Nanotroopers Episode 2: Nog School Read online

The pulpy mass beat in cytoplasmic fluid to some inner rhythm.

  "That's our target, Wings. Dead ahead--" Deeno could scarcely contain herself. This had been easy, almost too easy--

  "Closing…eight thousand microns…" Winger breathed. "I'm aiming for that cliff between the lobes, okay? After transit, send the rep command. I don’t want to get caught short if I run into bad guys."

  D’Nunzio acknowledged, manning the template controls. "Replication starts just after transit."

  ANAD grabbed a phosphor group and pulled it aside, then squirted through into the tegmentum. At once, the imager was filled with long whippy chains of molecules.

  "Axons--the place is thick with them--" said D’Nunzio.

  "Exactly," Winger said. He tweaked a stick controller, sending ANAD hurtling toward the fibers.

  "Sounding pressure change," Winger said. Hello? What the hell was that? "We may have company…Deeno, ready defenses."

  The assault convulsed out of the axon forest in a frothy blur. An army of OPFOR assemblers fell on ANAD with little warning.

  "Mechs!"

  "I see 'em!" Johnny Winger cut ANAD's speed in half; instinctively, he lunged for the config controls. "Make a cage…effectors out max!"

  "I'm sending it!" D’Nunzio shouted. On a side panel of the console, she punched out commands to reconfigure ANAD, with a shield of fullerene arms, bristling like a porcupine.

  Behind them, Lieutenant Burke nodded quietly. Just like you learned in class, guys….

  "That should do the trick." Winger had replayed the big bang episode they’d dealt with during the Atomgrabbers’ Qualifying Test a few months ago in his mind, over and over again, looking for some way of defeating enemy mechs like this. He'd wargamed possibilities and talked tactics with M’Bela, D’Nunzio, Tallant and others. Come on, baby…come to the dance now….come dance with your Mama….

  A single command to ANAD would multiply the swarm in seconds. He was probing by feel alone, eyes fixed on the imager, his fingers twitching over the keyboard, eager to grab a stick but not just yet. He forced himself to be still, let the situation evolve. Behind him, Lieutenant Burke smiled in spite of himself. Code and stick men were all alike. Trigger-happy by nature.

  Come closer to my web….only a little bit closer…I've got a big surprise for you buggers this time….

  ANAD had to win this round. This time, Winger knew he’d be ready.

  Like Sun Tzu said, know the enemy and know yourself; then you shall not fear even a hundred battles.

  Like a dog sniffing fear, Johnny Winger chose that very moment to trigger the ANAD attack.

  "Replicate now!" he yelled.

  Deeno toggled the rep switch and the imager screen careened and shook with the ferocity of a trillion trillion assemblers grabbing atoms.

  Three meters away, moving toward battle on picowatt propulsors, ANAD received the instruction. The entire operation took only a few seconds. In that time, the rep cycle was executed one quadrillion times.

  *** Sever perimeter covalent bonds***

  *** Unfold lattice atom chains***

  ***Re-position carbon groups***

  ***Extract valence electron and attach to last carbon group***

  ***Assemble hydrogen group at attached valence electron***

  ***Position carbon group at hydrogen atom***