Strike Range

Ch:2

Ground Pounding

 

"You do realize that mixing combat, massively high explosives, and Davison is the formula for the end of the world, right?"

Capt. Richson, Kalidia Campaign, 2387

 

Ohansu Compound, Drop Point Bravo, 6:50 FT

 

Akalia watched as the drop ship carrying her charge powered up again, pulling up into space, with the kid, and her fighter aboard. She nodded quickly at something Davison said, before exiting the cockpit of his drop ship. She looked around, taking a concerned eye at the design of the craft, annoyed with its crudeness, but then smiling, knowing the design's workableness. She took one last look at the craft taking Melony back to safety, before backing into Davison.

 

"A little preoccupied?" Davison gave his usual annoying smirk, re-arranging the grip on his rifle. He nodded at his squad, who began filing out into the crowded streets beyond, their protective armor clinking slightly.

 

Akalia had a bark of laughter for a moment, realizing he was right. She shook her head in silent amusement as she started after them. "Tends to happen when you almost turn into an ugly smear on the ground." She looked back as the drop ship powered back up, then picked up and away through the hovering storm of fighters above. She grabbed the spare rifle tossed at her by Davison, then took a good look at it. "Hey, I remember these little bundles of destruction..." She had a smile on her face, the old times coming back to her. "One of the old Mark 10-20s. Hyperlight definitely knew how to make 'em rock. A little underpowered, don't you think? They were for back in the days a single terrawatt was enough to kick somebody's rear." She flipped it around, trying to get the balance.

 

"Heh, if only it was the good old days, when I could just set a couple of photon torpedoes and glass the whole place." Davison patted Akalia on the back, gesturing towards his men. "They're the latest edition of the Mark 10 line, the 10-24." He set out behind his men, hoping that the expedition would be more of a bore and remembrance of the old days, rather than a shoot 'em out firefight to the finish. Akalia seemed a bit confused, but got more than she bargained for. "The old M10 line got banned in the late 2420's for being..." He cleared his throat in amusement, and started imitating some military jar head, "... too powerful for any civilian to have their hands on, they will be put out of commission immediately!"

 

Akalia shook her head, finding the irony of the situation delightful in its own morbid way. "Figures that you would be the one to bring them back. They're still underpowered for this age." She slapped Davison back on the back, expecting to have an interesting time freeing the prisoners.

 

"So you think." Davison started keeping his rifle at a ginger distance as he looked around a corner. "Got the Alliance's best scientists to work on the design. These M10-24's 'll blow a hole big enough to fly an Avenger through without worry, at a distance of a hundred miles straight through the saucer section of a Leviathan." Davison loved the shocked stares of the men as they looked at their weapons, and the way Akalia put the rifle she held at a safe distance. "I don't know if they'll give you cancer, but man, oh, man are they my kind of overkill."

 

"And why are they being issued as the standard weapons in any numbers, instead of the long-range artillery positions they should be enjoying?" Akalia held it as far as she could while still holding a good combat grip.

 

"Because that's only at the setting "Total Annihilation". They've got all the other normal settings as well. Stun, warm, toast, melt, vaporize, flambe. The usual." He gestured with his rifle. "C'mon. We've got a couple of sectors to clear."

 

"So... I'm guessing it's probably got more firepower than came standard with the Long Shot's pylon Cantar Cannons? Around 200 Exawatts or so?" Akalia grimaced at the huge sum of power, confirmed by a slow, satisfied nod of Davison's head. "So, um, what's our target?" She wanted to get off the rather apocalyptic train of conversation with Davison's evil half. She was also getting a little nervous about the situation she had gotten herself into. It had been a long time since she had been in a ground fight, and she was more than a little rusty. Plus, while courageous in a ship, on the ground, she was a yellow livered coward. She had never been face-to-face with her prey, in her previous life, or her new one, and been able to take it down. It was why she was on the path she was.

 

"It's a simple enough target. We're after the power generators. I'm going to get the compound's attention fixated on us while a little less visible team goes after the control center." He stopped across from a door-way, looking into the gloom inside. Something in there had moved. He gestured to his team, indicating that he wanted the building sweeped for potential trouble.

