Bolo Brigade (10 page)

Hunter Fourteen fired a
va'xachat
from a greater range, almost twenty
erucht
 . . . too far, it turned out, as an antimissile battery blazed, vaporizing the penetrator before it reached the enemy machine's side. A turret spun and a
gr'raa
howitzer round exploded against Fourteen's left leg, the shell too massive and fast to be shunted aside by the Malach's defensive shields. Bits of metal spun away; Fourteen took another step, wobbled, then fell as the leg collapsed beneath its weight.

Four down, half of Chaghna'kraa's octet.

But Schaagrasch had already learned what she needed most to know. The enemy was incapable of layered strategies or flexible defense with multiple combat vehicles. They were relying on this single behemoth, with no hidden reserves . . . or they would certainly have deployed them by now, before their combat machine sustained significant damage. The armor and weapons displayed were identical to those of the artificial
gr'raa
on Zsha'h'lach, massive, dense, and covered over with both reactive armor plate and less substantial magnetic fields, but it
was
vulnerable to the Malach tactics evolved to counter it.

Time to bring in the second octet. Schaagrasch barked an order, and her eight broke from cover, sprinting at a full run down the slope, smashing through the compound fence, storming into the enemy sanctuary.

"Va'xachat!"
she yelled. "All Hunters, coordinated fire, as close as you can get!" She had the
chaak'sha'
, now, the blood-taste that was so vital a part of
UrrghChaak.

The enemy machine spun, a remarkably graceful maneuver for so large and clumsy-looking a vehicle, accomplished by reversing the double set of tracks on one side while keeping the tracks on the other side moving at full throttle. As the
gr'raa
whipped around with deliberate malice, one massive set of treads caught Twelve just as it was trying to angle in closer, crushing one leg with a violent
pop-pop-crack
and sending the flat and angular hull bounding across the pavement. Another Hunter took a direct hit from the
gr'raa
's main weapon—the second that it had sustained in as many seconds—and the forward third of its hull disintegrated in a violently expanding cloud of metallic vapor.

A seventh Hunter, Number Six from Schaagrasch's octet, was torn into flaming shreds by a rapid-pulsed trio of plasma bolts, but the rest loped across open and fire-torn ground, circling, seeking weakness, a Hunter Pack in fact as well as name, seeking to drag down their titanic prey.
Va'xachat
flared and stabbed, most of the projectiles cut down in mid-flight by lightning parries of the
gr'raa
's point-defense weapons, more exploding harmlessly in the subtle web of the prey's magnetic shielding. But even magnetic force screens couldn't deflect the full fury of nuclear violence that stabbed and slashed in dazzling pulses of raw, sun-hot plasma. Mag screens overloaded and failed; reactive armor detonated. In seconds, a dozen bare spots in the giant's flanks had been scoured away, and the circling, snapping Hunters began targeting those exclusively.

When a
Va'xachat
exploded into plasma, a needle-slender penetrator remained at its heart, hard driven by a powerful rocket motor, shaping the energy lance with magnetic fields as it hurtled along its core. Magnetic screens sheathing the target might distort the lance fields or deflect the highly charged plasma, but the electromagnetic pulse or EMP of the blast was powerful enough to overload all but the most powerful mag screens locally. When the lance struck reactive armor, of course, it was disrupted by the back-blast and the penetrator detonated harmlessly against unyielding flintsteel. If the lance touched a spot just scoured clear of outer, reactive armor plate moments before, however, it was hot enough to boil its way down through a slasher claw's breadth of flintsteel; the penetrator struck home an instant later, firing a second plasma bolt from its tip, widening the wound and peeling the inner armored hull open, a white-hot, glowing doorway for the mininuke main charge coming through close behind.

No physical armor, no matter how it was cast, packed, or laminated, could more than briefly resist the detonation of a tenth-kiloton fission device, With the detonation delayed until the penetrator had already plunged deep into the target's protective shell, the blast was sharply focused in two directions, in . . . and out.

