February, Monday 24th, 2048
15:00
It had taken HANAF a little longer than I expected, but a test was scheduled for today. At the request of HANAF, we would be using a modified version of the mortar bombs without a big bang. Elya had bent the rules a bit and helped me redesign the explosive filler. It would now make a puff of smoke rather than a serious explosion.
I had brought twenty mortar grenades for the test, plus some measurement tools. HANAF did not lend me a mortar, but I had found much of the specs of the M252 mortar on the net. Today, I might be able to reverse engineer the rest.
We met in the north of Victoria, from where we would shoot at one of the uninhabited islands a few kilometers off the coast. HANAF had set up some targets there they had put together from scrap Macks. We had a Type 21 to shoot at, cobbled together from Type 21 wreckage by HANAF. A Type 3 like the one I had possessed for a few days and finally some smaller stuff. A HANAF drone watched from above for better images of the impact.
The grenades had a small panel at the side where one could pick the desired target. For the first test, I selected Type 21 as target type.
With me closely watching, one of the soldiers dropped a bomb down the barrel.
WHUMP
Half a minute later, the target was covered in a cloud of pink smoke. It seemed Elya was getting back at me for the “Little Aug.” From the soldiers I heard “What the fuck?” and “BWAHAHA, girl smoke!”
But as the test progressed, we had three out of three direct hits on the Type 21, three out of three on the Type 3 and three out of four on the Type 28. Eventually the soldiers took a break, while I was busy taking measurements of the mortar tube and taking pictures through my augs.
The remaining ten rounds went into a few tests with mixed targets or even no targets. Without targets present, the bombs were supposed to self-destruct, which they did as expected. By the end, the little island was covered in pink residue from the smoke.
February, Friday 28th, 2048
15:00
Once again, an Emergence warning came in. Time for a field test under realistic conditions. I had printed another twenty mortar grenades by that time, and my own mortar too. And made other preparations.
I knew I might need a forward observer, and the Victoria authorities had the bad habit of shutting off the internet and phone service during Emergences. But at the moment, I had only 189 points and wanted to avoid spending them on things I could achieve otherwise.
So instead of buying blueprints for points, I had bought a few old-fashioned walkie-talkies for credits. And some old-fashioned paper maps of Vancouver Island with a coordinate overlay. Getting these had required a trip to Ralph’s Surplus Store in Sooke. Not the Ralph I knew from the gun range. Different Ralph and even more weird.
I loaded my arty stuff into the van and drove over to Roger’s place. He was at home, Ellen and Phil too. I asked them “Interested in some Mack hunting? I have artillery and I'm looking for forward observers.”
Roger: “What the fuck?”
“81mm mortar with guided bombs. Official project with HANAF, but I have printed a few extra grenades.”
Roger: “Are you fucking crazy?”
Phil: “That sounds interesting. What’s your plan?“
Nice. I knew Phil had some experience with arty, so he might be the best qualified I could get.
“As soon as we have a good idea of the location, set up three to five kilometers away and try to find some Macks with no friendlies nearby. If there is no line of sight, the forward observer would become important.”
How important would really depend on circumstances - if HANAF had a recon drone up where Elya could swipe real time video for me, I might not even need the forward observer. Again, keeping Elya’s full abilities under wraps made things a bit cumbersome.
Phil said “I might be a little crazy, but I’ll come along. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen precision artillery in action.”
Roger replied “I’m not coming along for this harebrained idea. But you can borrow the magic tablet. Just don’t lose it.”
Which turned out to be an old surplus tablet that was still logged into a forgotten user account on the local defense net. That account was even authorized to view real-time reconnaissance video. Not quite as good as Elya, but convenient for me because I could keep Elya’s hacking abilities hidden.
Another twenty minutes later, Phil figured out that trouble was expected along the road to Nanaimo. Within minutes, we were on our way up the deserted Trans-Canada Highway.
I asked Phil ”Could you check the road ahead for obstacles? Especially roadblocks?”
“I have intermittent eyes on the road to Duncan, further north the surveillance drones are on another channel I have no access to.”
Twenty minutes later he added “There is a road block just south of Mill Bay. For whatever reason is beyond me.”
“Can you point me to an exit before we get into their view?”
A few minutes later we left the highway near the old Mill Bay Ferry Terminal and parked the van at a point from which my mortar could reach most of the Ardmore waterfront and the west beaches of John Dean Provincial Park. As I had no interest in discussing my little trip with the RCMP, operating further north was out.
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Phil grabbed one of the walkie-talkies and a map, then he went looking for a good observation spot. While he was still underway, I heard messages on the defense net about Macks attacking Ardmore from the sea.
Minutes later Phil reported “I can see Type Twenty-Ones digging in at the beach of Coles Bay Park”.
These were huge metal caterpillars the size of a school bus, with six strong arms at the front. I lugged the mortar parts some distance away from the van and started assembling them.
Phil: “Are you ready to fire?
“I need a few more minutes!”
“Get a move on!”
I have a live feed from a HANAF drone now.