Two of the marines slid up to the edges of the door, then peeked around the corner. They promptly were laid out flat on the ground by well-placed stones from above. "HAH! Eat that you scum!" The voice certainly sounded human, but it was impossible to tell for certain. What really got Davison's attention was the next rock, which hit him in a rather uncomfortable place.

 

"Whoever it is, is-"

 

"Now, now. Hold up a second, Davison. Just because you got, well, you know..." Akalia planted herself between the doorway, and the highly annoyed Davison. "We're supposed to be rescuing, not killing indiscriminately." Davison tried to interject something about getting discriminated on, but Akalia kept on going. "So, quit complaining, and if you really need to, send in me or a couple of marines."

 

"Yeah, keep dreaming you scum! Always got to send in proxies to do your dirty work! Afraid to do it yourself!?" The voice on high was starting to get annoying in and of itself as a couple more stones were dropped.

 

Davison ducked into the door-frame as rocks bounced off and into the street. Davison cleared his throat loudly to get the crazy rock-thrower's attention. "This is a Civil Alliance Rescue operation! If you're some scum working for the Ohansu, well, you're dead meat. Any other scum may come down here and be picked up to get out of harms way!" He was about ready to just throw a grenade up into the upper story and be done with it.

 

Whoever it was that was manning the upper story rock barrage paused for a long moment, thinking over the statement carefully, likely trying to tell if Davison was lying or not. Then came the rebuttal, in the form of a bucket load of rocks, and the most stinging words yet. "You masked scum can try, but you can't trick us! We're too good for you! You can try to suppress us, but we will never stop!"

 

Akalia rolled her eyes, grinning with a few of the men at the ridiculousness of the situation, but the normally midnight black Davison was so white with rage as to look like paper. Akalia shook her head at the stubbornness of men, and in particular her long-time friends. "Got any ideas?"

 

"Nuking this building for one." Davison looked up, wondering if he could throw a grenade up through the upper story window. "I'm sure as heck not going in there to try to talk to the moron though. Putting several power-pack's worth of shots into him, maybe."

 

"Fine then. Hopefully my old communications major still counts for something." Akalia was remembering one of the reasons why the good old times ended. Davison ended up sneaking torpedo warheads into battle and blowing everything they were trying to capture to smithereens. She dashed across the street and plopped against the wall, readying her weapon. "Let's hope that that major counts for diplomacy as well..." She glanced up as a nearby rattle of weapons fire warned of danger coming. "Here goes..." She dashed inside.

 

"You had better hope so! If I have to come in there, it ain't gonna be pretty for that poor fool who got me!" Davison scowled, then turned back to his men, who where smiling and shaking their heads in amusement over Davison's predicament. "WHAT? I'm a demolisionist, not a diplomatist!" Davison stared back into the dark, looking for Akalia.

 

Akalia was fumbling with the flashlight mounted on the tip of her rifle, trying to get it to activate. She had turned the corner at the end of the entrance hallway to the barracks, and had passed beyond the light from the door. "Drat it, work!" The light jiggled on for a moment. "I'm betting this sucker just came off the lab bench...

 

"Akalia, hurry up so we can get moving again!" Davison sounded like his usual impatient self.

 

"Ah, shuddap! I can only go so-" Akalia was cut off when she hit the massive frame of someone in the dark. "Crap." A pair of work-roughened hands seized her, hauling her off her feet and holding her tight.

 

"Who's this? Doesn't feel like one of those Ohansu's little stooges. Must be a new race conquered by the empire. The boss will want to see what our 'hosts' are up to." The gruff voice had her in a tight grasp, swinging her around to take her someplace, from the feel of the jostling, to the rock-thrower upstairs.

 

Akalia worked her voice back, mustering what little courage she had left. "I'm no pawn of the Ohansu empire. I'm a captain of the Civil Alliance, here to rescue you people! It wasn't what we were expecting, but we've come to help! If you'll just lend us a hand!" She was dropped on the top floor, suddenly realizing she was deprived of her weapon. "Wrong kind of hand." She looked around, peering through the gloom and looking at the people in the room. "Come with us, and you'll get a chance to pay the Ohansu back for every last hurt they have given you! Listen to me!"

