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"Enemy in view" came the call on all command nets, the priority stepping on all other communications. Instantly every commander switched to feeds from the scouts.
Behind the flood of Indowy, like a hawk eating a snake, was an equally solid if more disciplined flood of leprous yellow centaurs. The front rank was trotting to keep up with the ru
Behind this first block of about twelve thousand Posleen the remainder were broken into three streams. The center stream continued to follow the front group as backup, while the outside streams poured into the megascrapers.
The leaders, the God Kings, were clearly evident. They rode in their open saucer-shaped vehicles about two meters across with lasers or HVM launchers mounted on powered gimbals. According to orders the scout/snipers, one member of each three-man scout team, lifted their M-209 sniper rifles and, as a group, fired a low-velocity sniper round at a designated God King. Like a single string-cut marionette, ten God Kings fell. The whole mass checked for a split second and then responded.
The low-velocity rounds of the snipers left no more signature than a high-velocity rifle bullet; there should have been nothing to betray the position of the scouts. But previously unsuspected targeting systems automatically swiveled the vehicle-mounted weapons of the remaining God Kings and, as they locked on target, a storm of lasers and hypervelocity missiles swept back up range. In addition the subjects of the deceased reacted with hyperaggression, flailing the target points designated by the leader's fire with a sleet of needle and rocket fire. In a series of eye-blinking detonations and searing laser strikes the locations of the scout teams were swept away in the storm of fire. Huge holes were blasted deep into the building under the concentrated fire of twenty vehicle-mounted weapons and twelve thousand hand weapons, and if the force-screens had any positive effect it was unappreciable. The scout platoon disappeared in an u
There was a sound of retching on the staff circuit and Captain Vero was muttering "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee," over and over on the command net. Other than that the nets were silent for a moment as the Posleen swept on unchecked. Their coordination suffered however; fewer of the Indowy bodies made it to the side and some of the front forces began trickling away into the buildings.
"Well," said Lieutenant Colonel Youngman on the staff net, stepping on whoever was retching, "I stand corrected. The threat analysis was understated. Major Norton?"
"Yes, sir."
"Get over to Saltren/Saltrev. Begin preparing fallback positions. I suspect we are not going to be in these positions for long. Ah, Lieutenant Eamons?" U
"Yes, sir? Lieutenant Colonel Youngman?" the lieutenant was panting.
"Yes. I need you to set up cratering charges on Sisalav immediately."
"I already did, sir and we're mining the buildings now," said the engineer officer in a sharp tone.
"Good initiative. It may save our butts. After that pull back to Saltren and start putting in all the concertina and mines you can lay your hands on."
"Yes, sir." Thank god he didn't ask what kinds of mines. Like O'Neal thinks I can't read a demolition program.
"Captain Brandon."
"Lieutenant Colonel Youngman?" asked the company commander with a note of surprise.
"Yes. Prepare to cover the battalion's withdrawal to Saltren and Saltrev. I intend to take the Posleen in a ru
"Yes, sir. Sir, with all due respect, where the hell have you been? And where is Major Norton?"
"We're both at the Forward TOC. Or we were, Major Norton is headed to Saltren to prepare the secondary positions."
"Do you know that 1st of Charlie and Alpha 3rd were both overrun by the Indowy?" asked the company commander. The tone was one of fatigue and near despair.
"What?" asked the startled battalion commander.
"We haven't been able to reach you for the last fifteen minutes. There is no one on the ground floors and we've lost three lasers so far. We are totally open on the ground on Qualtren."
"Hold one." The colonel left the net for a moment. "My RTO says he couldn't get through to me either because he kept getting stepped on by Major Norton and myself." The officer cursed quietly for a moment. "I hate these fucking suits," he ended.
"Too late, sir. You need to contact Vero and Wright, ASAP. They've got some serious problems."
"Too right. Uh, suit, co
* * *
"Tom, this is Mike."
"Yeah, Mike."
Lieutenant O'Neal was four stories lower and deep in the structure. He was mainly using support corridors; they were higher and wider and that way he avoided the majority of the fleeing Indowy. There were still hundreds of them underfoot blocking the intersections and group areas. All of them were trying to leave simultaneously having ignored orders to do it before and hampering the combat operations. Mike stopped, temporarily stymied by a blocked stairwell and stared speculatively at a large tank of liquid co
"How's it coming?" he asked.
"We've finished the roads and the building is about twenty-five percent done. The colonel authorized the mining," finished the officer. There was a hint of smugness in his voice.
Mike had missed that call in his monitoring; he was surprised at the a
"Well, I told him we were mining the building."
"But not how?"
"He said use your initiative."
Mike laughed at the irony. "That's a first. Okay, we might be covered." He was to regret the choice of words.
Mike's experienced and helpful AID, Michelle, flashed a complex schematic of the engineering platoon's progress in a virtual hologram floating at eye height. The completed areas were in green, the areas that should be completed by the time the Posleen arrived were in yellow and the areas that would not be completed were in red. Mike touched an area near Charlie in Qualtren.
"Concentrate over here, if you please, kind sir."
"Why certainly, bon homme, and with that I bid you au revoir."
"Roger, out."
Mike took one more look at the schematic and flicked it off with a gesture. With the colonel now on board his "go-to-hell-plan," even if the battle went straight to hell, the battalion's sector would still be secured. "Good luck, Tom."
* * *
"Captain Brandon," Mike said, triggering a burst into a structural member on the second floor of Qualtren.
"Lieutenant O'Neal?"
"Yes, sir. I suspect we'll start the fallback shortly after contact. I would like your assistance in an expansion of the commander's plan. All your guys have to do is fall back on the routes I download to them and destroy a few structures on their way out."