Chapter Fifty-Seven - Hit Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

"Mortar fire isn't great against heavily wooded areas. Not for the first round.

Once the forest is burned down, it's a perfectly viable tool."

--Sergeant O'Mally, 1978

***

The moment after the artillery strike landed, the LT. called for his guys to spread out, watch for enemies, and open fire on anything shooting our way.

"Mortar teams need coordinates for the enemy artillery," Moreau said over the line. He was surprisingly calm, all things considered.

"We have mortar teams?" I asked.

"Two of the trucks have roof-mounted mortars," Gomorrah explained. "If you spot something, let us know."

"Got it," I said as I climbed back to my feet. The forest was lighting up as the soldiers behind me gave up on going full infra-red and switched on helmet-mounted lights and little flashlights clipped onto their rifles.

The light, motion, and sudden sound, didn't go unnoticed. I started to see motion through the forest in the opposite direction. It wasn't time for me to be laying my ass down on the ground and waiting, so I rose up, brought my rifle to bear, and started to move sideways.

I trusted that the soldiers behind us were pretty decent, but I didn't want to be in the crossfire anyway. My armour was good, but I wasn't sure if it was 'point blank armour-piercing rifle round' good. Hell, even if it was, that shit probably hurt.

I was still moving to the side when I noticed some aliens skulking through the underbrush. Small forms, their bodies a deep brown, with a darker green carapace that was moulted and patterned not too differently from some of the pine trees and spikier bushes around.

If they had been standing stock still, I might have missed them, but their movement gave them away.

I squinted, then raised my gun and took a few quick shots.

Silenced rounds, delivered from an invisible person, the slight flash hidden by the trees. The aliens had no idea what hit them. A few missed shots kicked up dirt, or dug into some of the trees, but most of them... some of them, found their way into alien flesh and they went down.

"Just model threes here so far," I said.

"Likely the early warning models they have on the periphery of the hive," Gomorrah said. "We can expect a lot more resistance if we move inwards."

"Yeah, sounds about right. I'm seeing a few threads hanging around too," I said. They were damned hard to notice, with how thin and semi-transparent they were. It was only when the light from the soldiers caught them just right that I spotted the lines.

"Try not to walk into them," Moreau said. "They'll alert the model seventeen of your location, and the next thing you know another bio-bomb will go off right where you're standing."

"Right," I said. "Can I use the lines to trace back where the seventeen is hiding? I'd like to put an end to it if it's going to be coordinating things for the bastards."

There is a relatively inexpensive non-catalogued item that should allow you to do just that. You'll need to find a piece of the biological wiring that's properly connected to the network and then touch it with the device.

"LT, can I have two minutes before you move up?" I asked. "Just hold your spot, I'll be trying something."

"Affirmative. Stray Cat."

I nodded at that, then ran into cover. "What's this thing?" I asked Myalis. "And how's it work?"

It's a disposable frequency tapping device. It connects to a model seventeen's network, copies the current signal going through it, then relays it once again. Most of the time the antithesis ignores the additional signal. I won't go into the math involved, but the oscillation allows the device to pinpoint the location of the model of origin. The device costs ten points.

About as much as a single cheaper grenade? Hell, I'd made three times that just now gunning down a few randoms. "Yeah, I'll take one," I said.

The device was a small black thing, about the size of one of those old tv remotes, with a pair of metallic pincer-shaped arms sticking out of the top. There was only one button on it, and a curious press made the pinches snip closed then open again. Kind of idiot-proof.

I knelt down behind a bush, then found one of the wires on the ground. I had to be quick, there was noise deeper in the forest. The hive was coming awake fully, and it didn't sound happy about our intrusion.

Pinching one of those thin wires with the device, I waited for just a second before Myalis updated my HUD.

It seems as if there's more than one model linked to the network and in control of it. There are also several hundred models connected by these wires across the hive. I can pinpoint the location of several of the leads.

"Give their coords to the mortar team. Uh... unless it's really close to me or the soldiers. Don't wanna see us getting bombed by our own side.

Noted. And sent. I'll add the coordinates to your map as well.

A few red dots appeared on my map. One of them was surprisingly close by.

"Stray Cat, we received the coordinates. Mortar team is adjusting to fire now," Lieutenant Moreau said. 'Keep your head low. We want to start and advance after the first strikes land."

"Copy that," I said. Then I hesitated. Was copy the one that meant that I understood?

I didn't have time to ask before I heard a strange, echoing whistle overhead. Three of them, all at once.

Then the mortars came rushing down some two dozen metres deeper in the woods and I ducked down by instinct as they struck the treeline. Explosions ripped branches apart and sent wooden shrapnel flying all over.

A moment passed, as I raised my head up and looked ahead. "LT, looks like that did... jack shit. I think your mortar guys are striking trees and not much else. The, uh... canopy won't last forever, though."

"Noted. I think we only have HE shells with us, nothing penetrative. We don't have timed fuses."

I had no idea what that was, but whatever. "Just shoot each target a few more times. Something will go through eventually."

"I don't know if they brought enough ammo for that," Gomorrah said. "But it should let us clear out this side, at least. We might have to take care of the rest ourselves."

That sucked, but whatever. I hadn't expected mortar support to begin with.

Another whistling rain of shells came down, and this time a pair of them made it through the canopy and thumped into the ground. It shook underfoot as the rounds exploded, sending up dirt and debris and flipping half of a carcass into the air with a spray of plant blood. "One down," I said.

"Mortar team will continue to soften up the further targets. We're moving in," the lieutenant said.

The soldiers started to move forwards behind me, and I decided to drop my invisibility and jog up to where they were waiting. I saw a few heads turn to track me with their lights before I found Gomorrah and the lieutenant in the centre of the formation.

"The hive's not too far off," Gomorrah said. "Once we're on the edge, we'll move in while the soldiers keep our perimetre safe and keep the lane of retreat open."

"So we just dip in, plant a big old bomb, then run the hell away?" I asked.

"I'd couch it in more professional terms, but essentially yes," Gomorrah said.

"Alright! That's my kind of fun," I said. "Myalis, can I have a small box with a replenishing supply of resonators? Just like, six or so?"

Certainly. You're going to be handing them out?

"Like hot cakes," I said.

Once the box appeared, I tucked away a pair of grenades and watched two more appear in the case. There was a small dip in my points counter, but nothing bad. "LT. hand these out to the boys. They're shit at killing aliens, but they last a while and make for good... long-ish term deterrents."

"Thank you," he said. He sounded a little emotional about it.

"Have some of your guys plant them behind us, it'll keep a route open from here to our extract. I've got this feeling that we'll be running a lot in the next few minutes."

"Yes ma'am," he replied.

I might have made a small mistake there, because the soldiers, as silent and professional as they were, were soon passing resonators off to each other. A few were activated and flung way out into the woods.

Well, whatever. It meant more dead aliens and more points for me, so I wasn't going to complain too much about it.

***