 

"I am. It's surprising. I thought the Vulpin of this day and age had gone into hiding. It's been a long age since I last saw one quite so bold as to try a raid of this scale." A lanky man crept out of the shadows, his hair dark and unruly from little care. Bruised and battered, yet still defiant of authority, his eyes glowed with an inner fire. Akalia gasped under her breath, recognizing him, though knowing his features from long ago. She had thought him dead and lost to the years, but here he was. A pipe in one hand, the other shielding his eyes against the glaring sun from the windows. "Sure... hey wait..."

 

"Akalia, will you hurry up already, we've got to get going again!" Davison's butt-in could not have come at a worse time. He had no sense of sublety, then again, most of the time the situations he got himself into couldn't afford sublety. "We've got over 3 million to people to move off this barren old rock, a power generator to smash, and good lord knows what else to do! The Ohansu fleet could be on their way right now!"

 

"Yes.. I thought so.. Davison. I would have figured him more for this. Odd too, that he lives." The man pulled his hand away from his eyes. "It took me a bit to figure out the voice." He slowly advanced, the pipe still ready to strike, but his hand offered in friendship, until he stopped just out of reach. "I wonder. It wouldn't be too hard if Davison is still alive, to force him to say a few lines, in order to bust us out of our fortification."

 

Akalia winced, realizing that she probably only had a few moments to win him over to her side. "Do you think the Ohansu would fake their fleet getting blown out of orbit, the defenses of this outpost getting torn apart just to stop some insurgancy!?" She felt around her belt, realizing that her sidearm from her ship was still attached to it. She pulled it out, everyone in the room jolting forward, then stopping. She held it over to the man, the leader and the one she knew oh so well.. "They would storm this barracks if they wanted to. Will you help us, or are you willing to stay here, and die at their hands?" She could only hope that he wouldn't take it from her only to kill her with it.

 

Luckily, her fear was unfounded. He took the pistol, and handed the pipe to another member of the group. "Just hope you have the manpower to beat them, or else I'll turn you in myself. I'd rather give myself another chance to build a craft and get off this dirt bag of a planet, than get shot trying to take the whole place." He activated the pistol, taking a quick, hard look at it to memorize the setting buttons. "Team, I'll go downstairs, and get the rendezvous coordinates for whatever ship this little band is using to house their ship. Afterwards, I'll go with them. You guys will get to the coordinates after getting armed, and protect the ship against all takers."

He had the sound of a man who had seen many a bloody failed prison revolt.

 

"It's a lot more than one ship..." Akalia smiled as the now man gestured.

 

"Lead the way to your little rebellious party." He grabbed Akalia's rifle back from the front guard, and handed it back to her. "They've got some tough armor, you'll probably need this."

 

"Don't worry so much. The Alliance beat an entire battle-fleet." Akalia decided to forgetfully not mention the fact that it was bottled up so tight one shot caused a chain reaction of destruction. She beckoned, leading the way out.

 

"Yeah, sure. Keep talking." He eventually rounded the front corner, and looked out, really seeing the squad for the first time. "Nice uniforms. Takes more than those and a- holy crap..." He had looked up, and seen the fleet. Not just a small portion of it, the entire thing. They had moved into an ultra low orbit, skimming the atmosphere of Kalida at less than a hundred miles up. He looked around the streets. actually noticing the number of marines for the first time ever. "Okay, I take that back. You might actually stand a chance of holding the Ohansu off. Andre Richson, at your service." He bowed in his filthy rags, scartasticly, yes, but still with respectfulness.

 

Davison twitched at the familiar name, not quite putting two and two together, and checked his watch. "Okay, we've got to get moving. Your little checkpoint..." He glared at Andre slightly, "held us up. We've got to make double time to reach the generator on time. I'd prefer getting there yesterday." A Firebird cruiser rumbled overhead, moving in to provide support, and to drop off troops. "About time some more guys got into this fight." He nodded towards where scans had indicated the power generators would be. "Let's party our fair share before they hog all the fun."

 

"Hey, where's your drop point, first? I've got a group of people who need to get off this rock. They've been getting abused and tortured under the Ohansu's rule for the past decade or so and need to break loose." Andre had a 'I ain't goin anywhere till you tell me what I want' look on his face. "There's some kids in there too." He always knew how to handle a commander's heart. They all had soft spots for kids, even if they hated 'em on the surface.

