lee also remembers that tear-gas stopped him last time and added gas-mask features to his grinning demon mask. That being the case, he probably added goggles too, though I can't be sure since the mask obscures his eyes too well."

The discussion was being held via the Communications Console, so that all of Wave 2 and the command center crew could hear it.

Big Tom volunteered, "I could get out and tear his mask off the next time he swings by. I'm in full chemical warfare gear to be ready for the final assault, so the chemicals we plan to use on the objective won't bother me. It'll protect me from tear gas just as well. I'm quick enough I'll bet I could get his mask off."

Dinah spoke, "that's what Oni-Lee specializes in. It's why he has all those knives. He knows when, where, and how fast he can teleport and nobody yet has outguessed him on that, though many have tried. It's why he is still a problem."

Big Tom said, "acknowledged, but until we get a better plan, it is all we've got and therefore what I will do."

"Hold up a sec," Basil said, "you've given me an idea. The reason you're in a full chem-suit is because our nauseating chemical is absorbed through the skin, so a gas mask alone would be inadequate protection at the hotel when we assault it just after bombarding it with chemicals. But Oni-Lee has not encountered that chemical before and...yes, look here," he indicated portions of the image still on display, "you can see some bare skin at the neck, and wrists. So he is vulnerable to the nauseating chemical."

Boz turned to Simon, at the ships weapons controls, "I want a rolling barrage of chemical rounds, with the nauseating chemical, over the column. Cover the whole column, and then keep covering the area ahead of them as they move."

"Roger that." Simon got to work.

"Pop quiz, boys and girls," a cheerful Boz said,"what happens when you are already nauseated and do something rapidly that tends to make people queasy, such as go on a roller-coaster or teleport rapidly from place to place?"

"Ooh, Ooh, pick me!" Ron played along, holding up his hand like an eager student wanting the teacher to call on him.

Boz pointed at Ron, who said "Vomit, barf, yack, hurl, puke, the technicolor yawn, calling for Ralph, lose lunch, spray chunks, yodel groceries, talking on the big porcelain phone, toss a sidewalk pizza..."

"OK, we got it," a chuckling Boz cut him off, "and when he does, then either the gas mask comes off and the tear-gas gets him, or he suffocates. I think we have a plan."

He was interrupted by a shirtless masked man on the main screen stepping in front of the armored column and yelling "I am Lun..."

Lung didn't quite finish saying his name before a brief 10-round burst from a 25mm autocannon shredded him and knocked down what was left of him.

The lead tank in the column adjusted slightly, and ran over what was left of Lung with its left track.

So did the next tank, and the next, and finally the whole column.

When the column reached a point 8 blocks from the objective, it paused for one combat robot - undamaged, like the other robots in the truck by the two grenades that had detonated there - to exit the back of the 10-wheeler truck, and 2 GP robots to join it, from the back of an LAV-25.

The three robots would keep watch and had orders to shoot anyone with a weapon who wasn't part of Wave 2, to make sure the area stayed suppressed.

The plan was to keep dropping off such groups every block until they reached the objective, to keep their foes from setting ambushes or otherwise making the escape trip a bad one.

On the escape trip, they would have real people along - not just Duplicates - and they wanted to keep the enemy suppressed and unable to really challenge their escape.

They'd brought enough robots to leave 3 a block for 8 blocks, and still have a good force left - 2 combat robots and 14 GP robots, plus Big Tom's Duplicates and other Duplicates if needed - for storming the hotel building at the objective.

And the objective would also be easier to storm, since, as the group paused 8 blocks away, a salvo of big shells from the battleship arrived over the objective and burst, releasing the chemicals to exhaust and nauseate everyone there.

The plan had been that those chemicals should have adequately dispersed before Wave 2 got there, but just in case, the vehicles had been "buttoned up" with all their hatches closed, which, given Grandpa's modifications, rendered them impervious to chemical attacks, just like modern tanks.

And Big Tom's chemical warfare suit, also worn just in case, proved, once again, that it is important to be prepared for contingencies, since, now, those just-in-case preparations enabled them to have a response to Oni-Lee which should be effective.

Tom's suit would slow him down a bit, but not as much as the chemicals would have.

