The bunker was a massive structure. Made up of four main parts that were either trucked or flown in before being bolted, welded, or cemented together. The structure was more than capable of withstanding a tremendous amount of incoming fire while still dishing out the hurt all on its own. But it was worse than that. On either side of the imposing fortification stood a multitude smaller barricades and weapon emplacements. The glint of scopes and gun barrels was an obvious deterrent to their progress.
A veritable siege line had been placed directly between them and their potential freedom. They could go around Kaviel supposed silently, but that would depend on them not being spotted or tracked. Something that was almost immediately thrown off the table as the bright flashes of muzzle fire erupted from the fortified line, a second later the sound of impacts rang through the fighting compartment.
“I don't think they like uss!” Freddy said a little too cheerfully given their situation.
“Really? That'ss what you are worried about right now?” Joana asked him.
“Well, it could be worsse. At leasst they don't ssseem to have any heavy anti-armour weaponss.” Freddy said after another second of rattling small caliber fire.
Kaviel was listening with only half his tympanal organs. His main focus was on the Bunker in their way and how he was going to get around. They couldn't just drive around it as the heavier impacts on their front sounded like at least forty-millimeter rounds. Forties would go straight through the light armour of his escort, the Edwards IFVs never designed for full frontal assault.
Well, that left only one option, they would have to blast their way through. The gun barrel could be elevated to maximum to prevent any stray hits from damaging the massive breach of the mortar launcher. This would also had the unfortunate side effect of causing the firing angle to be too far off for an immediate close range shot. But sometimes protecting the shell inside was more important than being able to fire on a whim.
At the moment the gun barrel was not elevated and any stray shot of large enough caliber was a danger to the already chambered round. Kaviel made a flash decision and shouted “Firing, Load HE!” He depressed the firing trigger and immediately felt that familiar pressure wave as the massive two-hundred-and-eighty-millimeter mortar shell tore itself from the short barrel with the near deafening scream of its rocket motor.
Kaviel hadn't taken the time to aim it precisely, instead just ballparking it in the general vicinity of the bunker itself. This fact was made blatantly apparent as the shell impacted a full twenty meters to the right of the distant bunker, a tremendous fireball tearing a crater in the hardened asphalt of the roadway and showering the bunker with red hot debris. It did little to its armoured exterior though, the blast having only scratched its paint while clearing one half of the street of the smaller tank traps and barricades.
Freddy and Joana were already slamming a new shell home by the time the enemy had recovered from the blast enough to start firing again. But this time Kaviel had taken a moment to aim the main gun properly.
He fired, the shell soaring in a shallow arc before slamming directly into the armoured face of the bunker. The massive shell had an optimal infantry kill radius of just over one hundred meters, but this assumed perfectly flat terrain and no giant titansteel reinforced boxes or trenches to cower in.
When the dust from the second shot settled he was shocked to see that the bunker was still standing. Its front had buckled slightly and the duramite coating had been almost entirely blasted off its face, but it had held together against all odds. He looked at it, the dust settling around it and entire strips of its outer coating blasted free, surely it must have been dead though. A direct hit with that much high explosives should have killed anything but a superheavy. Through sheer luck or blind faith the building had resisted his attempt at destruction.
After a second he hissed, annoyed. “Damn it, I didn't want to wasste another sshot on that bunker.”
Haggy and the others just looked at him before Joana mentioned “We only have two high explossive sshells left, Kaviel. What do you want to do?”
Kaviel muttered “I guess we will hit it with an armour piercing sshell then. Load AP.”
Freddy and Joana moved to comply, their long armoured bodies flexible in the cramped interior of the TAG. Joana wrapped all six of her upper arms around the top of the huge shell, the cap emblazoned with the marking 280AP-M26. Once she had hefted the shell free of its cubby, she switched her grip to her four lower arms. The much studier arms held the shell at a low ready as she swung it onto the small ammo carriage and pushed it over to Freddy.
Freddy took hold of the carriage and dragged it to the breach before opening it. This was always dangerous to do in a firefight as the large bore of the breach combined with the main gun’s short barrel length made it possible for enemy fire to ricochet inside the crew compartment. The inside of the compartment was layered in a soft anti spalling compound to reduce the effects of such a disaster, but it was still a known hazard. This in mind, Freddy slammed the shell home and closed the breach quickly before he nodded.
