It wasn’t up to her, though.
The Legionnaires had advanced almost five kilometers before the Dictymorph seemed to awake. The Legionnaires saw that, too. They spread out into three lines, a hundred meters between each line before they started to run, closing the distance.
At just over two kilometers, the Dictymorph started firing, tendrils of light reaching out to the advancing French—and the company of Legionnaires, 94 strong, started firing back with both their combat suit’s internal weaponry as well as several developmental weapons given to them.
“Look at the readings,” L’Teesha said. “Degradation is down 52%.”
“It would be better with separate shields,” Skagt muttered.
Give it a rest.
“What were your projections?” Sky asked L’Teesha.
“I was hoping for 60%, but I’ll take 52.”
The first of the new particle-tipped missiles exploded on or adjacent to the Dictymorph. Sky looked at the Omega-scan, but there was no decrease of the Dictymorph’s output. She hadn’t given the missiles much of a chance. They were simply a different method of delivering the energy, and when fired in a particle beam, it hadn’t proven effective.
“Lost one Legionnaire,” Manny said.
“Two,” Wysteria added.
“Load the failure parameters,” Sky told them, struggling to keep her voice calm.
The numbers mattered in determining how to improve body armor, but two Legionnaires had just died while they sat safe and sound on Purgamentium.
The holo lit up as more and more weapons were fired, the AI color-coding them for easier comprehension. The Legionnaires kept advancing as more of them fell.
“Body mass down 6%,” Sky noted.
It had become evident that the Dictymorphs somehow converted body mass to energy and used that energy as a weapon. By measuring the energy expended and how quickly the mass disappeared, the should be able to determine the efficiency of the process, and thereby know just how many “bullets” were in the Dictymorphs’ magazines.
“When do the French stop?” L’Teesha asked.
“You didn’t listen?” Skagt asked. “They told us at the brief. Five hundred meters.”
L’Teesha rolled her eyes but said nothing.
Fifteen Legionnaires were killed before the first line came to a halt and went flat, followed by the next two lines. Fire intensified as the Dictymorph started advancing on them.
“Here they come,” Skagt said, his voice cracking.
Skipping across the ground in what the military called “map of the earth,” 108 Brotherhood merkabah, the heavily shielded combat sleds, charged the Dictymorph from behind. Covering the ground at close to 300 KPH, it took them four minutes to close the distance and only two to come within firing range. As the first blast of meson beams hit it, the Dictymorph seemed to hesitate for a moment.
“It’s fucking confused,” Manny said in awe. “We surprised the shit out of it.”
No one knew how to interpret Dictymorph body language, but Sky had to agree that it seemed confused, at least.
The creature convulsed, then it started firing its lights in both directions.
“Total output is the same,” Manny said, back on his readouts.
“So, only half is directed to each force,” Sky said.
Finally, something concrete.
“Body mass down 13%,” she said.
More Legionnaires and now Brotherhood host fell, but at a slower rate. The armor degradation, particularly among the French, was reduced. At initial blush, it looked like there was only so much energy a Dictymorph could expend, and by surrounding it, they had forced it to broaden its sweep, thereby diluting its power.
The Brotherhood soldiers dismounted at 700 meters, having lost twelve sleds, but only 22 men. Most of those who’d been on sleds that had been downed survived to chase after the rest.
It became a battle of attrition, but one that favored the humans. Sky counted down the mass to 80%, 60%, 40%. The Dictymorph was losing mass faster than it was killing humans. And it wasn’t just the mass. Several of the weapons were damaging it, particularly the three heat-based weapons.
As a scientist, Sky almost wished they weren’t using them. With their added effect on the Dictymorph, that would make the calculation of mass-to-energy that much harder to determine.
Except that would mean more men and women lost, she chided herself.
At 30%, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Congratulations had begun to be passed among them. Sky watched the numbers fall as the Dictymorph shrunk.
Just as its mass hit 18%, the Dictymorph exploded in a fireball.
“What the hell?” Manny said, voicing everyone else’s thoughts.
Sky looked back at the Omega-scan, and the Dictymorph didn’t exist anymore. It was simply gone.
As were most of the front-line Legionnaires and twenty more Brotherhood soldiers. No previous Dictymorph had exploded like that. They had simply collapsed like a deflated balloon.
“Did it suicide?” Sky asked, more to herself than to the others.
“Unless it reached a point-of-no-return,” Aurora Ricci said.
The physicist had been pushing the idea that the Dictymorphs kept their form with a pool of energy that attracted the cells of the body, sort of an organic gravity. She and Knight Hastert were two of the theory’s prime proponents. Sky wasn’t so sure about that, and she doubted that if there was such a point, that it would result in an explosion.
“We won,” Skagt said, interrupting her thoughts.
Sky looked at him, ready to remind him of how many people had died for his so-called victory, but then it hit her. He was right, not so much as “winning,” but in that humans, without Klethos help, had just killed a Dictymorph. Human soldiers, that was. Dictymorphs had been killed by aircraft and Navy ships, and they’d fled humans, but this was the first documented time one had been killed.