When the armored column stopped to let out the first 3 suppression robots, the gang unleashed their secret weapon.

On the front lawn of the old hotel that was the objective, there were twelve beautifully decorated and brightly colored glass sculptures of eastern dragons.

The floodlights that normally lit up the glass statues at night, now all swiveled to point at the tanks in an attempt to blind them.

This didn't work - the tank's sensors were easily able to cope.

Then all twelve glass statues proved to be more than just sculptures.

They moved, swiveling their heads and necks to point at the tanks.

Then they opened their mouths, and each fired the 5-inch - or 127mm - cannon built into its neck.

The two lead tanks had been advancing side-by-side, nearly filling the narrow road from curb to curb.

The King Tiger, coming third, was in the middle of the street, so it's turret could fire forwards between the turrets of the two tanks ahead of it.

The glass dragon cannons split their fire proportionately between what they could see of the targets.

The two Tiger G's in the lead each got shot at by 5 dragons.

The King Tiger only really had it's turret exposed, so it only got shot at twice.

Ron-9 deflected one of those two shots, and re-directed it back to its source, which shattered into millions of pieces under the impact of it's own armor-piercing shell.

The defensive lasers on the 3 lead tanks each fired at, and hit, an incoming shell. But that only softened, and slightly melted the tips of the hard tungsten penetrators in the armor-piercing rounds. High-Explosive Anti-Tank rounds would have detonated early, to no effect, but the slightly melted armor-piercing rounds still hit, just for slightly less effect than they would have.

So one round, slightly-melted, hit the turret of the King Tiger. It left a crater, but failed to penetrate the thick composite armor.

The crater looked like a golfer had hit a golf-ball into a soft clay wall - the projectile sunk into the target material and fused with it, forcing a bit of the target's material out as lips to the new crater.

Five rounds hit each Tiger G, and, on each, it took four of those five to overwhelm the force-field and effectively shut it off.

So, only one round actually hit each Tiger G, and these made non-penetrating craters in their front armor, very similarly to the result with the King Tiger.

Bas-Oon and Bas-Ket, in the two lead tanks, immediately switched their tanks from using capacitor one - now drained dry - from powering their force-fields, to using capacitor two, the smaller backup capacitor.

Simon 1, and 2, and Ron-6, manning the guns in the 3 lead tanks, each aimed and fired the round already loaded in their main guns, destroying a glass dragon each in dramatic sprays of multi-colored glass fragments.

Abe-1 and 2, driving tanks 1 and 2, each fired the disintegrator which had replaced the hull-mounted machineguns. Their target dragons disappeared with the usual spray of dust and crack of lightning.

There was no way Ron-7 could get his disintegrator to fire between the two tanks in front of him.

But Abe-5 and 6, driving the LAV-25's next in line, each drove their LAV's up onto the curbs - one on each side of the street - and jockeyed for position a bit until Simon-5 and 6 could fire the turreted 25mm autocannons on those vehicles.

But the 25mm rounds just bounced off the unnaturally-hard glass of the glass dragons, damaging them not at all.

Beth's calm voice spoke to all of Wave 2, "we zoomed in on one of those dragons and found a label that says 'Brought to you by ToyBox'. Dinah says that is a group of tinkers who sell their work. ToyBox includes someone who specializes in glass, and Tinker-Tech often defies the physical laws we think we know."

Big Tom acknowledged for the group, the rest of whom were too busy at the moment.

The six remaining dragons fired again, three at each Tiger G in front.

One incoming shell got deflected back at it's source by Ron-9 in the King Tiger, who wasn't limited to deflecting shots that were coming at his own tank. That shot hit and destroyed a 7th glass dragon.

Three shots got weakened by defensive lasers again, and each hit a tank for slightly-reduced effect.

The backup capacitors on tanks 1 and 2 were smaller than the main capacitor, and each had been further reduced by powering a shot from that tank's disintegrator. So tank 1's force-field flared out and died after stopping the 3 rounds aimed at it.

Tank 2's force-field stayed up after stopping both rounds aimed at it.

Then, before the tanks had quite finished reloading, the 5 remaining dragons fired again.

One had been knocked slightly off-target by the destruction of its neighbor, and had re-aimed itself at the King Tiger.