“Armour piercing loaded Kaviel!” He said in a clipped tone.
Kaviel didn't need any further assurances. The gun was loaded and his target was in sight, with a single precise movement he depressed the firing trigger. The shell was given an electrical signal through its base plate that ignited the rocket charge. This propelled the shell from the barrel at an incredible speed. The internal sensors of the shell made minute adjustments to keep it as accurate as possible. All of these systems culminated in the shell’s ballistic cap striking the exact center of the distant bunker’s face.
The shell was designed specifically to defeat armoured fortifications and could penetrate almost two and a quarter meters of reinforced duracrete or nearly four hundred millimeters of face-hardened steel equivalent. This was more than enough to punch through the already weakened front of the prefabricated bunker, the shell disappearing inside with a great flash before an even brighter detonation caused the sensors to black out for an instant.
As the view came back, all he could see of the once mighty edifice was a rain of smoking debris and great chunks of twisted metal.
“Well that takes care of that I guess.” Julius’s voice spoke over the laser link.
Kaviel nodded and spoke to Haggy. “Ok, move uss out, carefully. There are ssstill enemy troopss alive in there ssomewhere.”
They moved forwards, the TAG in front, clearing a path with its bulk. Julius took up a position to their left, their main gun ready to fire on anything that might threaten them. As they rolled closer, Kaviel could make out a few moving shapes through the dust and rubble. Kaviel could see that many enemy soldiers were still scrambling for cover now that the lynchpin of their blockade had been obliterated.
Julius spoke “Looks like they are waiting for us, I'll keep their heads down for you.”
As soon as he finished speaking Kaviel heard the tell-tale cracks of the Haggard Grinskal’s thirty-millimeter main cannon firing. The secondary cracks of the self-destroying shells detonating made a strange staccato sound that seemed to reverberate through his body even inside the TAG. He watched Haggy as the man let loose a few bursts from the case mounted heavy machine gun, the bright tracers leaving burning marks wherever they fell, the trails of ricochets burning streaks across the middle distance.
There was no reason to load the main gun, Kaviel was not sure if their position had been reported. It seemed likely that the enemy had done so by now, but he would air on the side of caution. If he had Freddy load a high explosive round into the barrel and they came up against another bunker, that would be suboptimal. At this point he knew not what to expect from the path that lay ahead and so decided to sacrifice a little bit of reaction speed for flexibility.
The vehicle jumped as they drove over a particularly large chunk of debris from the ruined bunker, the sound of something scraping against the bottom of the hull causing Kaviel to wince slightly. While it was more than likely that no real damage had been done, the scraping sensation was still unpleasant enough to make him cringe. Haggy continued driving, periodically letting off a short burst of his hull mounted heavy machine gun. The sounds of Julius’s IFV firing could still be heard. With the extra ammunition they had pulled from the disabled Saile Onessa the light support vehicle had more than enough ammo to keep any surviving Hegemony soldiers suppressed.
Despite the heavy covering fire, the slight smattering of light impacts across the hull told him that at least some of the rebels were brave enough to take potshots at them. Their small arms would barely even scratch the paint of such a heavily armoured behemoth as a Thunderscream, but their fire could still prove problematic if they managed to damage their communication equipment or external cameras.
Kaviel debated the intelligence of popping the top hatch to access the pintle mounted repeating railgun. He quickly thought better of it as the hail of incoming fire intensified, the hissing whip-crack of hypersonic munitions giving him pause. They were now passing right beside the destroyed checkpoint. The soldiers hiding in the rubble had a small opening to fire while remaining in relative cover.
Haggy gave him a sideways glance, his head barely moving but his antennae twitching in slight worry.
Kaviel made a calming hand gesture and said “Keep driving, ssteady on Haggy.”
Haggy gave a nod and in another moment they were past. The sounds of impacts on the outer hull eased almost immediately to a few scattered pings. The ride became smoother as well as they reached a more cleared section of roadway, Haggy slewed the vehicle around a trio of large craters then sped up slightly before turning to say “Okay, that wass a bit closser than I would have liked Kaviel. If any of those rebelss had a launcher...” he said pointedly with a meaningful wave of his antennae.
