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 unnoticeable haze of blood.
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?" Unnoticed by the battalion commander, his AID switched him to the proper frequency.
"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 running ambush. Your unit is to dispose itself along the boulevard on both buildings and slow their advance. Then extract through the buildings and cross the avenues away from Sisalav."
"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, connect me with all the company commanders. Are we live? Alpha Six, Charlie Six, Bravo Six. Stand by to engage the enemy. The building is being mined by the engineering platoon, you are authorized to provide assets as available. If necessary and on my command we will begin a fighting retreat to the same relative positions on the Sal Line. Bravo is to cover the retreat. Attempt to retake the heavy weapons positions as assets are available. There's no time for questions just hit 'em low and hit 'em hard, that's what we're here for, Falcon Six, out."
* * *
"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 connected to a fractional distiller.
"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 announcement. "He authorized Jericho?"
"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."
When he reached the ground floor he headed for an ammunition cache. As he scooted he was studying the schematic as the engineers frantically laid charges and larger and larger areas turned green.
"What's the plan?"
"It's called Jericho, sir." Mike took a few moments to explain.
"That's a hell of an expansion, lieutenant. It'll give us a breather, but . . ."
"Sir, it'll give us more than a breather, it'll secure this whole sector. Then we can move into support of 7th Cav." When he reached the ammo dump he started loading a grav sled with an M-323 machine gun and ammunition boxes. "Frankly it is what we should have done instead of sending out the mobile forces to get wiped out."
"Mike, this isn't one of your computer games. Just keeping the company from bolting will be hard enough."