Ron-9 had not been expecting that, and had prepared to deflect a shot headed towards tank 1 - the one without a force-field.

So that shot hit the King Tiger's turret, leaving another non-penetrating crater there, almost 3 inches deep, and forming a small crack between the two craters there.

Not for the first time, the Rons wished that Boz's Grandpa had liked the King Tiger as much as he'd liked the Tiger I, and had thus found motivation to fit a force-field generator into the bigger tank like he had with the smaller one.

Ron-9 still managed to destroy an 8th dragon with his deflector, partially protecting tank 1 while doing so.

One of the other 127mm shells used up the remaining energy in tank 2's capacitor, knocking that force-field down.

And the remaining two incoming 127mm shells hit tanks 1 and 2, once each, leaving another 3-inch deep crater in tank 1's front armor and putting a similar crater in tank 2's turret. The craters reached all the way down to the boron-carbide resin aggregate layer in the composite armor.

None of the 3 leading tanks had had their armor penetrated yet, but neither could they take many more of those non-penetrating hits before the cumulative damage would start causing catastrophic failures.

That realization helped motivate them.

The 3 tanks fired, each taking out a glass dragon, and leaving only one of those still active.

It's artificial brain was too simple to recognize the futility, so it fired again when ready, destroying itself via Ron-9's deflecting the shot back at it.

"OK, Bas-Oon sighed into the radio. That was close, but the capacitors will recharge again as we cover the last few blocks, and..."

He was cut off by Beth's strident voice, "Incoming. Oni-Lee sighted!"

As fast as she said it, that man appeared, teleporting into view, then teleporting again right up to the side of tank 1.

Since tank 1 and 2, between them, filled the whole street, Oni-Lee had to teleport to the curb to see past them for his next teleport. He did so, and then teleported right next to tank 3, the King Tiger.

Then vomit spewed out forcefully from all sides of Oni-Lee's mask. His last 4 teleports had been within the nauseate gas, which had begun working on him as he rapidly teleported, which proved to be disorienting enough to, in combination with the nausea, trigger vomiting.

His vomit had probably gotten into his eyes as well as all over his face, given how it sprayed out and how the mask fitted. But that was a moot point as he then pulled the mask 2 inches away from his face, trying to at once get some fresh air while still concealing his identity. But what he succeeded in was letting in the tear-gas that was also present.

Whether it was the tear gas, or the vomit, that prevented him from seeing, either way, he couldn't see, and therefore couldn't teleport.

So he was stumbling towards an alley when a 25mm round from LAV #1 hit him in the head, removing that.

What was left of him fell flat and didn't move, obviously not a duplicate, since Oni-Lee's duplicates turned to ash, and this did not.

But the duplicates left behind by Oni-Lee next to tanks 1 and 2 had not been idle. They followed his usual approach of taking out bombs and using them.

Each had tossed two special bombs at his target tank, before timing out and turning to ash.

Those special bombs hit and detonated, for tremendous effect.

Each special bomb burst in a 6-foot diameter perfect sphere of some special kind of energy which transmuted all nonliving matter which it touched into water.

Large portions of the two leading tanks turned to water and flowed away.

Tank 1 lost it's right-front, and right-rear corners, leaving it looking like a cutaway model of a tank, such as engineers might use for studying tanks.

The tank was almost 22 feet long, and 12 feet wide, so the perfect 6-foot diameter scoops taken out of it did not meet in the middle, though it didn't matter that the middle section of the tank was intact, since its engine and transmission had both been taken out. Without those the tank was an immobile armored box, and this one had large gaping holes in the armor.

Half of the right side of the tank was basically gone, sheared away with perfectly clean edges, as if it had been made of Styrofoam and a hot-wire cutter had gone through it.

Machinery, wires, controls, engine and transmission, all the various layers of composite armor, and everything else but people had been cleanly removed in the areas touched by the bombs effect.

Tank 2 was in the same condition, except that both bombs had hit more centrally, removing the right-hand side of the central section of the tank, including half of its turret.

The remaining half of the turret, now unbalanced and inadequately supported, promptly fell into the exposed fighting compartment of the tank, crushing and dismissing the Duplicates of Ron and Simon.

