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stopping it.
    “Gotta analyze this later,” Bren noted. “The outer armor is perforated. Possible double layer of protection?”
    The last three ASSAIL machines entered the battle zone around the pool and joined the three survivors. His entire team had assembled. The machines followed the route taken by the red spider bot.
    “This is Colonel Henley,” a voice cut into the line. “What’s going on over by the pool? Shall we back up the ASSAIL units?”
    Bren doubted the marines could harm the red spider bot.
    “I advise you to keep your squads out of there, Colonel, unless you want to see some of your people in body bags.”
    “What’s going on in there? I hear enough shooting for a war.”
    Bren didn’t answer at first. The ASSAIL units started to double up their shots, firing two rounds at once on the same trajectory.
    Bren wiped sweat from his forehead. The ASSAIL machines were evolving their strategies against a devastating foe. If the spider bot took one of the double rounds, it might be enough to destroy it. But doubling up on the AP rounds could perforate the station and kill people. Chances were it wouldn’t happen. The ASSAIL units were supposed to be considering the background structures, making sure of their backstops. If they made an error, it could be bad.
    “We’re still hunting the unknown model,” Bren said. “What’s your situation?”
    Bren couldn’t see the target. He wasn’t sure how the team knew where it was or how they tracked it. The lack of a clear target made the doubled-up fire even more dangerous. Were the ASSAIL units simply trying to suppress the spider bot’s fire? Or were they hoping for a lucky hit and willing to risk the whole base doing it?
    The ASSAIL units stopped firing. They split up and moved around the pool, three on each side. Bren checked the target queues but he didn’t see any projected kills. The machines believed the spider bot was still out there somewhere.
    “We’ve got four marines unconscious and two more stuck in tangler glue on the other side of the station,” Henley piped into Bren’s channel. “We’re pinned down by Circle Fours over here. If you’ve got any ASSAIL units left, we could sure use one over here.”
    The Circle Fours were round, mid-size security robots manufactured in the United States. A Circle Four moved slowly on treads or four stubby legs, depending on its environment, and typically carried three or four nonlethal systems used to guard facilities or control crowds. Exactly the type of robots that Bren’s robot-killers were designed to neutralize.
    Bren believed the spider bot posed the greatest danger, but the ASSAIL team could hardly ignore the marines’ plea for help. The whole point of the assault robots was to take the most dangerous part of the mission, shielding the humans from harm.
    Nor did Bren want the team to break up. But he trusted the machines to make their own decision.
    “I’m sending you what I’ve got now,” Bren told him. He routed Henley’s location over to Marauder and Mournblade. The entire ASSAIL team accessed the marine’s logistic feed and loped out of the room.
    Bren breathed deeply and pushed down the hopelessness that threatened to seize his mood. More than half his team lay disabled. He knew they weren’t really his team, but he thought of the ASSAIL units that way. If they encountered the red spider bot again, or if there were more than one of them, the entire incursion could fail.
    Bren switched back to Meridian’s camera as it headed out of the pool area. He kept part of his attention on the visual feed and looked through some sensor logs in another part of his virtual workspace.
    He hadn’t found the cues that the ASSAIL units were using to fire on the spider-thing by the time the first ASSAIL units caught up with a major contention zone near the fusion plant at the center of the station. Four giant spokes connected the spherical center of the base with the cylindrical body that spun