Eagle Station

For a moment, the small cockpit blurred around him and then vanished. It was as though his vision had grayed out in a high-G turn. And then just as quickly, his sight returned — only now he was looking directly out across the moon’s rugged surface and seeing it with crystal clarity, rather than through a helmet visor. The flood of information from the robot’s active and passive sensors through his neural interface gave him an almost godlike view of his surroundings.

Systems status check, he thought.

Instantly information flooded into his consciousness: All systems are fully operational. Power reserves at ninety-nine percent. Current life-support capability estimated at forty-four hours. He knew the status of every subsystem, every byte of computer output, and the position of every limb down to the fraction of an inch, just by thinking of it.

Good enough, Brad thought. He opened a secure connection to Nadia’s CLAD. “Wolf Two to Wolf Three, does your ride check out?”

“Wolf Three to Two,” Nadia replied. “I am claws out and ready to run.”

“Copy that, Three.” Brad turned away from the grounded Xeus lander. He picked up one of the camouflaged weapons and equipment packs and slung it into position across his robot’s back. Nadia took the other pack and did the same. “Then follow me.”

Together, the two machines bounded off to the west, moving easily in the moon’s low gravity.

Forty-Seven

Korolev Base, on the Eastern Rim of Engel’gardt Crater

A Short Time Later

“You’ve lost radar contact with the American spacecraft?” Marshal Leonov asked, evidently taken aback.

“It dropped off our feed from the Kondor-L satellite about thirty minutes ago and we haven’t been able to regain contact since,” Lavrentyev said. He glanced at Major Liu for confirmation and saw the taikonaut nod. The Chinese officer was monitoring Korolev’s radar and thermal detection systems. “At the time, the enemy vehicle was still well below our own radar horizon.”

Leonov’s brow furrowed in thought. “Where exactly did the Kondor lose contact?”

“Just east of the Tsander crater,” Lavrentyev told him. “About three hundred and fifty kilometers away.” He expressed his hope. “It’s possible that it crashed. Naturally, our altitude estimates were imprecise, but that spacecraft had to be coming in very low. And it was moving so fast, nearly six thousand kilometers per hour — sixteen-hundred-plus meters per second! — that any tiny error in its computer flight program could easily have led to disaster.”

Leonov shook his head. “That seems unlikely, Colonel. Highly unlikely.” His mouth turned downward. “You’ve seen the American flight path. After so successfully navigating through a gravitational and terrain maze like the Hertzsprung crater, why should its systems fail just now?”

“But if that spacecraft didn’t crash—”

“Then the Americans have landed,” Leonov said bluntly. “And our analysis of the situation was completely wrong. That Xeus lander was not flown by a computer. It carried humans, military astronauts.”

Lavrentyev suddenly saw what the other man meant. He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. “You think the Americans intend a ground assault,” he realized. “Using some of their own combat robots.”

“What else?” Leonov said grimly. “Why should we believe we were the only ones who thought of modifying such weapons for use on the moon?” His mouth tightened. “You and the others had better don your KLVMs and look to your defenses. Hand over all responsibility for your sensors and the plasma rail gun to Major Liu and Captain Shan, in case we’re wrong again… and the Americans have some other trick up their sleeves.”

“I could send one of our machines out to find and destroy the American lander,” Lavrentyev suggested uncertainly.

Leonov dismissed the idea with a curt wave of his hand. “Too dangerous, Kirill. Any KLVM you dispatched could be ambushed. And even if it succeeded in wrecking the enemy’s spacecraft, weakening your own forces there might lead to disaster. We cannot afford to trade pawns with the Americans in this game. The security of your base is paramount. It must come before any other considerations.”