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


    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.


    "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.


    ***