Free Injuring Eternity by Martin Wilsey Page A

first
target was an old surface tractor that they had towed to the Target
Range for the purpose.
    “ Firing.” Tom raised the
weapon and squeezed the trigger. There was no sound, no recoil, no
nothing. The invisible impact struck the tractor just above the
driver side wheel. A perfectly round, basketball-sized hole
appeared in the fender, and the entire engine block and front right side
exploded out, sending debris all the way to the distant mountainside two
kilometers away.
    The weapon moved quickly and easily to
acquire target number two. It was the remains of Watkins’ shuttle,
parked at the base of a cliff about 0.4 kilometers away.
    “ Power settings to Six.
Firing,” he said. Again, no sound, no recoil, not even a vibration,
but this time he felt a momentary freeze of the gun in mid-air. It
was as if he could have hung there suspended from it.
    The entire shuttle disappeared, and in
its place there was suddenly a gaping hole in the cliff
face.
    “ Did you feel that, sir?”
Vittori said with a hint of fear in her voice.
    “ Damn right I did. Through
my boots. I just punched a ten-meter wide hole in that cliff face.
That hole must be twenty-five meters deep. What’s left of
that shuttle lines the back of that new cave.” McDonald laughed as
a slow avalanche began falling in Rhea’s low gravity.
    “ Cranking it up to Eight.
Send the drone target.” A drone,
the size of a supply container, hovered
into view. Tom knew it was full of rocks and other material, and it
had way too many strobes on it. It wasn’t tough to see. White was
easy to see even this far from the sun.
    “ Target altitude is
4.2 kilometers, ” Vittori said.
    The targeting software was
running and had the drone tagged. He raised the rifle and pulled the
trigger. He knew nothing would happen until the targeting software
tag was aligned.
    The rifle froze in place for a full
two seconds. Then the drone just disappeared.
    “ Holy shit. Did you see
that?” McDonald said.
    “ Sir, the sensors indicate
that the drone and all its mass has been reduced to a fine powder. Forty-two metric
tons.” Vittori was in awe. “Power is down to 30%. I recommend
replacing the power cell before the full power test. You would be
so dead if Grendel's dampeners failed for lack of power.”
    McDonald powered the rifle down,
knowing she was right. It was consuming power exponentially at the
higher settings. The rifle became heavy again when he powered it
down, and he let it hang from the sling as he pulled out a fresh
power cell magazine. They had cleverly made them the same form
factor as the Frange Carbine ammo magazines, so soldiers could
carry spares in existing pouches.
    Tom slammed in the fresh cell and
powered the rifle back up. It became weightless in his hands
again.
    “ Another drone, please.
Full power test.” McDonald said. He could not keep the fear from
his voice.
    “ Sir, we were thinking, ”
Vittori said in an uncertain voice. “If the power pack does not
have enough juice to drive the inertial dampener, there could be
the potential of massive recoil, or even some kind of catastrophic
failure.”
    McDonald already knew this.
    “ Sir, please move to the
edge of the apron and turn, so the base is not directly behind you or in
front of you.” Vittori sounded like she was about to cry. “Are you
sure you don’t want to study the data first?”
    He shook his head. They were too far
behind schedule.
    “ Tom, don’t shoulder it.”
It was Matthews who spoke. “I’m suited up and already in the
hangar. Use the HUD to target. If it rips your finger off, your
smart suit will seal the glove with an automatic compression
tourniquet.”
    “ Dammit. Let’s do this.”
Tom walked to the edge of the apron and turned 90 degrees. It was a
smart precaution. “Adjust the drone path for the new vista ,
Vittori.”
    “ Yes, sir.
Adjusting.”
     
    McDonald could see the
drone coming around. It was lower this time. He tagged it in his
targeting HUD,