When the Devil Dances

"Yes, ma'am, I am," Horner replied. "However, the remainder of the Rabun Gap forces are not. The Posleen have taken Balsam Gap by a coup de main and have them cut off. Our sole remaining SheVa is in the pocket among others. Most of them could get out by secondary routes, assuming the Posleen don't take those positions as well, but we need Balsam Gap to push forces back down into the valley."

"You want to nuke that Gap as well," she said.

"Yes, ma'am, I do," Horner replied. "Furthermore, I would like full tactical release for the remainder of this campaign."

"So you can call the fire?" she asked bitterly.

"No ma'am," he said with a smile like a tiger. "I intend to give it to a colonel."

* * *

"Now I wish we were hooked up," Captain Chan said. "This is going to be bloody."

The SheVa was swaying from side to side as it maneuvered up the Scotts Creek valley, more or less paralleling Highway 23. The valley was a twisted complex of small hills and hollers that was the equivalent of a SheVa obstacle course; Reeves had had to back up and refigure his route twice in the last few hours of slow, careful movement. But the same broken terrain that was slowing the SheVa should help the human forces caught in the vise to defend their positions.

"And close," Pruitt said over the intercom. "Although some of it had better not be too close; my AD rounds are 100kts. The explosions in the mountains were lovetaps compared to that."

"Oh, hell, those were love taps," Chan snorted. "We didn't even notice them until afterwards."

"Well, you were firing at the time, ma'am," Kittekut broke in. "Trust me, in anything but a Meemie they didn't seem like love-taps. Okay, I've got all the units plugged into the database along with their commo codes. The mech team is in movement to its ORP. And I've got an update on the repair batt; they're not only carrying repair gear, they're carrying slap-on armor."

"Cool," Pruitt said. "It sounds like they're intending for us to fight in-close."

"We could use it now," Mitchell said uncomfortably.

"Well, I've also updated the Posleen position," she added. The map they all had been looking at suddenly blossomed with data. The area around Dillsboro was red with Posleen indicators.

"We need to get some support here or we're going to be a melting puddle of slag," Reeves said.

"All it will take is one plasma round the wrong way through the treads and we're in trouble," Indy pointed out.

"Then we'll need to stay hull down," Pruitt pointed out. "Not that hard around here."

"Where's the data coming from, Kittekut?" Colonel Mitchell asked.

"There are still scouts on the hills," she said, highlighting scout positions. "Their positions are guesses; they're not obviously telling us where they are exactly. But they've been calling in PosReps. All the intel guys didn't leave with the main group; there's a small intel team collecting and analyzing with the assault force. I'm feeding off of them."

"I wish we could be in the assault," Pruitt said. "That'd be cool."

"We can't fit," Reeves said. "And we don't have any direct assault weapons; it would be like taking an artillery piece along."

"I think I've figured out a way to hook up the MetalStorms," Indy said.

"Really?" Chan said over the intercom. "Direct or remote?"

"You'd have to stay in them," Indy said. "But I've been looking at your manual CD. We pulled the whole turret assembly, including your control motors. All we have to do is provide a mount—and really that can just be a circular piece of steel—and power. I think if the repair group has lance cutters, which it should, we might be able to drop you into the turret. It would also require some bracing, we'll see what the repair batt people say."

"Well, at the least, they should be able to recover our parts," Chan said with a sigh. "I don't know what we'll do after that."

"Like I said, ma'am, we'll see," the warrant replied.

"Sir, I think this is about as close as I can get," Reeves said. "At least and have an angle to fire." He carefully backed the gun up and shoved it into a gully. The ravine on the edge of Willits Hill—there had been a very small unincorporated town until the SheVa came through—was pointed in more or less the direction of the pass.

"Pruitt?" Colonel Mitchell asked.

"I think I've got an angle from here, sir," the gu

"I neglected to ask," the colonel continued. "Do you know the protocols for firing one of these things?"

"Yes, sir," Pruitt answered. "I read about them when I took over the position and I just reread the section. It's pretty automatic. I need your codes for release, though."

"Uh, oh," Kittekut said, looking at the skip receiver. "Codes coming in."

"What's it say?" Pruitt asked.

"It comes in slow," the clerk said. "But the first group is in. It's the release type. Three, one, five."

"Three one five," Mitchell repeated, tapping the command into his database. "It says that's an ROE change . . ."

"ROE?" Pruitt said. "Rules of Engagement? But that's . . ."

"Oh my God."

"Did we just get a full engagement change to nuclear active?" Pruitt asked carefully. The colonel had gone all ashen faced.

"Yeah," Mitchell croaked then cleared his throat. "We're clear for nuclear release, unlimited fire levels, unlimited targeting, at my discretion only."

"Oh my God," Kittekut whispered in unthinking repetition.

"Well, sir," Pruitt said quietly. "The first thing to do is clear out Balsam Gap, don't you think?"

"Okay," the colonel said taking a deep breath. Removing a key from his dogtags he opened up the safe over his head, removed a manual and turned to the back page. "I need verbal confirmation. I have release codes. Does everyone agree? Schmoo?"

"Yes."

"Pruitt?"

"Yes."

"Indy?"

"Yes."

"What about me?" Kittekut asked.

"You're not an official crew-member," the major said. "But I do need that second set of codes you received."

He pulled a purple hard plastic package out of the back of the book and broke the back of it along a perforation. Inside was a red piece of plastic that looked somewhat like a credit card. Turning to the appropriate section of the manual he took the codes from Kittekut and, using the numbers and letters on the card, determined the correct codes to enter.

The program was referred to as "Positive Action Locks." To get the area effect rounds to work required codes from the President. But the presidential codes were then put through a "filter" at the actual system. The method was cumbersome, but when talking about nuclear weapons it only made sense.

He keyed the final sequence into a box by his head then waited until it gave a "Go" code. Normally the "Go" was a green number. Instead, in this case, there was a small infinity symbol that made the bottom drop out of his stomach. Trying to ignore it he entered "One" as the number of rounds released. "That's my code. Warrant Indy?"

Indy followed the same procedure, pulling out her own manual and keying in her translated codes.

Pruitt for once looked properly chastened. "I'm green on one area effect round."

"Very well," Colonel Mitchell said. "I want one round, at optimum airburst, right over Balsam Gap."

"We're keyed to transmit nuke warnings," Kittekut said.

Pruitt turned and opened up a new control panel, using the same key to unlock and then lift a red, semi-transparent cover. He ran his fingers over it for a moment then brought up a map of the local area, tapping Balsam Gap as the target. He cross-checked that it was the correct UTM coordinates then keyed for airburst and let it compute optimum height. Finally the system flashed confirmed.

"We're prepared, sir," Pruitt said. "Coordinates set. Permission to load?"