The Tau Ceti Agenda

'Ugghh! HoundDog, let's show these Seppy bastards who's boss,' Skinny yelled at the top of her voice. She yanked the stick as far left as it would go for a split second and pulled the throttle back a bit. Then she kicked her right lower pedal and slammed the HOTAS back to the right side. The mecha made an even tighter left bank and slowed slightly as it bled off energy. Then it rolled over in a split-S into a tight right turn as the enemy Stingers overshot them. The maneuver put more than eleven times the force of gravity on her, due to the extreme acceleration, but at the same time, it put her staring up the tailpipes of the three enemy planes.

'Guns, guns, guns!' Skinny shouted. Tracers tracked across space into the rear of the enemy fighter formation, hitting home on the rearward Stinger. She held the trigger a second longer, and the mecha exploded.

The fighter on the right wing of the exploding fireball pitched forward and began transfiguring. It was flying backward and sideways in bot mode, going to guns at Skinny. She slammed the left top pedal and killed the throttle, spinning her fighter-mode mecha into a rapid, clockwise yaw. The maneuver changed her flight vector just enough so that the enemy cannon fire missed her. Barely.

'I've got 'im, Skinny!' HoundDog's voice resounded in her helmet. Skinny could see her wingman barrel-rolling over her and kicking his burners, pulling into firing position on the enemy bot. 'Guns, guns, guns!'

The bot-mode mecha's left arm exploded free from the torso as HoundDog's tracers tracked across its flight path. The pilot punched out just in time as the mecha exploded. Skinny and HoundDog were moving too fast to do anything but plow right through it and hope that their SIFs and armor plating held. Debris pinged and rattled against their mecha, but they zoomed through the fireball to the other side, taking up the tail of the third enemy fighter. A blue-green DEG blast off of the nine o'clock of the enemy mecha ripped through it, blasting it to pieces, too.

'Splash one for me,' First Lietenant Dana 'Popstar' Miller confirmed her kill over the net.

'Good shooting, Popstar. Let's keep pushing downward, Saviors.' Skinny pitched back over and continued her acceleration to the deck.

Chapter 10

October 31, 2388 AD

Sol System

Orlando, Florida

Saturday, 6:05 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

'Goddamned if that ain't a sight I'd never thought I'd see in my lifetime,' Jawbone commented on her aerial view of the large mechanized spider-thing that had only moments before burst through the line at the entrance gate of Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Dinosaurs, fairies, aliens, scarecrows, wolfmen, and an array of fantasy characters scattered about the spider-thing, attacking it if they could, but mostly running from it.

'Stay frosty, marines, and keep Main Street clean,' Heehaw reminded the marines over the net. 'Guns, guns, guns.' He went to his DEG to burn down a velociraptor that was trying to crawl atop the big, black, mechanical arachnid.

The spider-thing, also known as Bravo India Lima Seven One One Six, or BIL for short, had a body that consisted of two sections. A smaller, rounded head section, which carried the sensors and control systems and looked as if it could carry a couple of passengers, had a forward-looking, armored windscreen and two armored side windows. Its head looked more like the modified control turret of a tank than anything else. The rearward section was more boxy in shape and had no windows. It was also armored to the maximum and looked like a garbage-heap hauler on military steroids. There were mechanisms that ran beneath the spider's rear compartment that suggested that it could dump that compartment over like a dump truck. There was also an armored door on the rear of it that looked as if it could lower like a ramp or open as an iris.

BIL had once been a lost AI garbage hauler in the reclamation facility of Mons City on Mars. Then Senator Moore and his family had stumbled across him and asked him for help in escaping the attack on the city during the Exodus. BIL had proven so useful that day and Deanna had liked him so much that Moore had bought the vehicle. He had it cleaned from top to bottom, and then upgraded and retrofitted it with armor, structural integrity field generators, hoverfield generators, sensors, and a plush interior environment system that rivaled only a space tourist cruise liner's quarters.

In essence, Alexander had tricked BIL out as only a good ol' boy from Jackson, Mississippi, could. Since Moore had been elected president, it had been a common sight to see the First Family cruising in BIL instead of a more conventional presidential limousine—a sight that had caused an enormous number of White House–oriented redneck jokes and a boost in the restoration and tricking out of old, beat- up utility AI vehicles. BIL had even been the guest of the popular vehicle-enthusiast show Rides of the Stars.

BIL! We need to get out of here now! Moore thought to his personal transport.

Yes, Mr. President, I am indeed on my way. Although, my progress is being impeded a bit at the moment, BIL responded. Moore could see him raised up on several of his back legs and swatting at velociraptors as they attacked him. BIL was so armored that the AI bots of the theme park were little more than heavy flies to him. They could barely even be considered pests.

Well, quit worrying about those damned things and just bull rush through them. Go back to hover. The marines can deal with the bots.

Yes, sir.

The mechanical spider retracted its legs and levitated on the Meissner hoverfield. BIL accelerated forward, not bothering to dart around the AIs. His overarmored, bulbous head crushed through any of the smaller bots that got in his way. The marine's mecha also bounced around him, giving him cover. Several times flying dinosaurs made kamikaze attempts at BIL but with little effect. They were either burned down by the FM-12s, or BIL extended an appendage and swatted at them.

The gigantosaurus lumbered down the end of Main Street near the castle between the path to BIL and the path to Storytime with Belle, where the First Family were holed up. The gigantic, reptilian beast flung its tail rapidly into the side of BIL and snapped at him with its jaws. The impact of the dino's tail into BIL pushed him over sideways and disoriented the hoverfield generators. Several marine bot-mode mecha dropped in on top of the AI dinosaur, chewing away at it with guns and mechanical hands.

The apatosauruses and the T-rex joined the action and pushed several of the Magic Kingdom architectural sights around the presidential limousine. BIL extended all eight of his legs and skittered up the back of one of the apatosauruses, just as the tyrannosaurus tried to bite at him. With spiderlike agility, BIL sprang out of the way, causing the giant carnivore to bite into the Apatosaurus's back. BIL pierced through the head of the T-rex with two of his rear legs. The laser systems driving the holographic eyes of the robot malfunctioned and erupted with blue