“Damn AI pathfinding!” Will took over the steering and tried to move forward in an effort to dislodge the vehicle, but the tanker wouldn’t move.
“Chuck, we’re going to need you to ram us,” Rhea said. “We’re stuck.”
“On it,” Chuck sent. His tanker was behind theirs, while Renaldo had the rear.
Three drones appeared outside on the echolocation band, coming in from the direction of the windshield, and the left and right windows. Thuds on the roof told her that more combat robots had dropped down onto them. Apparently the enemy was using echolocation, too.
Rhea fired through the gap in the passenger side window, but the drone swerved left and right randomly, making it very difficult to target. She was forced to duck beneath the window entirely and crouched into the small alcove at the base of her seat to avoid being shot.
Horatio slid forward, out of its line of sight as well; the robot aimed a rifle barrel through a borehole in the windshield and fired. “Got one.”
Will had the same problem as Rhea and was unable to eliminate the randomly swerving drone on his side. He was forced to close the shielded driver-side window entirely, lest he be struck, and also had to crouch into the alcove beneath the steering wheel thanks to all the boreholes the plasma attacks had drilled into that pane and its protective sheet.
A robotic forearm shoved through the gap in Rhea’s window and reached toward where she hid beneath.
No, that arm wasn’t reaching—it was aiming twin muzzles at her head.
Rhea instinctively shoved that forearm toward her seat; the muzzles fired and ripped right through the cushion.
And then the whole vehicle jerked forward with such force that Rhea slammed into the glove compartment, and the robotic arm was wrenched outside. The super-gimbals wouldn’t help all that much when something as big as another semi rammed them.
A glance at the feed from Chuck’s vehicle told her that all their wheels were back on the ground.
“We’ve been knocked free!” Rhea announced. “Chuck, get out of our way!”
“Already backing up!” Chuck replied.
Will sat up and took control of the wheel; he turned it right, either to avoid plowing into Chuck, or getting snagged on the same concrete block. And then he pressed down on the accelerator. Hard.
Once again Rhea was shoved forward. She glanced at her overhead map: the red dots of the three remaining robots that were attached to the cabin roof moved forward as the enemy robots, apparently unready for the change in momentum, tumbled off.
She pulled herself into her seat and began firing as several drones pursued them. She relied on the semi’s echolocation to highlight the targets in the dark.
In seconds the cabin leveled out as the trailer returned to the aisle they had passed through before. Though he was driving in a straight line, Will had to keep adjusting the wheel to prevent the back end from fishtailing too far to the left or right.
Horatio aimed his built-in rifle barrel at different perforations in the windshield to target different enemy drones. Meanwhile, Rhea continued to fire past the triangular opening in the passenger window. She timed her attacks to follow Horatio’s and ducked after each shot. A police drone had swung into her line of fire, and though it didn’t swerve to the left and right like the previous attackers, she was having difficulty putting it down, thanks to its large size. At least it kept most of the other drones at bay.
The air outside began to brighten as the semis retreated from the all-encompassing debris cloud.
When that cloud had cleared enough for Rhea to begin seeing the surrounding street and buildings once more, Will slammed on the brakes and switched to the forward gear. He immediately turned onto a side street.
“Tankers, with me!” Will transmitted.
Rhea glanced at the overhead map and confirmed that Chuck and Renaldo were following. Well, their AIs were, anyway—she doubted the pair had taken the wheel like Will.
While the protective metal sheet that covered the windshield was peeled back slightly on the driver’s side, and the rest riddled with boreholes, there weren’t really enough gaps in it for Will to see properly; the fact that he kept his driver side window completely closed indicated to Rhea that he was driving the semi from a third-person perspective, using Gizmo to guide him. He probably used his overhead map to a degree as well, which would be updating in real-time courtesy of the active sensors on the tankers.
A glance at that overhead map told her there were no technicals left, nor combat drones. They’d all been shot down. Only a couple of scouting drones remained: like Gizmo, they’d kept their distance.
The enemy drones came on with renewed fervency; they split their attacks between the passenger area and the hood. Rhea and Horatio struggled to keep the enemy back and found themselves on the defensive more often than not. Once Will had put the tanker back on course to the garage, even he had to relinquish control of the vehicle to duck behind the driver-side alcove—the attacks were simply becoming too much.
Rhea crouched there, next to Horatio, in front of her seat; beside her, enemy bolts tore into the cushions in a ceaseless barrage, keeping her pinned. The semi’s hood was no doubt facing a similar assault, and she wondered how much more of it the engine block could take. She glanced at the overhead map. The three tankers still had another kilometer to the garage.
“Give the order to crash the tankers into the closest building!” Will said. “It’s the only way!”
“We’re only a kilometer from our target!” Rhea said. “We’ll make it!”
“The engine status is red,” Will said. “A few more hits, and it’s gone.”
He shared the engine damage report screen, and she viewed it on her HUD. He was right.
She swallowed.
I can’t believe we have to give up now, when we’re so close!
She was about
