HARM (4 page)

Each combat walker had one missile remaining. They continued to run for the cover behind the overpass, their weapon mounts traversing to the rear.  Emerging from a depression in the ground they fired again at the same spider-mech.   Lasers flashed again at the missiles. Five more exploded in mid-air, the sixth staggered the damaged spider-mech, but it still didn’t go down.  The lasers then targeted the escaping walkers which were running flat out at 30 kph.  The combat walkers didn’t have much of a chance.  Four out of the six walkers disintegrated into metal flinging fireballs while the fifth and sixth walkers managed to dodge and clear the corner. 

1800
metres… 
1700
metres…  Three more of the combat walkers popped up over the top of the overpass shoulder and fired another barrage of six missiles.  The damaged spider-mech had already fallen behind and took  two more hits. This time it stopped all movement, but continued shooting.  Return fire on the walkers was fierce.  One more walker exploded with a direct hit.  The last two walkers popped more smoke and ducked back down behind cover.  
1600
metres…
1500
metres…  The spider-mechs relentlessly closed in.

Ericson saw that the range was good.  “All units, engage your targets!” His own command tank surged forward to expose the turret over the top of the overpass embankment to add additional firepower.  He had also been using the overpass embankment for cover. “Gunner.  Fire at will,” he ordered.  

All nine MBTs open fire within a second of each other.  The open woodlands was filled with the roar of 130 mm cannon fire and the pulsing cracks of the enemy beam weapons.   Each of the  enemy mechs was hit by the initial barrage, brilliant explosive flashes from the impacts lighting up each mech, but they withstood the attacks.  Laser fire began stabbing back at the dug in tanks.  Flashes of light, the explosive vapourization of ablative armour blocks indicated direct hits on several of the tanks, but the ablative armour held.  

Before the autoloaders on the tanks could complete the loading of the second rounds into the
gun
breaches, dozens of anti-tank missiles streaked out from both the north and south woods.  The battlesuit infantry platoon and other combat walker platoon were engaging the spider-mechs from the flanks.  A second set of 130 mm discarding sabot penetrators fired off just 7 seconds after the first set.  They were at the maximum rate of fire for the guns.

The battle became frenetic, with the air filled with laser fire, missiles, and tank shells.   A flanking spider-mech suddenly exploded from either an armour piercing round or a missile hit – no one was sure.  A tank exploded, multiple heavy lasers burning through the ablative armour and the composite armour underneath.  Infantry fired grenades from their launchers and emptied clips of ammunition into the spider-mechs. More anti-tank missiles fired off.  The combat walkers fired off their second wave of missiles then engaged with machineguns.  Machine guns had little affect on the spider-mechs, but they could damage sensors, and distract the enemy.  Spider-mechs had their primary beam cannon, but they also had a secondary laser for use against softer, non-armoured targets.  These rapid fire guns began firing back at the combat walkers and infantry, suppressing
and killing
them. 

Another spider-mech exploded, then two more tanks.  Smoke filled the air from burning wreckage, burning
trees and brush, and all of the explosion
s.  Yet another tank exploded, it’s turret hurled up into the air.  God, that was
Zawadski
’s tank, Ericson thought to himself. 
Zawadski
’s wife was now a widow, but he didn’t even have time to think her or even his own wife as events were moving too quickly.  The alien spider-mechs kept coming, attacking, and were breaking out of the ambush.  The range was now down to 900 metres.  Two more  spider-mechs were damaged and limping, but they kept coming. 

Nothing breaks these guys, he thought. 
We need more firepower. 
He was strangely calm – beyond fear now that combat was underway.  This was a battle the tanks wouldn’t be able to disengage from too easily due to the speed of the alien mechs.  The battlesuited infantry might be able to escape as they could use the woods for concealment, but the tanks would win or die on this battlefield. 

“Gunner.  Target mech right,” he yelled, feeding coordinates at the same time.  A spider-mech was targeting them. 

His tank rocked from the recoil of  its main cannon. 
“Sabot. Away,” the gunner called out. 

At the same time, his tank was rocked by a direct hit on the turret from the alien’s main beam.  Ablative armour erupted in a incandescent blast cloud, absorbing the high-energy pulse.  It suddenly got warm inside the tank.  Looking through his viewfinder, he could see smoke billowing out of the alien mech from their hit.  It fired at them again, but missed.  “Driver, back us up.  Secondary fire position,” he ordered. 

Suddenly, a half-dozen, laser-guided artillery rounds
directly
struck the spider-mechs.  The forward observer had called in the fire mission and infantry with laser designators guided them in.  Huge explosions from the 155 mm artillery shells knocked the spider-mechs off balance while blowing off legs and sensors. One more spider-mech went down, but it was trying to get back up. The artillery had bought them some time, breaking the enemies momentum, but it would be temporary.  After firing one salvo, the artillery would need to scoot to a new firing location as the aliens also had counter-battery fire.  Even now, specialized support spiders further in the rear would be firing off homing missiles to try and kill off the artillery units.

