Chapter 13: Tension

The tension in the colony was palpable. Everyone was on edge. Commander Ramirez had formed two teams. One would engage the approaching enemy at the opening to their valley. The other would protect the nuclear reactor. The colony's drones had worked to obtain images for 12 hours. Those images showed a single column of 9 Groundfighter robots headed their way. Every inch within a radius of 50 km (31 miles) had been scoured. These were the only robots found. On top of that there had been a further investigation out to 500 km (310 miles) and nothing appeared to be in that space other than the 9 confirmed robots.

"What do your think of our chances for survival," Jenny asked Daria.

Daria was rather irritated at the question. Yes, Jenny was a geologist and not a military tactician. However, their survival was the Commander's responsibility not hers. "I give us at least a 70% chance of defeating the enemy."

"So, a 30% chance of dying?" Jenny emphasized the last word.

"Well, look at it this way. We aren't going to be the 'slave girls of Mars.' We are both well past our peak on looks. At least we still have husbands who will sleep with us." Daria paused a moment for emphasis, "Of course it also means we sleep with them."

The sound Jenny made was maybe best characterized as a nervous giggle. Daria could tell that this situation was really getting to her. Still, it didn't seem right to Daria to give her false reassurance.

13.1

Daria and Tom had both fallen asleep in the chairs in their quarters. They hoped to have some time together before the start of hostilities, but they were also both dead tired. Thus, sleep had come more quickly than conversation. Love making never had a chance.

Daria's phone started ringing and it took her a moment to awaken enough to both realize that it was ringing, much less to answer it. "Daria here," she said.

"Daria, it is Erwin Rommel." The German accent clearly gave his identity away to her long before he even said his name. "We need to talk. I think I have a way of weaponizing your welding robots."

"Really?" was all Daria could reply.

"Yes, but I will need you to program the strategy into them and then act as controller when they attack the enemy."

Wearily Daria stated, "There isn't much time Erwin. We can meet and do what you want done, but I am concerned that we will run out of time. Also, this is going to cost you a large Martian tea with triple caffeine. This will be an intense effort if we are to program and deploy anything else for this battle."

"I know, Daria. But I wouldn't ask this if I didn't think it could give us an extra margin for victory."

"I will be there in just a few minutes. Do you want to meet in the Library?"

"That is as good a place as any. See you in 15 minutes."

"Will do. Don't forget my tea! Bye." Daria looked over at Tom. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. He did not awake. Then she headed out the door.

13.2

It was several hours later when Daria and Erwin stood in the garage and watched as the welding robots were loaded onto the rovers.

"I hope this idea works, Erwin. If it does, then you should go down in history along with your namesake."

Chuckling, he replied, "Thank you. But, I am merely a tactician. You and the engineers were the ones who will make this truly work. That is if it works. If it doesn't then it was just another dumb idea at best."

Daria looked at Erwin and said in her total deadpan, "You came up with this idea and you should get the credit you deserve. If it doesn't work, then I do not think we will have lost much, except possibly a good portion of our welding robots. But, we are also now at the point we can fabricate them ourselves. Now I need to go to my station."

Erwin watched as Daria turned and headed for the airlock back into the habitat. As she walked away he shouted, "Good hunting!"

13.3

Daria took up her station in the Library and looked at her screen. She could see the positions of the main two units as they moved out into the Martian desert. What made her nervous was that Tom was part of the logistical support for the fighters. Commander Ramirez had chosen her former military people to actually engage the robots. Several had done this before on Earth. Tom was one of the rides to the fight and he was carrying backup materials, her robots, and ammunition for them as well. The engagement group – Alpha Team – had two rovers transporting them and carrying arms and ammunition. The team guarding the reactor – Beta Team - had one rover supporting them. At the end of the fight the rovers would bring the teams back to the colony. Hopefully they would be coming to celebrate a victory.

Daria's head was still spinning from all of the information she had to process over the past 36 hours. Being the librarian, she had to get information on robot design, weapons used for and against the Groundfighter robots. And she had to sort and store information coming in from drones as well as the analyses of the robots in the laboratory, which was just part of the old habitat. On top of all of this she had spent so much time programming the welding robots with Erwin.

Of course, programming robots was only one aspect of preparing for this fight. Daria thought that one of the creepily fascinating jobs was to work with the munition designers to come up with something which would work. They had no guns or gunpowder on Mars. These munitions had to use materials at hand. She thought, 'What did these guys major in when they were in college? No university offers a degree in munitions design!'

In the end, two strategies were used to design the munitions. Solid rocket fuel was chosen as propellant, since it carries its own oxidizer. High explosive was also chosen, because it detonates and is not just a rapid burn. Detonation is the transformation from one chemical to another rapidly and with tremendous power. The original colonists had brought high explosive to use if they needed to blast rock. Several small rockets with solid fuel were in the colony's inventory to investigate upper level atmospheric conditions or even send very small payloads into orbit. The primary munition the designers created was a 12.5 mm (1/2 inch) shell fired from a gun. It had a tungsten tip for penetration and a steel body. It was fused to explode just after penetration.

Now their fighters would use this to bring down the robots. The tactic would be to first take out the main sensors of the machine. Then there would be a shot to the body to take out the computing power. As that point the electronics and sensing would be all shredded. If all went well, the units could be destroyed in 2 or maybe 3 shots each. The welding robots would first be used to try and cripple the Groundfighters and then to cut them up. That assumed everything went as planned, which it never does.

As a backup plan each of the platoon leaders had insisted on designing and fabricating their own mines.