It had to come from either Iran or the Islamic State. It always struck Xander as odd that the two major sponsors of state terrorism in the world — although both Muslim — were so diametrically opposed to one another in religious philosophy. One was Sunni, the other Shiite, yet in the larger scheme of things they each hated the Western world more than they did each other.
The presence of the Ninja at the Dolphin Mall meant a message was being sent, and one that went beyond the potential staggering death toll of the event. It was demonstrating to an already rattled population that no matter how tight the security of the nation may have become over the past decade, the masterminds of this attack could still get at the United States undetected and undeterred. The illusion of safety and security that the government tried to convey was just that — an illusion.
No one was safe from the drones.
Xander now steered his Viper along the northern corridor of the Dolphin Mall, knowing for certain that his day was about to get a whole lot worse. Beyond the relatively benign actions of the twelve auto drones currently serving up death and destruction throughout the rest of the mall, the Ninja would also end its mission in a fiery blast. Yet with an operational time-on-station of up to five hours, there was still plenty of terror to be squeezed out of the drone’s quarter-mil price tag before that moment arrived — unless Xander Moore could bring it all to an early conclusion.
The Rapid Defense Center couldn’t prevent drone attacks, but it could do something to cut them short, thereby saving countless innocent lives.
That was all well and good. It was just that Xander Moore had never gone up against a Ninja before…
With practiced confidence, Xander gripped the central control stick on his console with his right hand and placed the fingers of his left on the four toggle buttons controlling the drone’s gimbals. His feet were also placed on pedals, allowing for even more agile operation of the Viper.
“Weapons hot. I’m coming up on the D&B’s. I really hope it didn’t make it into the theaters.”
“Security cams show a solid lockdown of the Cineplex. Still, it’s kinda of ironic isn’t it that the drone would be hiding in a Dave & Busters?”
“Holy crap!” Lane cried out. “Do you have the video feed from inside the arcade?”
Xander toggled the control until he came upon the scene that had his scanner-operator so upset.
“That monster just executed a dozen civilians inside the restaurant,” Lane cried out. “He had them line up, telling them they could leave, and then cut them in half.” Lane’s voice was trembling. Even though he’d seen this level of barbarism many times before, it was something he could never get used to.
“I have the link, Dave,” Xander said. “Son-of-a-bitch — now he’s talking into the security camera.”
The small screen in the upper left corner of Xander’s display showed the image of the evil-looking drone hovering in the air and staring into the camera. The Ninja wasn’t painted like the other attack drones in the red, white, and blue of the RDC units. Rather, it was silver and black, with red swatches depicting dripping blood along the sides. There was a sinister-looking face painted on one of the facades, highlighting a hideous grin, and with the stereoscopic cameras serving as the eyes. A computer-disguised voice now spoke into the video display and was picked up by the security microphones.
“Merry Christmas to all you Western infidels. I see that your desire for new designer jeans and shiny baubles has brought you out in public today and placed you within my sights. This is only the beginning of what to me will be a very joyous holiday season. Please note, what is happening here in Miami can happen anywhere. No target is too big or too small. We will strike at individual homes, at your clogged highways, at your dams and your power stations. We will crack your nuclear reactors and expose your pitiful nation to the deadly radiation from within…”
The recorded message continued, yet trailed off as sensors on the huge drone picked up the approach of Xander’s Viper. He had entered past the shattered security grate the Ninja had demolished with a single compact missile fired from its arsenal. The entrance lobby, where customers had once been greeted by smiling hosts and hostesses, was now a smoldering mass of shattered metal and splintered wood. There were also two dismembered and barely-recognizable bodies on the floor, and as Xander passed into the main dining room, he found the victims that the video had shown being executed.
After cutting short the recorded message, the Ninja had sped off into the vast arcade arena beyond the dining section.
It’s not easy hiding a six-foot long combat drone within an enclosed space. The noise of the props and the wind they produced could be pinpointed by directional microphones aboard the Viper. Unfortunately, so could Xander’s.
A thin line of white smoke shot out from behind a tall boxing video game, streaking toward Xander’s drone. With skill acquired over a lifetime of drone operation, Xander manipulated four different controls simultaneously and twisted his Viper in such a way that the missile missed it by less than two inches. The pencil-sized mini-rocket impacted the wall above the bowling games, blowing a two-foot wide hole in the concrete block wall.
Xander now sent the Viper screaming through the center of the arcade area, before spinning to his right to come up behind the boxing game. “Charlie, cover on the right!”
“I’m on it!”
They had the Ninja boxed in, right up the point that Fox’s Panther came face-to-face with the evil-grinning black drone. Firing a split second before Fox, the Ninja operator unleashed a barrage of both missiles and lead at the RDC drone. At point blank range, even the tough composite material was no match for the intense fire from the Ninja. The Panther was thrown back by the impacts, four of its prop rings blown off and the flight control module shattered into plastic kindling. The drone fell to the floor and sputtered for a few seconds before the power finally gave out and the last of its spinning props wound down.
“I need a replacement — now!” Charlie Fox cried out.
A new voice spoke into the ears of the team. “Replacement on site — switching now.”
Suddenly Charlie Fox was back in the fight, yet his new drone was still in the area outside the restaurant. He took control of the backup UAV and began the circuitous flight back to the arcade room.
In the meantime, Xander had caught site of the Ninja just as it blasted the Panther to the recycle bin. Now it was his turn to send a burst of 5mm lead into the huge drone, striking against the rear buffer plate that protected the fight controller. The enemy UAV bounced forward from the impact and crashed into a bank of smaller video games. It recovered quickly, managing to do a complete three-sixty loop in the confined space of the arcade. The maneuver was incredible, since drones normally had trouble making vertical loops, even when outside and with plenty of space.
This pilot was good.
Xander was caught off guard by the flip and now found himself ahead of the Ninja with his ass exposed. In the blink of an eye, he took several heavy hits in that region, losing one of his eight props in the process. He could still operate, even though at a slightly reduced speed and having to compensate for the skewed balance of the wounded drone.
The Viper zipped off at near floor level, dodging around rows of video games that all seemed to explode the moment he passed by. The Ninja was bleeding pencil-missiles at an incredible rate, and so far the Viper had survived. Once the grinning UAV ran out of missiles, Xander would have the advantage.