The two sides were now just over half a kilometre apart – 600 metres – too close
.  The lasers stabbed out again. Tank guns fired.  M
ore vehicles exploded.  Two more tanks and three of the damaged spiders were destroyed.   That left only three tanks and five attacking spiders.  Only two of the spiders were still undamaged.  All the main weapons were very lethal at this range.  The tanks had launched smoke grenades and were firing
as they backed up into new positions
.  Ericson’s tank and a couple of re-armed combat walkers were back up on the overpass shoulder trying to provide fire support.  Fire from the woods had slackened considerably after being heavily suppressed by enemy fire.  Both the combat walkers and the infantry had expended their missiles and had taken considerable losses in the fight. 

Even as Ericson watched, a beam burned through the turret armour of another tank which exploded in a brilliant fireball.  His tank fired again.  This time one of the damaged spider-mechs blew apart, collapsing down on its now limp legs. 

His tank was suddenly hit by a hammer blow that knocked the breath out of him.  A laser blast had blown a hole in the front left of the tank’s body.  The interior filled with thick acrid smoke while the power went dead. A fire suppression system went off filling the lower interior with foam.  “Sam, Evan, you guys okay?”

Sam, the gunner, called back, “I’m okay.  Think Evan’s dead though.  The blast caught him, and there’s blood everywhere. Smoke’s getting thick.”

“We gotta get out,” Ericson replied, “tank’s history.” He turned around and opened the turret hatch.  He climbed out and helped to pull his foam soaked gunner out of the burning tank.  They would have to run for cover.  The battle would be over soon as it was one tank against four mechs.

***

Only a kilometre separated Joshua from t
he spider-mechs attacking
Bravo Company
.  His HARM
crashed
through the woods, knocking down branches and crushing vegetation under foot.  His tactical display showed rapidly disappearing friendly units in real-time.  They had done far better against the spider-mechs than he had anticipated.  The ambush work
ed amazingly well against the
far superior foe. Those guys deserve a medal, especially the armour commander, Joshua thought.

"Damn," Joshua whispered to himself.   One tank left, some walkers, and scattered infantry everywhere.  The Blue Newts were pretty much about to overrun the blocking force despite their heavy losses.  There was definitely some truth to the stories about Newts not breaking easily.  It would be up to him to stop them.

Surprise was on his side again.  If the humans had any one advantage on the battlefield, they seemed to have better tactical information from a wider array of sensors and drones.   There were four Black Widows left, two of which were damaged.  He was coming in on their southern flank and should be able to bag one or two of them quickly.  Even odds, Joshua figured, if he didn't get pinned. 

All of the alien mechs had heat sinks deployed in their rear quarters to bleed of
f
the massive amounts of excess heat being generated by the continual firing of their beam weapons.  There were huge blooms of heat on thermal displays.  Joshua selected one of the  damaged mechs to finish off. 
"
Coil gun to single mode
,
"
verified the AI.

His legs mimicked a slight jumping motion, leaping his mech up into the air.
"
Low jump, 10 metres
,
" the AI verified.  In the air, he quickly targeted the dead center of the heat bloom on the damaged mech.  Adjusting his aim, he fired at apogee.  Less than a second late
r, the spider-mech blew apart, the
power plant hit through it's weak spot. 

“
Target destroyed
,
”
the AI announced. 
The AI
then
fired landing rockets and he twisted to the side to change his approach path.

One down, he thought to himself.  Joshua continued closing in, under the cover of the woods.  The alien mechs turned to face this new threat.  They fired semi-blindly into the woods, not knowing his exact location.  The spider-mechs were tall though.  With their height they could see  the occasional movement from Joshua as his mech crashed through the trees.

A few beams passed near Joshua, leaving great burning swaths of tree
s
behind them.  They were not close enough to seriously worry him, but he put more caution into his approach.  He was 700 metres out now and had worked his way clear of the enemy fire by moving more slowly away to avoid giving his location away.  He didn't want to expose himself too much, but he needed to keep the pressure on the enemy.  He picked the remaining damaged mech as his target.  Performing another low jump, he fired again.  The enemy mech took the penetrator hit off to the side, but it took out two leg joints, crashing it to the ground.  On the way down his HARM took a hit to his left side from a beam cannon.

Wham! 
A portion of
active
molecular armour vapourized in an exploding cloud that rocked his machine. 
An alarm buzzed
and indicators began blinking
.
"
L
eft side damage
,
" the AI called out. 
"
Minor damage to torso servos.  Rerouting servo circuits 8 through 10. Armour is 85% intact
.
”  Joshua landed safely then rolled right, noting that the controls felt a tad sluggish.  Crouching down he then moved off on a tangent.

With the
third
mech immobilized, the remaining spider-mechs spread out and advanced into the woods toward him.  They fired as they went and locations near where Joshua’s HARM had landed were engulfed in flame. 
After a minute the fire slackened off when the aliens realized they were not going to hit him or flush him out.

They’re trying to catch me in a cross-
fire, Joshua thought, g
ood move
on their part
. 
He quickly studied the tactical display.  He was slightly off center in between the advancing mechs.  His bunny jumping to fire would probably not be a very good idea now that both Black Widows were focused on him.  He would probably take damage from another attempt.  Instead, he would try and work his way towards the nearer mech and take it head on.