Alien Mine Ch. 21

Hello all, thanks for the feed back, I appreciate the ideas and suggestions. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter, I am trying to move the plot along and finish up this part of the story. More from Sandy and the girls in a month or so.

From the Previous chapter

The shuttle descended well out from the suspected Om base deploying Jack, fifty men plus Captain Ehud. He commanded the Israeli troops but was acting as Jack's XO for this operation today. Captain Ehud had plenty of combat experience, but not against opponents like this. Five platoons each split into two sections of five and began moving in a sweep westward behind a line of drones; the adaptive camouflage made them invisible to everything but the Om sensors they would encounter. Captain Ehud watched the deployment of the men displayed on his visor while the world in front of him was a strange mixture of colors as his helmet shifted between bands from the IR into the UV. There was even a sonar capability, but there was no need for it until they went underground, and that wasn't in the plans today.

He and his men had expected advanced technology, but nothing like this. He was wearing the new flexible powered armor that let him move effortlessly at about twenty kilometers/hour indefinitely, and he was carrying enough lethal armament to engage an armor company and win. However, what fascinated Ehud the most was the two Chinese women who moved differently from any of them. He noticed something strange about them even though he had barely interacted with them. They moved almost like synchronized ballet dancers, graceful, beautiful, but apparently very deadly. The Americans talked about them with awe, and he had seen them once in the simulator. After watching them, he wondered if they were even human. There was plenty he didn't know, but he was beginning to have suspicions. "Alpha squad, you are drifting too far to the right," Ehud said and was pleased with the almost immediate response.

"All squads halt," Jack ordered, "let the drones make first contact. The squads were spread over six kilometers in a semicircle, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie in a line from left to right, with Delta and Echo further back in reserve.

Rhys watched his tacgrid, supplemented by Sandy's input in the shuttle. He wanted this operation to be conducted by Jack; he was only there to provide backup if needed. Kiania was in overall command from the shuttle, but he had both Binaries on the ground with him in case they ran into another Om like the last one. This battle was also about testing new doctrine they developed from fighting the Om in Russia.

"Ok, Jack, no response yet that we have detected, push the drones forward, and let's try and get the aerial drones in first and draw a reaction," Kiania said. This was meant to be a drone attack backed up by humans instead of how they fought in Moscow. Each human could only control one drone, and then only if they devoted most of their concentration to it. That had proven ineffective or even deadly at times in the past. AI helped, but the previous drones had been limited in that regard. These were much smarter; point them at a target, and the AI would do the rest, but now they worked in packs, similar to the Trangrods. In this case, one drone was under human control, but two more were slaved to it. Once the one under control was assigned a target, the other two coordinated their attack, the AIs talking to each other, creating a swarm-like intelligence.

In addition, Thea and her Binary had built a small but speedy drone similar in size to a rabbit but packed with Drans energy cells. Upon encountering a Trangrod, the energy would be released explosively. These were designed to attack the centipedes and suicide after latching on to them.

Contact! Alpha squad leader reported as two of his aerial drones disappeared, taken down by some kind of small missile. Aerial drones from the other squads likewise began taking hits.

"Pull them back," Jack ordered, looking over the terrain where the first contact had been made. If they continued to attack in this direction, his men would be funneled into a deep canyon that narrowed considerably. Definitely a trap.

Kiania recognized the danger as well. "Jack, swing the flanks around to work along each side of the ridge. Then, extend your flanks and use two squads on each side, and anchor the entrance with Charlie. The shuttle will provide fire support if necessary, and remember, keep enough drones back to watch the rear." That had been the Trangrod strategy in the past, wait until the troops moved in and then come out of tunnels behind them. However, the ship's sensors were better at picking up the tunnels now and would warn the squad leaders when their men approached one. Sandy would then use the shuttle's weapons to close them off.