As soon as I had pointed my mortar roughly to the target, Elya projected a map on my augs with the locations of detected Macks overlaid. For now my targets were the two Type 21 at Coles Bay Park.
I prepared the first four grenades with the target type set to Type 21. Then I grabbed my walkie-talkie and asked Phil “Any friendlies nearby we might hurt?”
“I cannot see any. But make one test shot before you go all out”.
I grabbed a grenade, removed the safety and dropped it down the barrel of the mortar.
WHUMP
Half a minute later I could still see the mortar grenade, gleaming in the evening sun and diving towards its target. Then it disappeared from my sight behind the trees.
Phil: “That was a perfect hit. Fire some more!”
In intervals of maybe eight seconds, more shots went out.
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
I hustled to get more mortar rounds ready. When I was done, I called Phil again “I’m ready to fire more. Target area still clear of friendlies?”
“Yes, keep firing.”
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
I prepared four more, but called Phil before I started shooting again. “Report please, am I still hitting?”
“You are, but always the same Mack.”
“Is it dead?”
“Not sure, these things can take a lot”.
I resumed shooting.
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
At this point, I had eight of my twenty grenades left.
The HANAF drone is over the targets again. The one you keep hammering is burning.
Elya overlaid a video over an edge of my vision. It was a beautiful view, fourteen meters of twitching, burning steel.
I needed to hit the other one too. I made a slight adjustment to the mortar so the bombs would be falling a bit more to the southeast. When the next set was ready, I called Phil again
“Phil, I’m adjusting my aim a bit to hit the other one. Target area still clear?”
“Yes, continue.”
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
Phil called me “One round went off target and self-destructed. Good that you have thought of such safety features. One hit your new target, the other two went after the burning one again”.
You can stop shooting at your first target. It is dead.
Target eliminated! 1x Type 21
Reward... 500 Points
This model is responsible for bringing in Mack reinforcements. Destroying it is rewarded according to its important role in enabling the emergence.
Four grenades left, and it seemed unlikely I could kill the second Type 21 if half my mortar bombs preferred to hit the dead one. On the other hand, fourteen mortar rounds for killing a Type 21 seemed cheap enough.
I called Phil again. “I think we need to spread the love around elsewhere. Do you see targets that are not too close to the Twenty-Ones? Maybe a different type?”
“Two Type 28 sniper units on the southern tip of Ardmore, west of Coles Bay. I cannot see any others.”
These are the most promising targets. There are some smaller Mack units in Ardmore, but they keep moving around. Even with your guided mortar bombs, you might have trouble hitting those.
I could see the two Twenty-Eights on Elya’s overlay. Aiming was easy.
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
WHUMP
The HANAF drone came around again, and I could observe the impacts in real time. Four bombs in a row hit the Type 28 that stood a little more to the west and blew it to smithereens. Its twin, a few meters away, seemed unhurt.
Target eliminated! 1x Type 28
Reward… 20 Points
With a sigh, I called Phil. “We are done here, I’m out of ammo.”
Then I realized something. Making my debut as an independent artillery commander might be a bit too early. “Elya, could you delete the footage that HANAF drone has collected?”
Done. I have even faked a technical defect to make it look less suspicious. By the way, you have one token and 709 points now.
I wondered if I had considered this early enough. If someone had paid attention to the live footage, deleting it after the fact might not do much good.
Meanwhile, at SHOCKS:
Operator Ethan had just received a call from Longhorn, one of his Magical Girls and team leader of the Battle Bugs. “Ethan, there are explosions from the south of Ardmore, where you reported those Type 21s.”
“Go over there and check it out, but be careful.”
Minutes later, Ethan had been busy supporting another team meanwhile, Longhorn called again:
“Sorry, we got delayed a bit. We are at Coles Bay Park now, and there are two Type Twenty-Ones. One is burning and seems to be dead. The other one has a hole blown into it but is still active. No other enemies in sight. Engaging the surviving Twenty-One now.”
Through Longhorn’s eyes, James could see Ladybug electrocuting the Mack, then Mantis and Longhorn herself went in for the kill. Mantis started to hack off the arms, Longhorn rammed her spear through its flank. Once it had penetrated the steel shell, she triggered the thermite injector function. Thanks to Advent dimensional shunting technology, a much larger amount of molten steel than should have fit into the spear flooded the huge machine. Once she retracted the spear, acrid smoke wafted from the puncture hole. Longhorn repeated the process a few more times along the length of the metal monster. Eventually it succumbed to the damage and stopped moving.
From the corner of his eye, James saw movement on another screen he should probably have paid more attention to. That screen showed footage from a HANAF surveillance drone, and right now there was a smashed and still smoldering Type 28.
A second later, the footage became grainy and cut out for a moment. When it came back and James tried to rewind to an earlier point in the footage, he found the data corrupted.
Should he report the incident? James knew he was supposed to. But he also knew that his immediate superior tended to be harsh on people who made incomplete reports. Just having a glimpse of a smoking Mack to report was pretty incomplete. Perhaps it was better to say nothing at all.