Eagle Station

Which was something he planned to do his level best to avoid. The Sino-Russian lunar base was still miles away and several thousand feet above them. So if a patrolling Russian war robot spotted him now, he and Nadia would have no chance of getting in close enough to fight and win a decisive battle. A long-range sniping duel would only favor the enemy. To win, the Russians and Chinese simply had to hold their ground until Brad and Nadia’s life-support systems ran out of power and failed. Engage upper quadrant thermal adaptive and chameleon camouflage systems, he thought.

Camouflage systems online, the CLAD’s computer reported. Power consumption levels spiking. The six-sided head, shoulders, and upper arms of his robot shimmered into near invisibility, both in the visible and infrared spectrums.

Moving carefully to avoid dislodging any rocks, Brad raised up just high enough to see over the crest. Beyond the crater they were using as cover, the ground fell away for several hundred yards. But then it rose steadily across miles of open ground, climbing higher and higher until it merged into the towering rim wall of Engel’gardt crater. Apart from a few massive boulders and shallow heaps of aeons-old debris strewn at random, there was no cover at all.

Warning, his computer suddenly announced unemotionally. Movement alert at twelve o’clock high. Crossing from right to left along the edge of the large crater. Range twenty thousand yards.

Reacting instantly, Brad locked one of his long-range visual sensors onto the contact. Magnified hundreds of times, he saw the manlike shape of a Russian combat machine striding along the rim wall. Bristling with antennas and other sensors, its ovoid head swiveled from side to side. The robot carried a long, rifle-like weapon at the ready. Small, ring-shaped fins studded the barrel, probably intended to help shed heat in a vacuum.

The weapon appears to be a modified version of the Russian NR-30 30mm autocannon, the computer reported, picking up his sudden focus through their shared neural link.

That made sense, Brad realized. The NR-30 had already been tested in space in 1974 as part of an early Soviet military space program called Almaz, or Diamond. The weapon had been fired aboard Salyut 3, which was one of the Almaz platforms disguised as a civilian space station.

He dropped back below the edge of the crater rim. Deactivate all camouflage systems, he thought.

Thermal adaptive and electrochromatic systems are off, the CLAD confirmed. Life-support capability reduced to thirty-six hours at current power consumption levels.

Brad grimaced. That was seriously bad. Going to full stealth mode with just a fraction of his robot for a little over sixty seconds had just burned three full hours of life support. He’d known intellectually that running the robot’s camouflage ate power at a prodigious rate. Experiencing it in the field brought that knowledge home with a vengeance. And it meant there was no way he and Nadia could hope to rely solely on their stealth systems to cross the deadly swath of open ground ahead of them. Their batteries and fuel cells would be drained before they covered even a third of the distance.

“Well, what did you see?” Nadia asked.

In answer, he focused mentally, ordering his computer to produce a complete compilation of all its sensor data. Then he flicked a finger, electronically transferring the files to her own robot as easily as a whisper.

“Interesting,” she said quietly, comprehending the accumulated data with lightning speed. “The Russians have deployed only a single sentry to cover this avenue of approach.” She hefted the electromagnetic rail gun she carried. “I can eliminate him with a single shot.”

Brad nodded. “Sure. And then all hell breaks loose.” He sighed. “We might be able to nail a second enemy robot with our last rail gun shot… but then what? We’d still have to rush the last Russian war machine up that long, empty slope. One of us might make it. Maybe. With a lot of luck.” He shook his head. “But that’s a house edge I do not want to go up against.”

“House edge?” Nadia said accusingly. “You have been spending far too much time around Boomer and his favorite casinos.”

Almost unwillingly, he grinned. “You grow up in Nevada, you learn the lingo. It’s a habit.”

“Then what do you propose?” she asked.