One penetrator, fired into a partly molten spot at point-blank range by Hunter Eleven, exploded deep within the armored monster, the blast spilling from the
gr'raa
's side, a volcano's eruption in roiling white flame. The back-blast caught Eleven in the side, toppling the Hunter over in a thrashing of wildly scissoring legs, even as internal explosions rippled through the massive enemy combat machine. One secondary turret was ripped out of the
gr'raa
's flank and sent spinning end-for-end across the compound.

Eight Hunters down, an octet's worth . . . a high price indeed.

But Schaagrasch could already tell that the tide was turning in the Pack's favor.

load slfdiag/level 4

elapstime: .023 sec

run slfdiag/level 4

power sys: 62.51%-

drvtrain: op, reduced capability:86%

nav: online

track/sens: online

suspension: fnctnl

tac/comm: online/jammed

sysop: optml

magscrn: online, reduced capability: 81%

weapsys: online

infrptr 2, 5, 6 dstryd

infrptr 3, 10 dmgd, 50%

end slfdiag/level 4

elapstime: .23 sec

>magnetic screens failing; heavy damage sustained to armor; hull breach at 3 points.

>firefight elapsed time: 17.7 seconds w 8 kills

>strength of enemy firepower and arrival of enemy reinforcements reduces chance of successful engagement to 45%

* * *

Dust and smoke swirled about the artificial
gr'raa
's massive hull as it reversed direction yet again, thundering down on Schaagrasch's Hunter now with astonishing speed. Schaagrasch stood her ground for a long moment, pouring fire into the advancing juggernaut, watching that massive armor absorb everything the Malach Pack leader could throw at it. Ion bolts from the enemy's side turrets sizzled and snapped; Schaagrasch felt the jarring thud as a triplet of well-aimed shots slammed into her machine, rocking her backward. At the last possible moment, she triggered her belly jets, soaring forward and to one side, skimming across the shattered pavement as she twisted in flight, savaging the
gr'raa
's already savaged left flank.

As the huge machine thundered past, a smoking, quaking cliffside of black and blast-shredded metal, she fired another penetrator from a range of less than six
erucht
. The projectile flared almost the instant it left the muzzle of her
va'xachat
launch tube, plunging into armor already ruptured and torn, sending the penetrator striking deep into the metal beast's vitals. When the mininuke detonated, a long instant later, the flash seemed to illuminate the enemy machine from within, setting off a rippling chain of internal explosions that jolted the
gr'raa
and spun it part way around.

The
gr'raa
screamed, tortured metal giving way. With a rending clatter of shattering links, the left-forward track fragmented, bits of metal ringing off pavement and the sides of Schaagrasch's Hunter like hot metal hail. One of the road wheels jounced free in a spray of mounting bolts, striking the ground on its spun monocarbide rim and rolling wildly across the pavement.

The machine kept moving, however, the rims of its remaining wheels striking sparks and black fragments from the hard pavement as they clashed and grated across the surface. The Hunter Pack, sensing in the prey a potentially fatal wound, redoubled their efforts against the
gr'raa
's left front quarter, pouring round after round into the already smoking and blast-torn road wheels, laser and particle beam fire clawing at the spinning wheels, as
va'xachat
penetrators melted their way through relatively thin armor laminate and mininukes flashed and shrilled in a thunderous cacophony. A thunderous barrage of laser and particle beam weaponry swept across the heavily armored blisters on the machine's hull that housed its radar, IR, and optical sensors. Enough hits, enough heat, and the prey's eyes would be gouged, blinded for the kill. Additional weapons—beams and missiles with tactical mininuclear warheads—slammed viciously into the fast-rotating turret that housed the machine's main gun.