Kaviel took his eyes off the main screens to turn his head fully towards the other man. Haggy lowered his antennae again but Kaviel just said quickly “What other real choice did we have Haggy? I trussted you to get uss home in one piece, and I know that’ss what you are going to do.”
Kaviel watched a moment more before turning back to his remaining screen. It showed the road ahead as clear of obstacles, for the moment.
Julius’s voice broke over the open comms. “Haggy, he’s right. We had the option of punching through or trying to find a way around, and we all know that would have been just as risky if not even more so. You got us through, we just need to keep moving.”
“Thank you Juliuss.” Kaviel said over his headset microphone.
It seemed that they were all working well together. He looked around using the main optical device’s panning function. The telescope array showing their surroundings to be more of the same collapsed buildings and rubble piles as before. No hiding places for enemy troops, but no cover from enemy aircraft or artillery either. He swore quietly, if only he could see over the piles of smashed masonry. They would be able to chart a better course through the absolute mire of enemy forces that had broken through the lines.
While it was unlikely that the enemy push had managed to reach as far back through the contested zone as the main base, it was likely that they would not be truly safe till they were within spitting distance of the heavily defended compound. This only caused Kaviel to hunker slightly as he resolved to get everyone home alive and preferably in one piece.
“Haggy, watch for tank trapss.” Kaviel said, thinking hard. They had just punched through a heavily defended checkpoint, surely their position was well and truly compromised by now. If they got supremely unlucky they might get lasered by a spotter drone. It was likely that amongst all the chaos one or two of the small autonomous vehicles might be about. That would spell their doom as the small drones would relay firing data automatically to any nearby linked artillery. The TAG was a tough son of a broodmother, but it wasn't indestructible, a direct hit from a high caliber artillery round would end their journey real quick. He groaned quietly to himself, the sound coming from deep in his elongated guts. He was so tired of the struggle, he just wanted this day to be over.
Julius spoke clearly over the laser link after a few moments of silence. “Kaviel, Gurshnik has been talking to our new friends, it seems that they were part of a scouting team. I have just been informed that Corporal Jack has in his possession a Mk.97 personal spotter drone. I was thinking that it would be very valuable to know what’s ahead of us, even with the added risk of detection.” The human finished speaking with a curious tone.
Kaviel thought it over, his head cocked to the side slightly, antennae twitching. Yes, it could be a valuable asset to have at their disposal indeed. He was about to reply when Haggy swore loudly and screeched “Enemy armour, dead ahead!”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
A second later the sounds of heavy impacts rang through the crew compartment. Kaviel looked at his screen, Haggy had not lied. Directly in front of them, blocking any hope of peaceful escape, were three rebel vehicles. In a flash Kaviel identified the vehicles as a trio of Swiftclaw LAVs, their fifty-three-millimeter main guns cratering the frontal armour of the TAG. But the armour held despite the terrible cacophony.
“Load thermobaric!” Kaviel commanded with a near desperate hiss. His choice to keep the main gun unloaded seemed to have paid off. While a regular high explosive round would devastated any of the light vehicles it hit individually, they lacked the sheer explosive potential to take out all three vehicles in a single shot. But one of the Old Man’s massive thermobaric vacuum rounds might just do the trick. A crack sounded through the fighting compartment, this one louder than the rest. Glancing at his command screen he hissed as he saw that their running gear had been damaged, the screen highlighting the damaged portion in amber as the external sensors detected the harm. It looked like the damage wasn't serious, but it was far from ideal.
Freddy slammed the shell home, the breech only staying open for a second as the experienced loader did his work. With the gun now loaded Kaviel took less than a single heartbeat to flick off the safety arm and aim before he fired the main gun. The discharge shook his very exoskeleton, his head seemed to squeeze with the pressure wave of the round leaving the short barrel. But it was only the briefest discomfort compared to what the tremendous fuel air explosive shell wreaked upon his target.
The lead vehicle had but the barest moment to try and change direction before the shell detonated directly in front of it. The shell exploded midair almost a full five meters in front of its intended target, this cast a wide net of vaporised combustible compound through the air. This fuel mixed almost instantly with the oxygen in the air before a secondary explosion detonated the angry brown mist.