The price had been steep, but from the data gathered, the results had been invaluable. Not just in what they’d learned, but in morale. With growing numbers of people protesting human participation in the war, they needed a victory.
They’d just gotten one. The price had been high, but still, it was a victory.
Chapter 22
Hondo
“That should be us there,” BK said as they watched the Legionnaires advance.
An image popped into Hondo’s mind, a mortally wounded Sam, his head in BK’s lap. He shook his head as if he could physically eject the scene from his mind.
“We haven’t been upgraded yet, you know that,” he said, keeping his voice on an even keel, trying not to let the dread that sometimes overcame him show.
“We’ve got the taraline already. I know we don’t have the rest yet, but still, they got the first victory. It should be us. We’ve paid in blood for the privilege. Why the Legion first?”
“Because their Rigs already had manual back-ups. Less to do on them.”
“Yeah, but . . .” she trailed off.
It had taken awhile after K-1003 for the think tanks to come up with the combat suit modifications. Most of the mods had been related to the taraline surfaces, increasing the shielding the interior circuits within each suit, and to install manual controls and triggers for the more important functions. The Rigaudeau-6’s already had many of the manual functions already, so they’d been the first to get the rest of the upgrades. As a result, they’d been sent with the two Brotherhood battalions on the next mission.
And yesterday, they’d killed a Grub. Not make it retreat, but kill it. This morning, all hands on the planet had watched the battle recordings with officers and civilians narrating what had happened.
And it was pretty impressive. When the Grub exploded, the messhall with the 3/6 and 2/14 Marines had erupted into cheers.
That had been tempered when the butcher’s bill was tallied. The Legionnaires and Brotherhood had paid dearly for the win, but most of that had resulted from the Grub suiciding.<
br />
All four of the fire team Marines were sitting together, but Xeras and Sunrise were focused on the portable holo display that had been set up in the messhall, along with most of the rest of the battalion’s non-rates and NCOs. Hondo had thought that they would go back to the day’s training after the debrief, but when three more Grubs were spotted, the powers-that-be decided that a real-time view of the battle would be good both as a learning tool and for morale.
“I gotta admit, those Rigs are good-looking suits,” BK whispered to Hondo as the current feed showed the Legionnaires advancing in a company column, platoon wedges.
Greater France paid a high percentage of its GDP on its military, a much higher percentage than the Federation did. As a result, even if the Legion was much smaller in number than the Marines, their equipment was top-notch, and that included their Rigaudeau-6’s. Sleeker-looking than the Marine PICS, they none-the-less packed some serious muscle.
“Yeah, they look good, but I’ll keep our PICS,” Hondo said, not wanting to admit the Marines lagged behind anyone in any matter.
“Oh, come on, you mean you wouldn’t like to test drive one of those babies?” BK asked.
“I guess. I mean just to see what they’re like,” Hondo admitted before adding, “Not that I would want to go into combat with one.”
“Bullshit.”
Hondo didn’t bother to respond. She was right.
The holo display shifted to a close-up view of the three targets. The Grubs were arrayed in a three-pointed star, tendrils shooting out 360 degrees.
“Look at that,” Hondo said. “The Grubs have adjusted their tactics.”
“What do you mean?” BK asked. “So, there’s three of them.”
The Grubs seemed to be solitary fighters, at least to date. Even the ambush on K-1003 had been more of two Grubs being in the same area rather than working together. BK didn’t think much of the fact that there were three in the same place this time, but that wasn’t Hondo’s point.
“Look at that formation. They can provide mutual support for each other. There’s not going to be an envelopment like the Brotherhood did yesterday, I mean if there is one, it won’t be as effective.”
“Cape buffalo will do the same thing,” Sunrise said, almost under her breath.
So, she is listening in—which isn’t a bad thing. Still, Cape buffalo don’t fly themselves through space using technology we still don’t understand.
Just how smart the Grubs were was a hot subject among the humans on the planet, and the junior Marines were no different. Most of the other Marines seemed to consider the Grubs as some sort of large animal, a very dangerous animal, but one acting primarily on instinct. Like the Klethos, they hadn’t exhibited much in the way of military arts, but no one was trying to assert that the Klethos were not sentient. From his point of view, Hondo thought any creature that could manage to travel between stars, and without discernable ships, had to have intelligence. Just because they didn’t show much in the way of tactics, just because they didn’t have rifles and other manufactured weapons, didn’t mean they lacked technology. They’d shot down two naval ships, and no one knew how yet.
Hondo turned slightly to include Sunrise in the conversation.
“I don’t think they’re much like cape buffalo,” he said.
“No, I’m just saying that just because the happened into a formation, that doesn’t mean they’re budding Sun Tzus. It could have been an accident, for all we know.”
“True. We don’t know. So, the worst thing we can do is underestimate them.”
There was a small flash of blue energy from around one of the Grubs that caught the attention of the Marines, but nothing more. The focus died back down as the view changed to one from farther out. The Legionnaires were 15 klicks out and closing, while the Brotherhood soldiers were already mounted on their sleds 30 klicks away.
Marines were taught as a matter of course never to use the same routes while patrolling. Hondo thought the same principles should be followed in battle tactics. The human force was using the same playbook for today’s battle as yesterday’s.
