Inhaltsangabe
A bio-engineered dog fights for its life and its right to life. From the Arthur C. Clark award-winning author of Children of Time.
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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British science-fiction and fantasy writer known for a wide-variety of work including the Children of Time, Final Architecture, Dogs of War, Tyrant Philosophers and Shadows of the Apt series, as well as standalone books such as Elder Race, Doors of Eden, Spiderlight and many others. Children of Time and its series has won the Arthur C Clarke and BSFA awards, and his other works have won the British Fantasy, British Science Fiction and Sidewise Awards.
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Rex is a genetically engineered bioform, a deadly weapon in a dirty war. He has the intelligence to carry out his orders and feedback implants to reward him when he does.
All he wants to be is a Good Dog.
And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he's got to kill a lot of enemies...
Aus dem Klappentext
Rex is a genetically engineered bioform, a deadly weapon in a dirty war. He has the intelligence to carry out his orders and feedback implants to reward him when he does.
All he wants to be is a Good Dog.
And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he's got to kill a lot of enemies...
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Dogs of War
By Adrian TchaikovskyHead of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © 2017 Adrian Tchaikovsky
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78669-388-4All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 1
Rex
My name is Rex. I am a Good Dog.
See Rex run. Run enemy run. That is Master's joke.
My squad is Dragon, Honey and Bees. They are a Multiform Assault Pack. That means they are not Good Dogs.
I am coming close to the enemy now. I am coming from downwind. I can smell them: there are at least thirty human beings in their camp. I can smell guns. I cannot smell explosives. I cannot smell other dogs or any Bioform breeds, just humans who are enemies.
I am talking to my guns. They tell me they are ready and operational. All systems optimal, Rex, they tell me. Good Dog, well done for remembering, says my feedback chip.
They are called Big Dogs, my guns. This is a joke by the people who gave me them. They are on my shoulders and they will shoot when I talk to them, because I need my hands for other tasks than pulling triggers. They are called Big Dogs because humans are too little to use them without hurting themselves.
I do not like the thought of humans hurting themselves. Bad Dog! comes the thought. I like humans. Humans made me.
Enemies are different.
I am talking to my squad. Dragon is not replying but his feedback signal shows that he is alive and not already fighting. Dragon is difficult. Dragon has his own way of doing things and often he conflicts with what Master has told me. Master says "Dragon gets results," and so I cannot tell him to stop being Dragon, but I cannot be happy with him being Dragon. Dragon makes me uncomfortable.
Honey is talking to me. She is in position with the Elephant Gun. This name is also a joke. Like the other jokes, I do not understand this one. Honey is not an elephant.
Bees is talking to me. She reports 99 per cent integrity. Bees doesn't have or need a gun. Bees is ready. Honey is ready. Dragon had better be ready or I will bite him, even if that makes me a Bad Dog.
I am talking to Master on our encrypted channel. Master tells me I am a Good Dog. I am in position and there is no sign from the enemy that they know I am here.
Master tells me I can attack. Master hopes I do well. I want very much to make Master proud of me.
I tell Honey to start. She has gone crosswind of the enemy camp. I can smell her but they cannot. She talks to her targeting system and I listen in as it identifies targets of opportunity. Honey agrees. They send eleven explosive shells into the camp from a distance of four hundred metres, aiming for maximum disruption. As soon as the eleventh is away, even as the first shell hits, I am moving in.
I see the fire. I hear the sound of human voices, shrill above the explosions. Run enemy run.
Bees pulls herself together and attacks, swarming through the camp, eddying away from the fire, stinging everyone she can. Her units do not die when they sting, although they run out of poison eventually. Today she is using the poison that makes the enemy go mad and fight each other. That is her favourite.
I still don't know where Dragon is. I talk to him but he won't tell me.
Honey tells me she is moving in to close quarters. I am already there. Humans are running towards me: I have chosen one of their roads to make my approach. Some of them have guns. Most of them have no guns. I am running on all fours but I talk to my Big Dogs. We choose targets together and I start to kill the enemy, using three-round bursts like it says in the manual. The Big Dogs work hard to compensate for my movement. Sometimes they miss, but more often they hit with at least one bullet per burst. Good guns, I tell them. Good Dog, says my feedback chip.
One of the enemy is shooting me. I feel his bullets hit me in the shoulder and in the chest, like he was jabbing me with his little fists. My vest flattens the bullets before they can flatten themselves against my skin and muscles. I talk to my database and cross-reference my damage tolerances against his calibre and muzzle velocity. He would have to shoot me in the eye or the roof of the mouth to kill me, though if he shot me in the gut it might take me a few days to heal. That is why I always wear my vest like I am supposed to. Dragon never wears his vest.
Now I am with the enemy and I stand up on two legs to use my hands. The enemy are small. Some of them come up to my shoulders, some of them only come up to my waist. They are screaming and I can smell how frightened they are. I know one of the reasons I was made was to frighten enemies. I am doing my job well. Good Dog, says my feedback chip. I am very happy.
I get my hands on them and tear them open. I take the small ones between my teeth and shake them until they break apart, because that feels good. I can smell their blood and their excrement and their fear. This is all good.
Honey is in their camp. She has switched her Elephant Gun to automatic and is laying down covering fire to keep the enemy where they are until I can join her. Bees reports 81 per cent integrity but only 47 per cent venom reserves and says that she is evacuating her empty units as they can no longer assist in the attack. She estimates that she has injected 34 per cent of the enemy population with her poisons and reports that they have not deployed antidotes.
Honey confirms that many of the enemy are now fighting and killing each other and congratulates Bees on a job well done. Although I am leader and that is my task, I do not mind when Honey says these things. Honey is the cleverest of us. I go into the camp and carry on killing the enemy. Some of them I kill with my Big Dogs but mostly I tear them apart because this is economical. I am saving ammunition. Good Dog, my feedback chip tells me.
By now there are no enemies with guns who are shooting at me. Bees has prioritised armed enemies and so most of them have already emptied their weapons into each other.
Some of the enemies are trying to escape, but they are not very fast, and when the big enemies go back to help the small enemies it makes them slower. I am very fast. I run around them and herd them back into the camp. This is another thing that makes me feel good even without the feedback chip.
Honey is talking to me. Where are the rest of them?
I tell her I don't understand.
Honey's channel: Armed resistance has been negligible.
These are not rebel fighters. These are civilians.
I tell her: These are enemy. All this talk is going on as we kill them.
Honey's channel: Our brief was that we would encounter armed resistance from rebel combatants. Is this the wrong camp?
I take another of the little enemies in my teeth and it squirms and screams. One of the big enemies is hitting me with tiny fists. I transmit to Honey: Master said to attack.
Honey's channel: Rex, this isn't the camp we were briefed about.
Bees' channel: Integrity at 74% Venom supply 31% Estimated venom take-up 42% overall; 19% of surviving enemy.
Dragon's channel: Target acquired.
I query Dragon. The small enemy is still in my teeth but I have not shaken it or crushed it. I am unhappy. I do not like what Honey is saying. Something in her words makes me feel like a Bad Dog, not from the feedback chip but from inside me, where the other feelings come from.
Dragon's channel: Bang! Target neutralised.
I want to know what target. The bigger enemy is still hitting me and trying to make my jaws open but there is insufficient strength in a human...
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