The effect of this caused the entire vapor cloud to ignite all at once, the pressure wave from the blast crumpling the front of the lead vehicle and nearly stopping it in its tracks, the rear of the vehicle jumping into the air from the force. The remains of its gun and front suspension ricocheted off the surrounding rubble as it slid to a broken halt. The vehicle to its immediate left suffered much the same fate, its armour compromised and thick black smoke issuing from every new crack in its sundered armour.
Kaviel swore “Mother! One left, load high explosive quick!”
The third vehicle was still moving towards them, but it hasn't gotten away from the blast without damage, its main gun warped out of shape and one of its front wheels hanging in tatters from the driveshaft. The driver seemed to realize their situation was hopeless, but instead of stopping or attempting to flee they floored the acceleration and arrowed straight towards them. Seemingly with the intent to ram them to pieces.
Kaviel wasn't a genius, he was a veteran of many fights however and he could tell that Freddy and Joana wouldn't get the main gun reloaded in time to save them. If they fired point blank they would disable themselves with anything but a direct armour piercing shell, and he had ordered them to load high explosive.
He cursed himself for a fool, if only he could close his eyes like those fleshies, if only he didn't have to watch as twenty-six tons of death sped towards them at nearly seventy kilometers per hour. The distance between them closed to one hundred meters, Freddy was just bringing the new shell forwards. Eighty meters, Freddy lifted the shell from the carriage as Haggy started to reverse the TAG of his own violation. Sixty meters, Freddy was opening the breach, the shell seeming to move in slow motion. All movement in the cramped cabin seemingly moving as though mired in thick syrup, his actions sluggish against their looming demise. Forty meters, too close, far too close to fire the main gun safely. By the time the shell left the barrel the enemy vehicle would be so close that any detonation against its hull would invariably disable his vehicle as well, tearing off the tracks at the best and completely destroying the already damaged running gear or killing them with overpressure at worst.
His antennae slapped flat against his armoured back as he sat helpless inside his steel coffin, but then he jerked as brilliant staccato flashes stippled up the forward hull of the charging LAV causing it to swerve to the right. As it smashed into the rubble only ten meters from the front of the TAG its ammunition cooked off, the bright flames screaming from the hull first a baleful orange and then becoming a flaring magnesium white as the destroyed Swiftclaw’s batteries ruptured in the inferno.
Kaviel physically couldn't blink, but he still felt as though his life had flashed before his compound eyes. He let out a hiss of air from a breath he had not known he had been holding in.
Julius spoke over the comms, “Hey, you okay in there? You guys just took one hell of a beating.”
Kaviel took a moment to compose himself before he spoke, his voice cracking slightly from strain. “We are alive, thankss to you Juliuss. That was… well timed.” Kaviel jerked slightly as he felt something on one of his upper arms, it was one of Freddy’s hands.
Freddy’s antennae dropped and he apologised “I’m sorry Sergeant, I dropped the ball on this…”
Kaviel stopped him with an angry hiss. “No! The blame iss entirely on me. I let the pressure get to me, I ordered you to load the incorrect ammunition type. You followed my instructionss immediately and asss fasst as vinarly posssible, fasster even than I had expected. But if I had fired at that range the ssshell would have desstroyed uss asss well as the enemy. So antennae up ssoldier! You made me proud today.” Kaviel said, he looked around the crew compartment and then made sure the comms were open.
He continued on “You all made me proud in fact. We are going to make it through thiss, not becausse of ssome bullssshit notion of pride or moralss, but becausse you are all the toughesst Motherloving broodlesss that I have ever had the pleassure of ssserving with. That goes for you too Gursshnik.” He added to make sure the other man did not feel left out of his impromptu motivational speech.
All was silent for a moment before a loud exclamation came over the laser link. It was Gurshnik “Incredible performance indeed.” The slaaveth man gurgled. “This whole operation was a mouthful of Drek, the whole swilling thing could have gone so much worse. But we are all here. That's the important thing.” The man finished with a slight cough.