Bas-Ket, in the affected turret had lost his right sleeve and pant-leg.

A few feet of the tank at the front and back were unaffected. But half the crew compartment was missing, along with its controls, which would have disabled the tank even if the turret had been intact.

So, in practical terms, both tanks were completely knocked out - incapable of doing anything but blocking the tanks behind them from proceeding.

That was unacceptable, so those two Replicated tanks, now useless, were dismissed.

One of the three-quarters scale GP robots acting as loaders in those tanks had been partially turned to water, and also got dismissed. The other joined the assault force.

The remaining Duplicates that were former tank-crew-members had all been unexpectedly subjected to the same nauseating gas and tear gas that had disabled Oni-Lee, and none of them were doing too well. In fact, their difficulties were distracting the other Duplicates - all the Ron Duplicates, for example, were in constant mental contact with Ron-1 and could feel his nausea and irritated eyes - so the Duplicates which had been gassed all got dismissed soon too.

All but Abe's 2 Duplicates - they had a brief mission to perform first.

Looting Oni-Lee's body. Those bombs had great potential, and the original Oni-Lee still had his, plus other unidentified things on his bandoleers.

Having worked as a firefighter, Abe was familiar with how to get around when he couldn't see. Whether his eyes were blinded by smoke, or tears resulting from tear-gas, the same principles he'd learned still applied.

And he'd been tear-gassed before, in the Marines, as part of learning to function in such cases.

So Abe-1 and Abe-2 made their way, slowly and carefully, to Oni-Lee's body. Other Duplicates of Abe could see and help direct them, so it went faster than it could have.

In the meantime, all the combat and GP robots the column which were planned for deployment over the next 7 blocks, got out and deployed now. They would run alongside the column when it started moving again, and 3 would stop every block and stay on guard as planned. This way they used the time they had and avoided the need to stop again until they reached the objective.

Soon enough, the two Duplicates of Abe reached the body of Oni-Lee laying near the King Tiger

When they arrived, Abe-1 propped Oni-Lee's torso into a sitting position while Abe-2 undid the buckles and lifted off the corpse's whole bandoleer.

They didn't want to try anything with individual bombs when they couldn't really see.

While they had been busy, the column had started moving again, just enough to put the truck close to them.

Abe-1 then took the bandoleer, complete with the bombs and knives it held, to the ten-wheeler and handed them to Big Tom, who was unaffected by the gas because of his chemical-warfare suit. Tom would make sure the bandoleer's contents got scanned by the Replicator.

Meanwhile, Abe-2 checked the corpse for anything else useful, though he found nothing.

Then both Duplicates got dismissed.

The column then resumed the advance, with the trailing Tiger G crushing what remained of Oni-Lee under one of its tracks as it went.

A block passed, with nothing happening other than 3 robots stopping and taking up station as planned.

In the next block, occasional sniping resumed, but not much. And all those who shot at the column got a storm of return fire.

That both reduced the numbers of active snipers, and discouraged others from trying it.

After another block, another broadside of airburst chemical rounds exploded over the target hotel, to refresh the chemicals already there and make as sure as they could to affect any defenders.

For the last 5 blocks, there was only occasional sniping at the column, and less and less of that as they went.

Soon enough, they were at the objective.

The column stopped before the front of the hotel, which faced west, while the 2 combat robots assigned to the assault force, each proceeded partway around the building. One would guard the east and north sides, standing near the corner where those two sides met. The other would guard the east and south sides similarly.

The column was to the west side, having had to take an indirect route in order to use a bridge that could support the heavy tanks.

As it came up to the building, the column spread out over an arc to cover all possible threats.

They wanted to prevent any foes from escaping - possibly taking captives with them - and also be ready to address any threats that arose.

The moment the column came to a halt, fourteen GP robots and all ten Duplicates of Big Tom got out and rushed the building . The 10th Big Tom Duplicate left the newly captured bandoleer of bombs in the care of Ron-10, who stayed in the cab of the truck to guard it.

That was the moment the PRT and Protectorate had been waiting for - figuring the battleship and its forces would be maximally distracted then - and they used the opportunity to launch the attack they had prepared on the battleship.