"Just gotta have a little faith, Sir."
"We all knew you could fight, but who could ever have known you were capable of anything like diplomacy."
"I wouldn't call it that," he replied.
"Whatever you want to call it, you just stirred up the hornets' nest, Taylor."
"That's what I do."
Dupont walked off confidently, shaking his head in astonishment.
"When in the high hell did you get him on side?" asked Becker.
"It's a long story."
Parker appeared out of nowhere, a puzzled expression on her face.
"Never thought you had it in you," she said.
"I'm full of surprises."
Chapter 7
Taylor awoke to a hammering on his door, causing him to leap from his bed and grab his sidearm. He rushed to the door wearing nothing but his underwear and saw Eli readying her rifle.
"Who is it?" he shouted.
"Silva!"
Taylor ripped open the door and thrust his pistol out in the face of the Sergeant Major.
"Whoa, whoa, it really is me," he complained.
Taylor looked around suspiciously outside the door before lowering his pistol.
"What is it?"
"It worked!" he said excitedly.
"What d'ya mean?"
"A Marine regiment has departed the United States to pledge allegiance to you personally, and more are sure to follow. The government hasn't been able to stop them!"
Taylor rubbed his eyes, trying to work out if he was dreaming.
"All right, give me a minute. I'll be with you shortly."
He shut the door and reached for his clothes.
"If the President wasn't pissed enough with you before, he certainly will be now," said Parker.
"So what? My job isn't to make friends and kiss ass. It's to win this war through whatever means necessary."
"Job? Are you being paid?"
He shook his head.
"Okay, it's my duty, my calling, whatever you want to call it. Hardly a time to worry about money."
"No, not when your head can get removed from your shoulders at any moment from even those close to you."
"What are you saying?"
"You need to be careful, Mitch. You may be making a lot of friends right now, but probably just as many enemies."
"Well then, you'll have to have my back, won't you?"
"Always."
He pulled on his boots and was out the door, leaving her still getting dressed.
"Way to go, Colonel!"
It was a passing soldier he'd never seen before in his life. He nodded in acknowledgement and continued on when he caught sight of a few objects in the sky. They appeared to be drones. He jumped to the nearest wall for cover and then peered around for a better look. They were drones all right, but they appeared to carry no weapons and were hovering over a drill square a hundred metres away. Out of curiosity, he made his way towards them, despite being naturally suspicious.
He took a bend and found Reiter and a few of his team standing around a pile of equipment. Acosta stood watching them. The Private noticed his arrival and beckoned for him to come forward.
"They've done it, built my idea."
Taylor looked down to see a typical Reitech rifle on a table. It appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary.
"Does it work?"
"Initial tests have been positive. We do not have any operational combat drones, so we use video surveillance models instead. The results should be near identical. Would you like to do the honours, Colonel? " Reiter answered.
"What do I do?"
"That rifle you see there is exactly as it would appear. Initially, we developed a concept weapon from the revolving launchers used in the first war, but we are well aware the carrying of additional weaponry is not ideal simply to deal with a particular target. So we redesigned the projectile so that it could be used in the current Reitech rifle. This reduces the spread of the weapon slightly, due to the calibre of the weapon, but I think you will find the results quite pleasing."
Reiter flipped open a box lying on the table. It was full of ammunition and the rounds like nothing he had seen before. The same length and diameter he was used to, but with dozens of small steel rods around the diameter of the head of the round, and initially appeared to be hollow in the centre. He pushed his finger into the hollow area, and it was actually filled with a super fine grade steel mesh.
"The metal tips disperse the round as the projectile gains velocity," said Reiter. "The mesh is exceptionally strong for its size and weight, in what can only be described as being like a spider’s web. Hence the name we have been calling them, web ammunition, or web rounds if you like."
Taylor looked at the ammunition in amazement and then to Acosta.
"Your idea really did work."
"See for yourself, Colonel," he replied.
Taylor drew back the breech on the rifle and loaded a single round manually without need of a magazine. He turned and looked up at the drones that were spaced out five metres apart. He was dubious it could work, but he had faith in Reiter. He took aim and squeezed the trigger. It sounded like a half-powered round due to the low velocity. He watched in amazement as the web opened up, engulfed the first drone, and continued on to catch one behind it and then plummet to the ground.
"Well, I'll be damned."
He put the rifle down and carried on over to see the results. The two drones were completely wrapped in the web and lifeless. One was smashed and in multiple pieces.
"So this will destroy them outright?"
"It would depend on the strength of the drone in question and the height at which it is struck. The web rounds mean the drone cannot use any stabilisation to recover itself and does land hard. With any luck, the impact will be enough to destroy the subject. The worst case is that it remains incapacitated on the ground, and therefore an easy target for you to finish off."
"It's amazing. Amazing in its simplicity."
"I can take credit for the application of the idea, but not the concept itself. That belongs to Private Acosta here, who is far smarter than it would first appear."
"We need these rounds ASAP. How quickly can you get them into production?"
"If you are happy with them as is, I can get maybe a small test batch done by tomorrow, maybe one or two hundred. Getting them into mass production may take a few weeks at least."
"Then do it. These web rounds will save a lot of lives. Make as many as you can, and get them to my Regiment immediately."
Reiter nodded in agreement and began packing away the gear to go about his work. Just as Taylor turned back to Acosta to congratulate him, his comms channel opened. Dupont was on the line.
"Colonel, report to me immediately,"
This doesn't sound good.
When Taylor got to the General's war room, he found it packed with other officers standing around a projection of Europe and all known positions of forces, both friendly and enemy.
"Colonel, your little video stunt has caused quite a stir. And while I hear rumours of whole regiments heading our way to join us, it has stirred up trouble on the frontline. Your message to the World has brought your United States ever closer to joining this war, and that has clearly led the UEN to respond. They have launched a new offensive, a new push, all the way from east of here down to the Mediterranean. It is clear they intend to end this while other nations still contemplate which side of the fence to leap."
"How bad is it?"
"Bad. They have broken through our lines at three points so far, and I don't have to tell you how far our forces are stretched. The war is being fought in every country that’s joined the Alliance. We are losing ground at every turn. I know you are recently returned from one mission, but I am afraid I have to send you on another."