Kaviel found himself nodding. The man had a point, as bad as things had been, they were all still alive. Mostly unhurt, his side throbbed at the thought, and on their way back to base.
Thinking over what Julius has mentioned earlier he asked “Corporal Jack, I wass informed that you have a sspotter drone in your posssession?”
After a moment the gruff voice of the human answered him “Yes, yes I do. I managed to save it while the rest of my gear had to be left behind. I figured it wasn't too heavy and who knows, being able to see my surroundings might come in handy.” He gave a remorseful sounding chuckle.
“Well. I musst asssk that you put your expertisse with it to use, we need to know if there are any more ssurprisesss ahead of us. Our chancess of making it back to the basse increasse dramatically if we know what we are up againsst.” Kaviel asked the man over the link.
The man Jack responded “Yes I understand. I'll get it put together right away sir.”
Kaviel nodded to himself, a human habit of his that he had grown accustomed to using even when alone. They only had a few more kilometers between them and freedom, no enemy forces would be able to take the main base. It was too heavily fortified against attack, hundreds of emplaced guns and dozens of anti-missile batteries. It was all but impervious to ground attack. Space bombardment was another matter, but with a full battery of Zackery Cannons and a trio of Zenith Defense Rays nearby, any ship that got close enough for a precision strike wouldn't make it out alive. And while the loss of a single ship wouldn't cripple the rebel fleet over Dreyvan II, they were not the only Union military base on the planet, nor even the largest.
This speculation would get him nowhere though, and so he quickly switched his thoughts back to the main problem at hand. Plotting a course through the absolute mire of enemy troops in front of them. It was a miracle that they had managed to make it as far as they had, but he was under no illusions that the hardest part was over. In fact, the enemy would only continue to get more alert to danger the closer they got to breaking free. And that was not exactly ideal.
Kaviel looked at Haggy, the younger man’s antennae drooped slightly with fatigue, the entire ordeal must have been incredibly draining on them all. But the crew were still paying attention, they perked up as Kaviel addressed them. “Haggy. Get uss moving, sslowly for the moment. Fifteen at mosst.” Haggy didn't nod, didn't say anything at all in fact. Only the fact that the vehicle started to roll forwards gave away the fact that he had heard him at all.
Kaviel sighed, the low hiss apparently audible over the comms as Julius asked “You okay over there Commander?”
The other man seemed to be trying to ease the tension but succeeded in only making Kaviel feel worse about the whole thing. Surely there was something more he could have done to get them out of this mess? Nobody had died, but that was little comfort to him as his mission to support the front had so obviously failed. How many thousands lay dead or dying in their trenches right now while he ran away like a coward? How many mothers would never see their children again?
The dark thoughts threatened to take hold of him, but he swallowed heavily, his mouth dry. He grabbed one of the water bottles off a rack next to him and uncapped it before taking a long draw from the canister. The water was lukewarm and slightly tangy with a metallic bite. It had likely been recycled many dozens of times already through the camp’s water purifiers, but to him it was sweet as nectar.
Finishing his drink, he reached out to Freddy with the bottle. “Drink?”
Freddy grabbed the bottle with a grateful look, antennae rising slightly. “Yes, thank you Kaviel.”
Kaviel’s headset beeped at him and he looked forward as Julius’ voice spoke to him again. “Jack’s got our little bird flying Kaviel. You should get patched into the feed any second now.”
Indeed no sooner had the IFV commander finished speaking than his remaining console lit up with an alert. The feed asking his permission to display, he pressed accept and was immediately transported several hundred meters into the air. Well, not really, but the screen made it seem so, the feed looking down on them far below, the TAG and Edwards IFV inching along just one of of hundreds of rubble strewn roadways. He cringed slightly as the devastation was made so starkly visible to him for the first time in many months.
The shattered buildings, the rubble choked highways, the collapsed bridges, it was all so much. The pure destructive potential of war had been laid fully upon the city’s shoulders, and the city had fallen with the weight of such a burden on its back. He felt sadness and anger welling up in his mind. All of this because those Motherless bastards in the Hegemony just had to stirr up trouble. None of this would have happened if they had just accepted their place in the Union like everyone else, but no, they had to be the special ones. They were different and deserved better. So they destroyed everything in their path in a brutish attempt to claim some sort of validation? His anger was again kindled.
