Day 6
I walked from the church square to the adjacent forest. I wanted to go along the beach under land to the farm Stenhaga. If I had walked down the street, I would have had too much open terrain and I didn’t know what else to expect.
The sun rose higher, the sea was clean, and a salty breeze blew in my face. It would have been wonderful if it had not been for this deadly threat.
I stopped on the shore for a moment and enjoyed the light, the sea and the air. I looked around with binoculars for a moment, but I couldn’t spot any robots.
I walked along the rocky coast, the road was more arduous but, I thought, safer. I kept looking at the map. When I was below Stenhaga, I climbed the embankment.
When I arrived at the slope, I carefully sailed over to Stenhaga.
As might be expected, some runners and a Hunter walked around the farm. No human soul was visible. “Maybe they’ve all moved on,” I thought. “But maybe I find clues where they went.”
Quietly I sneaked up and closer. I kept peering over to the farm with binoculars. Maybe I could sneak into a barn and then on to the next house. A barn was not far from me. The door was just leaning. A little further back was a stable with a hayloft. A ramp led up there. I wouldn’t make it to that far. I thought about how to proceed.
The runners wouldn’t be a problem but the Hunter. Until now, the robots had not registered me. I sneaked around in the bow and watched the situation. The robots were just running around the yard. There were no robots behind the barn. The manor house was opposite me. But was too far away and I couldn’t see if the door was open. I decided to sneak into the barn.
The Bran wasn’t 50 yards away from me and I would do it. The robots took a while to grasp their target, and the robots had difficulty capturing a moving target. Even a Hunter couldn’t do that. Only, they chased one until one ran out of steam. I had seen how quickly a Hunter could run. The runners ran around a bit of plan and goalless, while the Hunter always ran the same route. When he turned his back on me and walked away, I ran off and within a few seconds I was at the barn gate.
I slipped in and just waited for the barking sound of a runner. But nothing did. I had duped the robots. I looked around the barn. It was empty. On the other side was a door. I went to the back wall of the barn, because I hoped the X-ray vision devices wouldn’t go that far. I sneaked quietly to the door. I opened it carefully and stuck my head out. Less than 10 yards away was the stable door and it was not locked. I took Old Bethan off my shoulder. It was armed but not loaded. I only needed to press the slider on the shaft once, which was ok.
I ran off. From the corner of my eye I saw a movement.
Something silvery flew right of me through the air. I ran quickly into the stable. The thing outside made a sizzling, swirling noise that was remotely reminiscent of a helicopter. I walked up the stairs to the hayloft and found a camp. Many air mattresses, cans, sleep bags, storage and ammunition boxes lay around. Outside, I heard the swirling from the flying apparatus.
A beep sounded and I suddenly my sight obscured. A few seconds later I was able to see clearly again. That certainly came from this flying dirt thing out there. I loaded the pump. This was now exactly the right remedy for such a little bird. I pressed the gate on which led to the ramp and pulled myself directly to the side of the entrance. The noise came from the left side and slowly came closer. I went into the squat and could see the thing in the sky. It looked like a cheese loaf about half a meter in diameter and about 15-20cm high. In the middle it was cylindrical and on top sat 4 loudspeakers that looked like little megaphones. On the side there were two small nozzles from which a light blue flame came out. It looked like a gas flame. The jets kept spinning back and forth. That probably controlled the thing. The bright ping sounded again, and my view was obscured again. I sneaked a little into the entrance and the thing immediately sent out a loud howl. That was probably the purpose of the four signal horns at the top end.
A Seeker, I loaded the pump gun and aimed at the thing After the first hit the thing flew to the side at high speed, with a smoke flag pulled behind it and came back. The second shot caused the thing to explode in the air.
The Hunter again sent out his predator scream and first shots came in at the door and crashed into the wall behind me. I called it The Seeker because it was obviously built to track people down and summon the other robots. I slowly straightened up and peered past the goalpost. The Hunter was standing on the court and was obviously aiming at my position. I fired at the hand MG and a small explosion showed my hit. I pulled right behind the goalposts. The answer came promptly. An MG salvo ploughed through the room. Shards of wood rained down on me. Then I carefully lurked over the goalpost again and quickly fired two shots at his MG. I had another shot in the pump.
There was no reply. So, I jumped out again and fired again at the MG, which then fell to the ground. I still had slug ammunition.
These are thick projectiles weighing up to 28 grams. They could cause quite a bit of devastation. I loaded the slugs into the pump gun, loaded through and jumped into the gate entrance. There was no resistance, he just stood still.
He probably couldn’t use the shoulder MG because it was rigidly attached and could only cover an area on the ground in front of the robot. To aim, he had to turn his whole body. I quickly jumped back, because I didn’t want to overdo my luck. But no shot fell. That was interesting news.
I jumped out again and fired a shot at his left ventilation shaft. I felt like I had been kicked by a horse. The pump gun had a terrible recoil. The whole robot exploded in a bright cloud.
I rejoiced. After the heavy fight with the Hunter at the church, this had been relatively easy. Just don’t get overwhelmed I thought. I tried another shot at a runner. It was almost torn apart by the impact. I only had to pay attention to the recoil of the weapon when it was loaded with the slugs.
I took the Meusser, because for her I had more ammunition and so I was able to save up the valuable buckshot and slug ammunition.
One by one I shot the runners with the Meusser. It gave me a sense of superiority. It was like shooting clay pigeons.
As only smoking debris lay in the yard, I peered through the surroundings with the binoculars. A little behind the farm I saw a blue light shining. I also saw a tent. Maybe it was a military camp. I had to explore that. I took the Klaucke in my hand and slowly left the hayloft. Then I went to the robots and got their cartridges. My bags filled up. I was happy about the shot ammunition that the big robot delivered to me. Then I sneaked around the estate to get a better view of the military camp. I saw two runners from a distance. I sneaked closer to them and robbed through the high grass until I had a favorable shooting position.
Then I destroyed the robots with my kill shots. After that I stormed the camp. A military car with bright blue light stood around it also a military truck. Dead soldiers lay on the ground. It stank bestialically after decay. From a cage standing next to the tent came ticking noises and a red glow.
A red glow was also visible in the darkness of the tent. I took my flashlight in my left hand and took it into the combat. I lit up in the tent the beam of light ripped open the darkness and one of these crawling critters was squatting in the tent. Since I had suspected something like this, I shot immediately. The tick exploded. A second came running on his short legs and jumped up. It exploded in my hail of bullets. Then I went to the cage.
Apparently, the soldiers had caught a tick and locked it up. I destroyed him. Then I inspected the tent.
Inside lay a dead soldier covered in blood. I found an elongated container. In it I found a Klaucke with magazine. I put it in my pocket. On the premises I found more boxes of ammunition and signal torches.
A radio station was set up on a table. On a piece of paper I found a message that the first robots had come across the army units at the castle of Ibboholmen and it was assumed that they had to have a bridgehead on the beach below the castle.
When I searched everything, I went back to the hayloft. There I found a message from my father. They had been evacuated by the army to Salthamm two days ago. They should gather in the Salthamm Bunker.
From there, the evacuation should continue.
I decided to stay on Stenhaga and examine the castle the next day. I wanted to find out what was happening on the beach and who was responsible for it.
I went over to the manor house, locked the doors behind me and went upstairs. I found some Medi kits. I packed it. I also found some canned food. In the kitchen there was a working electric stove. I was happy. Finally, I was able to warm myself a can. Hot ravioli really tastes better. I slept on a couch upstairs.