 

"Kids, aw, now that's just sickening. Drop point Bravo is back-" He got his bearings, and pointed back the way they came, just as another ship landed there. "right there. Hurry though, I don't know for how long that point is going to stay put." He watched as the group filed out of the barracks. "Move, and quick. It sounds like the Ohansu, whoever they are, are closing in on our locations." As they ran for safety, he turned back to Andre. "I'm taking it that you were the noob who was in charge of that outfit?"

 

"I'm not nearly as green as you would think. Had to make do with inexperienced fighters, and no equipment or fire points than what was available around this building." Andre took point, leading off in a different direction than the street Davison wanted to take. "Had to take this building. About a block that way-" He indicated the street he was on. "There's a major intersection, and back the way you came from leads to the control tower. This way is to the power generators, which you say is your target."

 

"Now wait just a minute, I checked in orbit, there's a whole bunch of power over that way." Davison pointed down the path he wanted to take, insistent that it was the right way. He started off, until Andre's words brought him to a halt.

 

"It's a decoy. The real generators are shielded against detection. The new Ohansu fleet commander made a few changes in the structure of all installations and ships after a few nasty defeats." Andre pointed back in the direction that he had pointed out. "They've shielded the generators for one, I was one of the people they had doing it. And second, that other power signature is some kind of ongoing experiment, and they've pulled everybody not guarding it or working on it a mile away. It'd be suicide. They've got legions upon legions of guards, and I've heard weird things about that place."

 

"Fine, we'll go your w- YEAGH!" Davison jumped at the touch of Akalia's rifle to his back. Jumped a lot higher than would be expected of a old black dude. After a few moments of panting in panic and catching his breath, he realized that his squad was moving off without him, Akalia and Andre oddly in sync with each other at the head. "Akalia, will you quit doing that every chance you get!?" He ran to catch back up, looking to his sides for Ohansu troops ready to strike. "And how do you know you can trust him?"

 

"Because I can, and that should be enough for you. I know he is without reproach of character, even if his methods seem to be a bit crude and brutal." Akalia gave her most velment reprisal first, then got ready to say something

 

"I'm guessing her other answer is going to be yes." Andre looked at the Admiral, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Okay, you guys have likely not faced the ohansu on the ground, so I might as well give you some data. Only the overlording race is somebody new as far as I can tell. They keep to themselves most of the time, but when they do come around, it's in some kind of suit. Hides their body pretty well, and I haven't gotten a good look at them." Andre peeked around a corner, looking into the intersection. "Parade grounds are clear, come on!"

 

The squad followed the trio across the grounds, as Andre briefed them further. "Most of the Ohansu empire is actually humans and other races that decided that their plan for the galaxy was what they wanted, and they've been barging across the galaxy ever since. Anyone who so much as refuses military service is thrown into one of these pits." Andre paused, checking around another corner. He had either learned from experience, or had been trained in standard military procedures. "Until recently, they were just muddling along, wrecking the galaxy. And then this new guy came along, and has been totally preparing to knock the opposition for a loop."

 

Akalia and Davison looked at each other for a moment, realizing why the Ohansu had tried the nebula stunt in their siege of Base 193. "Crap." The two realized that the fight for the galaxy might well be too costly, if a smarter commander lead the Ohansu...

 

At that moment, a not so far off explosion rocked the district, a plume of smoke rising above the buildings. Blasts from 10-24s could be heard echoing between the buildings, the signs of a counterattack at hand. "Take cover! Incoming approaching!" Davison ducked behind a building at the generator end of the grounds, as his squad moved into position nearby. They concentrated near the admiral, and readied their weapons. Davison kept an eye on the streets from which the sounds of battle were coming from, leaving a portion of him mind going over the identity of the rebel leader. He seemed strangely familiar.

 

Smoke grenades exploded at the edge of the grounds, forcing everyone's minds back to the present. A group stumbled out, shooting into the dark, nearly getting shot themselves before Davison caught the uniforms. "Hold your fire! Friendlies over there!" He broke cover, gesturing for the squad of injured and beleaguered marines to get behind the buildings on the other end of the square, right before a firestorm broke out. The ground troops of the Ohansu had finally arrived.