“The fucking monsters…” he said loud enough to be heard by the whole crew.
This time it was Joana that responded. “Who are monsters? What did you see?” she asked with the earnest curiosity of youth.
Kaviel scooted over slightly and waved towards his console. He could see Joana’s antennae lower in distress, the whole vision of the slaughtered city seeming to have a profound affect on the young woman.
“Oh…” was all she said. Her distress was plainly heartfelt.
Kaviel felt a little bad leaving it at that, but before he could speak up on the matter something caught his eye. He leaned forwards for a better look and then recoiled in alarm. “Jack, turn your drone to two-hundred-forty-five degrees. Zoom in please, quickly now.” he prodded, hoping that he was wrong.
He wasn't. What met his eyes made his hearts sink. A dozen blocks ahead of their position was an area of incredible activity. While it was hard to resolve the image from such a distance, he could make out the red and black fist of the Hegemony on several of the vehicles and structures. It seemed that an entire rebel forward operating base was directly between them and freedom. The base was bad enough, but it got worse. His attention was quickly drawn to the massive form of a truly massive vehicle. From the size and the shape of it he made a guess as to what it was, it looked like a Colossus mobile battle fortress.
He racked his brains on what he knew about the titanic mobile fortress. It was a Yeown designed superheavy vehicle with nanoweave tires that were as durable as steel. The vehicle had hugely thick armour, easily capable of withstanding any of the conventional rounds they were carrying. It had a large array of weapons, from thirty-eight millimeter autocannons to its main one-hundred-eighty-eight millimeter battle cannon. It was a deadly foe, one that he wasn’t sure they were capable of even damaging, let alone destroying.
He glanced to his side, his wide cone of vision taking in their ammunition stores, they were down to only a handful of rounds. Two armour piercing and two high explosive rounds, one thermobaric and a single incendiary shell. Of course he still had both fusion rounds, but he was loath to use such terrible devices. He paused, in the face of otherwise certain defeat however, did he dare?
Kaviel spoke suddenly “Haggy sstop, all vehicles halt!”
Haggy brought them to a stop slowly, the whine of the motor spilling down to a low growl as the creaking of their damaged running gear settled. Freddy asked “What isss it? What happened?”
Julius answered for him “I think I know the problem. I’m patched into the feed as well Kaviel, that's a hell of a roadblock up ahead.”
Kaviel took a second, a plan. He needed a plan, but nothing clever or otherwise remarkable came to him. He felt hollow, like his insides had melted away and he was now just a shell of himself, his mind bloated with worry and the fear of failure. He covered his eyes with his hands in an attempt to block the world out for a moment, to pretend like he was anywhere but here. Stuck in the middle of a ruined city, enemies on all sides and an impossible task ahead of him.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and then the weight of multiple armoured hands. He uncovered his eyes to see Haggy, Joana and Freddy all looking at him.
Joana spoke up, her slightly hissing accent full of genuine care “Kaviel, whatever it iss, no matter what’ss ahead of us, we will be right here with you. You are the besst Mother-blesssed Commander I have ever sserved…” she started to say but was cut off by Haggy chuckling.
“He isss the only commander you have ever sserved under Joana.” the driver said with a hiss of laughter.
Joana tossed her head, antennae perked up in annoyance as she replied “It doessn't matter. I would ssay the sssame no matter how many commanderss I had sserved under, becausse it'ss true. Kaviel, I trusst you, and I know the otherss do as well. So whatever your plan isss, we will get it done, because we know you are going to get uss all through thiss.” She finished with another pat to his upper arm.
Kaviel felt a strange feeling well up in him, it wasn't quite pride, as he was already immensely proud of them for having made it this far. It felt more humble, more subdued yet just as powerful. It filled him with a new vigor and purpose, he couldn't give up on them, because they would never give up on him.
Sitting up straighter and clearing his throat, he began speaking. “Juliuss, I have an idea, it'ss not a good one, but it might be the only one available to usss.”
Julius seemed to think, the man remaining silent for a moment before he replied. “I have trusted in you this far Kaviel. Gurshnik and I are with you, all the way to the finish. Let's give em hell.”