“How come the Grubs can’t see the Legionnaires when they can shoot down spaceships?” Rosy asked from where he and Loren were sitting with their team.
Good question.
In every case so far, but Grubs hadn’t commenced firing until the humans or Klethos were between five and six klicks away. But they’d knocked two ships out of orbit. It didn’t make sense to him.
BK nudged him with her elbow. She held out half of a pack of Love Nuts, her jaw working on the other half. Hondo held out a hand, and she poured out the rest. Where BK preferred to pop a bunch of them into her mouth at once, Hondo preferred to eat the candy one at a time. He settled back on the bench, eating one after the other while waiting for the battle to develop.
He’d never watched a battle develop in real time before. It was nothing like being in a battle of course, but it was nothing like watching a war flick, either. The real thing would bore most of the audience to tears, he realized.
Until the action really starts.
The Legionnaires slowed down their progress as they approached that six-klick line.
Maybe they are switching things up, Hondo thought. It doesn’t look like they’re closing in.
“I think they’re going to stand off,” he said.
“Eh, maybe. Makes sense, I guess,” she said. “If one of them explodes and sets off the other two, you don’t want to be too close.”
At seven klicks, the Legionnaires opened fire, missiles, rockets, and backpack mortars reaching for the Grubs. Weaponry rained down on the enemy, and within moments, light spheres rose from the Grub closest to the Legion company.
Only from one, Hondo noted. The other two aren’t firing.
Love Nuts forgotten, Hondo watched as the spheres rose and approached the Legionnaires, his nervous anticipation rising. Beams of energy weapons, the display coloring each type for easy identification, reached out to the spheres, but still, they advanced. Hondo had heard that the beams were generated by different sources and covered a wide range of frequencies and patterns to see if any would have better effect, but from his perspective, nothing was working. The two spheres reached the company, and light tendrils shot down among the Legionnaires.
The portable display didn’t show data such as casualties, but it was obvious that Legionnaires had just died. A mass groan filled the hall as that fact became obvious.
“Here comes the Brotherhood,” BK said.
A ragged cheer replaced the groans as the two Brotherhood battalions, one to the east and another to the northwest, went into motion, crossing their LODs.
“Hurry the hell up,” Hondo said as the near Grub launched two more spheres.
He couldn’t tell how many Legionnaires had fallen, and now the display resolution of the company had been lowered—which was evidence alone that the casualties had been high. With only a few KIA, the brass would have kept the resolution high so everyone could observe what was happening.
The Brotherhood sleds rushed forward, closing the gap. Meanwhile, the Legionnaires were getting pummeled. The commander must have had enough of that because the surviving Legionnaires started to rush forward.
Closing the gap beyond six klicks would open the Legionnaires to the direct light tendrils, but the most effective weapons humans had were the Klethos pikes and perhaps their incendiary devices, all which required them to close in with and engage the enemy. They had no choice if they were going to kill the Grubs.
The remaining two Grubs started launching their own spheres. They intercepted the incoming merkabah sleds, knocking a handful down and out of the fight.
“Shit,” someone exclaimed in a muted tone while most of the Marines fell silent as they watched.
Even the captain who’d been giving the commentary had fallen silent as he watched the battle display.
As the human forces closed, the spheres gave way to the tendrils, radiating from
them like a tesla ball gone wild. There were no gaps in the tendrils, and if one Grub faltered for an instant, one of the other two filled in the gap.
The humans were having an effect, however. It was obvious to Hondo and the rest that the barrage of incoming fire was hurting them. The question was who was going to blink first.
It was the Grubs.
In unison, the three Grubs broke their formation and darted towards the southwest, trying to break out between the Legionnaires and one of the battalions before the two human forces could link.
A cheer rose up from the Marines, and BK pounded on his shoulder in excitement.
“I knew it!” she shouted. “Look at the bastards run!”
The Grubs were amazingly quick, but the sleds were quicker. They immediately went into pursuit mode, every available weapon firing away. It wouldn’t be good enough to force a Grub retreat—the only acceptable conclusion was to have three dead Grubs.
“They’re trying for the ravine,” Rosy said, looking up from his PA.
Hondo pulled out his, then zooming out from what was on the portable display. It did look like the Grubs were fleeing for a series of ravines that dotted the landscape as if an ancient god had gouged them out with godly claws. The Grubs were pretty big creatures, so Hondo wasn’t sure they could lose the humans in the ravines, but it made sense on their part to try. With the lead battalion so close, however, Hondo thought they Grubs might be caught before they could reach cover.
The Marines were shouting their encouragement, and just as it looked like the battalion would catch the three Grubs, they darted forward with previously unseen speed. Only they didn’t rush into a ravine, but stayed on the higher ground, surrounded by them.
One of the Grubs gave off a flash of feeble light, then slowed to a halt. Hondo hadn’t seen what had hit it, but it wasn’t running. The other two kept fleeing for a moment before they turned and came back to the hurt one.
“They can work together,” Hondo said.
“Once again, so do cape buffalo,” Sunrise said again.
Alliance (The United Federation Marine Corps' Grub Wars Book 1) Page 11