Ehud hooked into the feed from one of Delta's squad drones on the right flank of the canyon, and he was suddenly immersed in the raw data that was digested by his arms comp and turned into something he could recognize. The transition was disorienting and jarring, and his senses were temporarily overwhelmed when he found himself moving fast and low over rugged ground. Nevertheless, the visual and audio inputs processed by the computer in his armor gave him a real sense of being there, moving across the rough terrain at forty-five kilometers; the scents even assaulted his nose. Captain Ehud rotated through the various EM bands, each one different and confusing. Finally, giving up, he let the computer give him a montage as he had been instructed.

He was running across the top of a ridge, jumping across fissures in the rock, and using four limbs quickly moving across ground that would be difficult and slow even for a native of the area. Ehud found the experience similar to putting on an unfamiliar glove that did not quite fit. He switched to the IR band again, but the desert rocks were already well-heated, and the details were fuzzy. There was another moment of disorientation as the drone jumped down a ravine, and then he was suddenly looking at a horribly wrong alien-looking insect at least two meters tall. Before he could break the connection, Ehud saw the barrel of a strange weapon pointed at him and two legs with sharp blades moving toward his face. His body physically jerked back as the feed went dead, and Ehud shouted with existential shock as his sense of self crashed back into his body.

Ehud shook himself mentally; he had been warned what would happen if you submersed yourself in the drone's senses.

"Contact on Delta's drones, Centipedes," he heard Jack say.

Despite the shock, Ehud shifted his vision to another drone wanting to see what happened. The two other drones attacked the centipede with their attached machine gun and grenade launcher while moving in a random pattern. The drones moved sideways, forward, and back, never standing still, their four legs allowing them to change direction on a dime. Other Trangrods moved in to attack when the centipede was hit by four missiles, and then Ehud saw what he was watching for. A small rabbit running so fast it was almost a blur avoided the other smaller Trangrods and launched itself directly at the centipede. The others fired, but they were too late, and then there was a flash as it exploded, leaving the front of the Trangrod damaged but not destroyed. Then three more attacked together, weaving through the rugged ground as they approached from three directions. One was hit and exploded, but the other two attached themselves to the centipede, and the resulting explosions left only a tangled wreckage.

Thea grinned with satisfaction when she saw the results.

"The tweaks you made to our concept performed better than expected, '' the Binary said, "but we can still increase the energy release another twenty-five percent."

"Yes," Thea replied absently, her mind working through various ideas. "But we could also make them smaller and faster, something we could put in the small bird drones, just use more of them. With these, we can smother the Trangrods in numbers. I want to call it the Flight of the Hummingbirds."

"They are not dumb, though, the Om will now look for a way to counter these, it's a good concept, but now they will expect it," the Binary replied, sounding more annoyed at the situation than anything else.

Thea felt something change as the Binary shifted into combat mode, and at the same time, the ship's sensors realized there was something new. "Five hundred and seventy," Sandy reported as new contacts sprang up. It seemed that they were not the only ones working on new weapons.

"Some kind of airborne Trangrod, cover where you can, Kiania ordered Jack; the shuttle and fighters will take out what we can,"

Sandy was already calling in the fighters, six of them along just for training purposes, they had no business being thrown into battle yet, but they were needed. She just hoped it would be enough.

LCol Sampson was orbiting well out of the combat zone, still in Israeli airspace, in a formation of six manned aircraft, each with four drones accompanying them. Three of the fighters included LtCol Kohen and two other Israeli pilots. "Drones only, two each, he ordered, using the AI to transmit the vectors he wanted to the Weapons Officers. Everyone still had much to learn, and they were woefully undertrained and not ready for actual combat, but over his objections, Col Sandy had insisted. He watched as the drones turned and immediately accelerated to mach 15; they didn't have to worry about any squishy humans. Right now, he and Kohen were bystanders in the battle; the backseats would be fighting the battle, albeit only peripherally. Though he still didn't understand it, the drone's AI would switch to a swarm communication that increased the AI function by orders of magnitude. Remote-controlled hunt and kill took on a whole new meaning.

