Hurray.
Bresac waved towards the door. “Dismissed, crewman.”
Relieved at the chance to escape, Dalar saluted and turned for the door. He was almost there when his inferior superior called at his back.
“And Jian? Don't just scan the scientists before loading them onto the shuttle . . . cut them if you have to, make sure they bleed red and test the blood. Wouldn't want to accidentally bring any abominations aboard with us.”
He shuddered slightly at the idea of companion robots so convincing they could pass as humans, not just in appearance but in mannerisms and AI. It was galling to think of accidentally letting some aboard his ship, never knowing if one would suddenly lunge out of the group of timid scientists and attack him with superhuman android strength.
Granted, HAE insisted their companions placed the welfare of humans above all other considerations, and not only wouldn't attack people, but couldn't. Even so . . . what insanity made those eggheads actually think that robots that could pass as real people was a good idea?
They really had brought this war with the Movement on themselves.
Although the full might of humanity against a single corporation, even a mega-corporation, was going to be pathetically one-sided. He went to gather his strike team and get them ready for the assault, hoping his years as a ship's officer qualified him for leading ground troops in a firefight.
* * * * *
The HAE production facility was located on a terraformed but sparsely populated colony world out in the middle of nowhere, almost as if they were trying to keep their activities hidden from the Movement.
It had been built in a temperate region, but one that was an arid wasteland; the facility's buildings gleamed like a jewel in the midst of sparse grass and shrub, surrounded by composite tarmac for shuttle traffic. Any amenities in the facility were interior; Dalar didn't see signs of swimming pools or recreation areas outside as the large shuttle carrying his team, and which would hold the captured scientists, descended with the rest of the assault force.
The facility was a big place, which he wasn't pleased to see . . . dozens of buildings, many of them large. Warehouses or factories or who knew what. This place had been created to churn out HAE's vaunted prototype adult companions, and he could imagine these buildings stacked with boxes full of the unnatural abominations.
He held back a shudder and turned to the Vindicator's two security officers, Garridy and Halser, and the ship's complement of three combat androids. Those were new, replacements for the ones they'd lost during the fight against the Last Stand, after sending them board the vessel via mini rift where they were presumably destroyed.
“We'll set up in the first building our forces take,” he told his strike team. “They'll funnel any humans they find to us there, we'll screen them to confirm they really are human, then we'll hold them safely until it's time to ship them up to the Vindicator.”
“Babysitting duty,” Halser said, scowling.
Garridy snorted. “You'd rather join the combat androids running face first into whatever defenses this place has?”
The other security officer held up his hands, smirking. “Hey, who said I'm complaining? I didn't join the Fleet to get shot at with cauterizers.”
On the last leg of the attack shuttles' approach, the Movement ships in orbit opened up on the facility. Dalar got to enjoy the fireworks as laser bursts seared across miles of atmosphere in an eyeblink, raising gale force winds to swirl across the massive dome shield over the cluster of buildings, as its layers flickered wildly and finally failed.
Defensive turrets, shield and power generators, and security checkpoints were vaporized, sending waves of flames across the tarmac and flickering up the sides of the nearest buildings, fanned by the vicious winds stirred by the continued laser barrage as the facility was rendered harmless from orbit.
From what Dalar could see, the place hadn't been particularly well defended to begin with; by the time the troop transports began touching down on the tarmac around the outer buildings, pilots showing surprising delicacy in the face of the turbulent atmosphere, he judged they'd barely be needed because the fight was already all but over.
The assault shuttles split up and made combat zone landings, fast and rough, on the tarmac surrounding the facility's buildings. Troops, mostly combat androids with a few human soldiers directing them, poured down the ships' swiftly dropping ramps and towards the buildings, a few pausing to exchange fire with a handful of security personnel. Mostly panicking men and women who obviously hadn't expected this quiet, out of the way place to be the target of a full scale attack by the Movement.
From what he saw it was a short, one-sided fight.
Dalar led his strike team down the ramp of their shuttle and towards a large building nearby that looked like a warehouse. A squad from another shuttle had already blasted through the entrances and was clearing the structure.
He headed for one of those entrances, highlighting the building on his HUD's map and setting his communicator to transmit to the combat androids' coordinator. “Setting up shop there. Send the human staff my way for processing.”
He received a curt acknowledgment, followed by, “Not often they send a senior officer to do a grunt's job. Oh wait, sorry, I forgot for a second there.”
Dalar scowled into the distance but didn't reply to the taunt, waving his team's combat androids through the entrance in case there were still pockets of resistance inside that needed to be flushed out.
There weren't. After following a narrow hallway past a few offices, his team reached a sizable entry room leading to a