 

The black armored troopers stomped out of the smoke, guns blazing. Until a grenade flew through the air, fired from the launcher under Davison's gun. As it's adhesive charge flared, sticking to the leader's armor, one of them had a totally non-sequitor comment to say. "Hey, look, a fuzzy blue spider..."

 

"GET IT OFF! IT'S A GR-" The horrified scream was cut off as it exploded, sending the squad flying around.

 

Davison ducked the flying debris, and grabbed one of the injured men of the alliance battalion, dragging him to cover. The man's leg was shot through and through with a cauterized blast, and it was barely usable. Davison felt the weight of the man lighten, and turned to see Andre supporting the wounded marine with Davison, along with helping Akalia with another on his other shoulder.

 

"Come on, let's get these people to safety!" Davison could very easily agree with Andre's sentiment, and fired a few rounds back into the smoke, trying to keep any more soldiers from coming from the dark.

 

"Somebody get a fighter down in here!" Davison gave one last pull, eliciting a scream of pain from his charge as he placed him behind a column. "You need to stay put. Get a medic over here!" Davison looked around the corner, to see several more squads of the black armored marines emerge from the thinning smoke. "Akalia, remember Thaeaus V?

 

"Got it!" Akalia pumped a few shots into the badly made roof on the side of the street, showering the roofing tiles down onto the emerging battalion. She ducked behind cover, yanking the medic in with her just as a storm of fire hit their position. "They've got good aim!" She struggled to make herself heard over the racket of the blasts.

 

"Won't be good enough when that fighter arrives! Where in blazes is it!?" Davison put his rifle into full automatic, laying a sheet of broad beam fire into the enemy street to give time for the medic to cross. The nervous man ran across, sliding to a halt beside the two wounded men. Davison popped a shot at the corner beam of the building behind the enemy troops, trying to bust it in two and bury them. "Akalia, try the beam!"

 

"It is on broad beam!"

 

"No, I think he means hit the corner beam!" Andre put his two cents into the confused situation, and took a shot at the structure with his own puny piece, accidentally taking down one of the troopers in a two shot bullseye. "Dagnabit, now I hate having practiced so much. When I want to miss, I can't!"

 

"So quit complaining and shoot!" Akalia was getting pissed as she sunk shot after shot into the formation without killing any of them. She couldn't hit the lower section of the building like she wanted so that she could collapse it. "Hey, you've got any ideas on how to kill them so I can shoot through to the building?!"

 

"Reactive armor with magnetic shielding. It's still got the same weak points as any other. The joints, the face, etc. Got a nasty one in the small of the back, and another right in the sternum. Hit those two spots, and you can break through in one shot. Otherwise you had better be precise enough to hit the same spot twice." Andre snapped one of the nightmarish troopers necks with a well placed shot, the energy absorbed, but the kinetics still causing damage. "I hate that armor, they built it too well."

 

"Well, let's try my favorite tactic!" Davison set one of his ion grenades to maximum disruption, and shot it into the center of the crowd. The men ducked and rolled out of blast range, but it had the effect he wanted. He realigned his weapon to a continuous beam, and drilled right into the beam, weakening it. "Hold your fire, let them regroup!"

 

The marines behind him, who had been in awe of the shootout, had not really been fighting much to start with, but held off their shots long enough to convince the Ohansu troopers that the battalion was getting ready to retreat. They pulled together, right as Davison put a shot into the upper half of the support, knocking it off balance. "Timber. Domino, you guys get the idea, right?" The building fell down upon the screaming troopers with a final thud. Smoke and dust billowed, columning into the sky. The marines of Davison's squad nodded, rather freaked out by the massive display of demolitions as a valid tactic in street fighting. He turned to the wounded squad that had been chased in. "Report."

 

"Found it. The main generator! We got lost in the fighting, but it's heavily defended. It didn't even show up on sensors, but the building couldn't be anything else." The marine coughed, still trying to get smoke out of his lungs. He leaned on the wall, trying to catch his breath. "Must have been massive fortifications protecting it. We had 10 battalions with us, only our squad got out of there."