At the same time, two of Schaagrasch's surviving Hunters, Two and Sixteen, managed to concentrate their fire against the enemy's remaining port-side track, slicing away great chunks of flintsteel plate with powerfully focused particle beams. The track parted, shattering into separate cleated links as the machine pulled into another hard turn, leaving the broken track stretched out on the ground behind. Inside the fighting compartment of her Hunter, Schaagrasch angled her head far back and loosed a piercing, barking ululation, the victory cry of a Pack Leader tasting blood.

load slfdiag/level 4

elapstime: .023 sec

run slfdiag/level 4

power sys: 21.05%(-)

drvtrain: op, reduced capability: 42%

nav: online

track/sens: 12%

suspension: fnctnl at 52%

tac/comm: online/jammed

sysop: logic array integration at 87%

magscrn: online, reduced capability: 53%

weapsys: online

infrptr 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 dstryd

infrptr 10, 15, 18 dmgd, 40%

end slfdiag/level 4

elapstime: .23 sec

>magnetic screens failing; heavy damage sustained to armor; hull breach at 7 points

>serious damage to optical and ir sensors

>firefight elapsed time: 21.4 seconds w 8 kills

>strength of enemy firepower and arrival of enemy reinforcements reduces chance of successful engagement to 12%

If Schaagrasch was cataloging the weaknesses of the enemy's defenses and technology, she was also critiquing the battle plan that had pitted her Hunter Pack against this foe. With half of her attacking force gone now, and heavy damage to several other of her machines, it was blood-spoor obvious that sixteen Hunters were not enough to guarantee success against one of these lumbering, mechanical
gr'raa
. They might be slow, and they might be stupidly deployed singly instead of in more efficient pack formations, but their armor made them tougher than a
gna'shadath
in its shell, and their firepower was devastating—powerful, precise, and lightning fast. She spoke rapidly, her words picked up and recorded by the Hunter's computer for immediate transmission to base, directing that no less than half an eight of eights ever be allowed to engage one of the enemy
gr'raa
in open battle.

She paused then, considering various possibilities. Malach never failed to learn from their experiences in battle . . . and for that reason they never assumed that the enemy would fail to learn either. It was possible that the enemy did not deploy more than one
gr'raa
at a time for the simple reason that they were expensive, each a profligate investment in raw materials. Still, the enemy was certain to recognize the appalling weakness of their single-machine approach and modify their tactics. It would be best to assume that very soon now, the enemy would begin deploying their
gr'raa
in groups of two or more.

She recorded that thought for the Deathgiver as well . . . along with the recommendation that the optimal deployment in future would be a full eight of eights in any single operation.

No enemy
gr'raa
, no
group
of
gr'raa
numbering fewer than an eight, would survive for long against a Hunter Pack of sixty-four. . . .

This one, she knew, was nearly done for. Its main weapon had taken repeated direct hits, until the turret's outer armor was sagging and misshapen, until the muzzle of the plasma gun had been sheared away by the detonation of a mininuke at point-blank range. Schaagrasch re-entered the fight, lunging forward with a full-powered volley of particle-beam and missile fire. The giant prey swung sharply right, blinded now, its radar emissions almost randomly probing. Hunter Two fired a
ghava'igho
, a tenth-kiloton mininuke that arrowed into the pavement just ahead of the prey, detonating with a dazzling flash twenty
erucht
ahead of the huge machine. The
gr'raa
continued forward, slowing somewhat, as though it sensed danger, but unable to see the sudden yawning crater in front of it. With shattered chunks of pavement flying, it rumbled out over the edge of the crater, tried to stop as it sensed the heat-softened pavement yielding beneath its weight, reversing as the ground suddenly gave way . . . then dropping heavily into the steaming, radioactive pit in a thundering cascade of rubble and crumbling earth.

The prey was trapped now, wheels and remaining treads thrashing helplessly as it ground back and forth in the smoldering crater, gears clashing, smoke boiling from a dozen savage, red-hot rents in its hull. Hunters, black, sleek, and hungry, closed in for the kill. . . .

load slfdiag/level 4

elapstime: .19 sec

run slfdiag/level 4

power sys: 02.10%-

drvtrain: reduced capability: inoperable

nav: offline

track/sens: inoperable

suspension: nonfnctnl

tac/comm: online/jammed

sysop: logic array integration at 11%

magscrn: offline

weapsys: inoperable

end slfdiag/level 4

elapstime: 1.3 sec

>magnetic screens: critical failure; massive damage sustained to armor; hull breach at 7 points