He hunched down up against a solid wooden bed frame that had been leaned on its side. Peeking over the barricade he saw several forms run down the street. Without thinking and without any orders, he opened fire on the invaders. He hadn’t had a good sight on them. The vampires speed was enough to cleanly avoid the second burst of gunfire and get them safely behind the nearby buildings. He kept firing to pin them around the corners.
He looked back behind him and saw Efraim with his rifle, looking down the street. His black calico fur with white splotches was a good camouflage against the black obsidian buildings. “Keep firing, keep them pinned down!” he called over the noise of the gunfire.
He ran towards them jumping down from the rooftops, “Aceso, keep your pack firing in alternating bursts. I’m going to send some of our people up and around, see if we can flank them while they are inside those alleys they are taking cover in. They won’t be able to maneuver in them.” Aceso nodded grimly and fired a short burst before allowing Nicolas to do the same after her and then William followed.
Efraim ran and scaled the building again. Seconds later William heard a massive gout of gunfire spew forth a hail storm of bullets. William looked up towards the rooftops. There was a thin haze of gun smoke hanging in the air where the Shape shifters had taken up position. What had happened up there? William didn’t think about it too long as he was concentrating on when it would be his turn to fire down the street, maintaining their suppressive fire.
Efraim, forward of William, and Aceso’s pack position, hadn’t seen a vampire duck down so fast in his life. He was a little embarrassed that his shots had been as wide as they were. He should have killed that vampire. He didn’t have time to worry about it now though.
He grabbed two young werewolves that were with him, “I need you two to jump across the street. You’re going to make your way over to that alley,” he said pointing to the place where that vampire had just jumped up from and disappeared back down into, “And take out as many vampires as you can. Don’t stick your necks out too long, two or three long bursts into the alley, then get back here. Go.” The two young werewolves stood up and launched themselves across the street, landing neatly on the rooftops, and made their way around to the alleyway.
Efraim had half a mind to try that flanking maneuver himself, but he was put in charge of this sector of the city and he was needed as a voice of command. In battle people needed to know that someone was in charge and that there was a plan. Even if the plan was one that was made up on the spot and was as simple as kill whatever you see move.
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He had seven packs with him, five of which were on the roofs around him. He had a few tripod mounted machine guns M240 and a few M209’s. The rest of the packs were armed with assault rifles.
He had his people arrayed out in a horseshoe shape along the whole of the roof, covering the north and wrapping around the west side of the rooftop and then coming back around south covering their blind side to counter any flanking maneuver that the vampires might try from any angle. On the rooftops across the street, he had two more packs arrayed in a similar configuration covering north, east, and south. Aceso and her pack were down on the street level with Billy and the rest of his own pack. Billy had been efficient in issuing the weapons to the residents of the city and was now getting ready to fight whatever came his way.
Efraim’s position could have been better, but with so little time to plan, this was the best he could do. They could hold here, but he couldn’t just hold. He needed to go on the offensive.
Two things then happened simultaneously. The two werewolves he had sent around to the east opened fire down into the alley, meanwhile the Shape shifters immediately to his left starting firing from the M240’s.
He dove for the sparse cover that the rooftops provided yelling, “Maintain you’re firing lanes, pick your targets and don’t cross your left-right limits!” The Shape shifters that were with him were of all experience levels, but none of them had seen the kind of combat that he had. He knew that he had to keep them calm and walk them through the battle. He couldn’t expect them to know what to do.
He looked up toward the west. The tracer rounds from the crew serve weapons were firing swiftly and neatly over the rooftops. He saw a group of more than ten vampires coming at them at a wide angle. He guessed they were the flanking force.
With the firing rate of the machine guns and the added coverage of the assault rifles his forces had managed to pin the vampires and stop the flanking maneuver. It was good, but not nearly good enough.
Taking a knee, he took careful aim at a vampire that was peeking out from around the obsidian roof. He fired one shot and a very gratifying yell sounded loudly even over the gun fire. He wasn’t sure if he had killed him, probably not. But knowing that one could be killed, took away the enemy’s confidence and instilled fear. In battle, fear could kill just as surely as any bullet or knife.
He jerked his head down as more gunfire ripped his way, buzzing over his head. “Keep your heads down!” Efraim yelled over the renewed counter fire. “Maintain your alternating fire! Keep the pressure on em! The only thing that will make them stop shooting is if you send more bullets flying back at them!”
One of the M240’s went silent.
Efraim moved his head and glanced to see why the machine gun wasn’t firing. Slumped over the weapon was a wolf.