 

Akalia turned to Andre and Davison. The two were giving each other looks like they were trying to pass off the tactical nightmare of trying to storm a fortress on the other. "Dagnabit. Did you see any openings in their defense?" Davison leaned in close to the marine, his head pounding with each new possibility of an assault. Each one was worse than the last, each a disaster in it's own way. "Well, I suppose we could simply nuke it."

 

Akalia nodded. "Sounds good to me. No worries about getting all killed. One simple boom, and it's all over." Akalia helped to pull one of the wounded men to his feet.

 

"No... I never did find out what the generators were made of, or if any fuel was kept on site. A strike could quickly turn into an inferno if we aren't careful. I thought you guys were here to protect, not destroy." Andre absentmindedly checked the charge on his weapon. "We'll have to approach from the surface, as there isn't any subsurface tunnels for maintenance. The ohansu aren't real big on giving the opposition chances like that."

 

"You know what, I still vote for the blast-it from orbit plan." Akalia about faced, and started marching back to the drop point. Davison clamped a hand on her shoulder, not even looking at her. He had known her for so many years he knew almost exactly what she would do at any moment. She was turned around again by his hand, and sent marching in the direction of the generator. "Is there any way out of this suicidal mission."

 

"Same answer as when Lanson was in charge. Only if you want to be shot. In a very painful place. We can't afford to smash it, we've got take it, or remove it from play without destroying it." Davison poked her in the back, eliciting a chuckle from Andre. "You two, giggles." That got the entire squad going, until Davison gave one look back to them. They shut up faster than a person would get hairsicles in Siberia on a wet day. "We're going in, people. Move out!"

 

"Crap." Akalia was getting worries about Davison's sanity, much like she worried about her husband's, back in those glory days of yore. She snapped back to the present as the squad fanned out, watching for trouble. "This is why I hate ground fighting." She jumped at a sound in one of the side alleys. She peered into the gloom, not even making out a cat or something. "Why in the heck did I even decide to stay on the ground?! I'm a captain, not a psycho gun waver."

 

"Quiet!" Andre peered around a corner, watching for trouble. He waved with his free hand, leaning up against a wall, and seemingly vanishing into shadow for a moment. He reappeared a good 2 yards away from where he vanished. "Side alleys are clear for this building, proceed on!"

 

"You could have fooled me. You seemed ready to tear Marthan limb from limb, then dismember the remaining parts a couple of weeks back on the base." Davison nudged Akalia, quietly yanking her chain. He skittered across the alleys and back trails with his eyes, watching for trouble.

 

"Excuse me? I wasn't about to do anything to that creep!" Akalia's voice raised, her anger aroused. She didn't want to admit it, but she would have decked the biased captain if Davison hadn't intervened.

 

"Will you two SHUT UP!" Andre looked around, seeing if anyone but the squad had heard his frustrated whisper. He was worried about the two, as they seemed to be back choices for a leading team. The triangle of bickering continued for a good half a mile, with the Ohansu being eerily silent. Even the far-off fighting had stopped. It seemed like the calm before the storm. The company followed the sometimes elusive Andre, as he navigated the little cover that graced the street, sometimes acting like a solid ghost.

 

About at the end of one stretch of buildings, Andre suddenly was running back. He had spotted something. He ducked behind cover, his already rather well-known seriousness prompting the group to do the same. "Found the main generator complex. And it's guards. Dead ahead several blocks, below a ridge in the street. I had forgotten about that nasty ridge." He looked back, and realized he wasn't followed. "Should I get them to follow me into an ambush here, or do you have another plan not involving a direct frontal assault?"

 

"Actually, I was going to think things up as I went along with it." He lead the squad up the hill, pausing just before they would have been seen topping it, and motioning to get to cover. "First things first, let's see what we're up against." He got Akalia and Andre into one of the side buildings, and focused his gun, and it's scope on the generator complex, routing the display to the screens in his helmet. "It's like some kind of new-age Fort Knox. What in the heck do they have in there.... I've never seen so many defensive ground guns in one spot! There must be an entire Division's worth of marines in that one spot! Heavy armor, either this is their main staging area, or they have a heck of a lot more than just generators in there..."

 

"As much as I hate to say it, I agree." Andre looked over the lip of the window, watching the edgy troops warily.

 

"Did I ever mention I'm allergic to death and general chaos on the ground?" Akalia took one look, and tried to head back to the drop ship again, to be restrained by Davison's hand, again. "Can't we just call in air strikes?"

 

Andre turned, receiving an equal look of exasperation from Davison. "I take it she was never this bad when this 'Lanson' fellow was around?"

"Actually, a lot of times she was worse. She's a good ship captain, though." Davison pulled back from the window. "I dunno about the chances of an air strike though. From the sheer level of firepower they have in that one spot, it would be enough to eradicate any squadron. Plus, there's that nagging feeling that it might just be like dropping sugar on a swarm of army ants." Davison sighed, turning to Andre. "I definitely suppose that a slave team running up reporting fighting nearby would get shot, right?" He was still trying to grasp the sheer concentration of firepower in that one spot. He tried to fit a plan about it, but everything he thought of was ripped just before fitting. The Ohansu were guarding something, that much was clear, but they had run out of time to try and figure out the puzzle, and they had to do something right then and there to neutralize them.

 

"Nope. Don't even bother with trying to get into the surrounding buildings and raining shots down on them from those positions. They'll pull a trick like you did with that one unlucky squad. Every building was mined when the new guy took over." Andre pointed to the two nearby power converter stations. "Those might be the weak points in the defense. Go after them, destroy them, and it'll be like you turned off the switch here."

 

"Yeah, I see...." Davison looked over the field of battle, and made up his mind. "Akalia, how accurate is the Long Shot at medium range atmospherically?" Davison had a few ideas. "Hopefully, while they're distracted we can pump heavy weapons fire down onto the troopers out front, and hit them hard enough to take them down." Another idea popped into his head. "And is Knight Squadron capable of running harassment missions, low overflights?"

 

"Your answers, in order: Better than the Kep Salu; good idea; yeah, they are, provided that they shoot overhead so fast they have a second to drop a volley of fire." Akalia tried to sooth her pounding heart, glad to know that her people would be backing her up from the skies like she had been hoping all along. She hit the alert button on her flight suit, letting them know to call in.

 

"Okay then." Andre looked between them. "If you guys think it will work, go right ahead. Just tell me when to duck and cover."

 

"Yeah sure." Davison held his hand up for Akalia. "On my mark, tell them to start their run. I need 4 torpedoes set to lower yields around the complex, then a full hit on the two converter stations." He watched the troops milling around the complex, waiting for a moment when most of them had relaxed. "NOW!"

 

Akalia had relayed the order, and left the comm open. Davison's shout came through loud and clear, and the peculiar groaning of low altitude avenger flight grew, then died away as the fighters flew overhead. The troops down in the square shouted, with several loud thunks in succession showing why.

 

"Is that it? I think you've got duds..." Andre looked out the window, only to get pulled back by Akalia.

 

"Just wait." Several successive thundering crackles of explosions rang, shaking the building, and sending dust raining down on the trio. Akalia looked smugly at the guys. "Delayed timer. I told them to do that for any ground targets, to synchronize explosions, and to give the enemy time to regroup around torpedoes. Curiosity. They come over to investigate why the torpedo didn't go off on impact, and KABLOIE!"

 

Davison looked to Andre, bemused and worried. "She's getting as pryomanicaical as me..."

 

Andre shook his head. "More like she's been as devious and bloodthirsty as me this whole time."

 

"Let's just see what we got done." Akalia peeked through the now warped window, peering through the smoke. "Crap..."

 

Davison and Andre poked their heads in with her, seeing the smoking rubble blocking the way to the generator. "You know..." Davison sighed, his patience sorely tested by the day's events, "this is why I need to stop taking ground tactics ideas from you, Akalia."

 

"Me, you're the one who asked for it and screwed up royally with too MUCH firepower." Akalia griped back at Davison, ticked off at the fact that they had come this far for nothing.

 

"Both of you quit complaining, you've got it out of commission, and you can get us poor souls out of here with a lot less fuss, what could be worse?" Andre had one of those sneaking suspicions that he knew exactly how it could get worse, but he couldn't pin his finger on it. Things were going to get ugly near the end.