Rhys took cover behind a rock and began firing at the new monsters the Om had designed. He spared a thought between shots wondering where they had gotten the humans they had transformed. His rifle was powerful, and the new rounds blew large holes into them.

Sargent Merek heard the command, and his squad shifted into a more defensible position on the right flank; they had seen little action so far, but a considerable number of the new Trangrods were moving their way, flying low just above the hills. He fired a long burst as one broke through the fire from the shuttle, disregarding the return fire. Another long burst from his weapon brought it down, but not before he was pummeled to the ground by fire from anotherTrangrod. Fuck, that hurt; several rounds had hit him, but only one penetrated through the armor covering his thigh. Pain meds and coagulants flooded his system, and the armor constricted around the wound to stop bleeding. Merek hauled himself back to his knees, looking for more targets but shouted and threw himself backward as a Trangrod slashed at him with its front-cutting legs. He scrambled to bring up his rifle, but the Trangrod disappeared in a roar of autocannon fire. Fuck! he mumbled, pulling himself back up and looking for the next one. "Those fucking things are still alive even if you shoot them down," he shouted; "watch where they fall because they keep coming," he warned the squad. "God damn it, that was close; thanks for killing that fucker for me," he told the corporal. "Don't shoot at the ones in the air; cover us for those that come back alive." He heard the major give the order to move; Alpha's job was to sweep in on the left flank; they would encircle the Om Base if possible. Merek watched as the new drones from the fighters swept through the sky, killing the Trangrods. He was preparing orders to advance when six violet beams lashed out from the Om base, and six drones exploded into a thousand pieces. Well, shit, he thought, this is about to go FUBAR

***

Chapter 21

Captain Morris had been guiding his drones from his tactical station behind his pilot when everything went fuzzy for the second it took to pull his consciousness back from the drone that had just been destroyed. His second drone was still active and had gone into an automatic evasion routine when the first one had been annihilated. "Evade low," he shouted into the drone tactical circuit while scanning the sensor packages and trying to determine the threat.

"Fire from the base," he heard a female voice say in a tone that sounded almost bored, "pull back, engage the targets from range, random evasive pattern."

Captain Morris watched as the other tactical officers responded, and the drones began 'sniping' from a distance. It wasn't as effective, but they were still picking off the ones on the flanks. Morris winced as a beam nearly took out his remaining drone. They each had two more, but they were being held in reserve.

Lt.Col. Sampson checked the position of the fighters, those with humans. They were staying low, fifty kilometers away and below the Om weapon horizon, he hoped. Maneuvering his squadron using alien technology was something all the other pilots in his old squadron could only dream about. Command and control were unbelievable. Instead of a set of screens, switches, and dials, he wore a helmet with a 3D heads-up display and a hologram that interfaced with the AI. It took getting used to; using your eyes, fingers, and even body movements to control the fighter. However, he could also hand off most of it to the AI and concentrate on battle space management, which according to Sandy and Rhys, was the reason he was here. Those skills were not in demand right now; this was more ground support, and the tactical officers could handle that. Instead, he focused on something that seemed to barely tickle the sensors, not his; it was from Miranda's array of satellites

Whatever it is must be stealthed, he thought and vectored one of the fighters under his control in that direction. Seconds later, the signal began to resolve itself. "Something incoming from almost due west, speed approximately mach three," he reported to Sandy. The tactical plot suddenly propagated with hostile contacts just as the report went out.

"Looks like two hundred or so; intercept and destroy," Sandy ordered, and suddenly his vision was filled with vectors and targeting information. "Launched from the base in Iran, don't intercept until point alpha," she said as a designated position well inside Saudi airspace appeared on his hologram. Sampson acknowledged and began positioning the other fighters and assigning engagement areas, ensuring they were overlapping. Two hundred made for a target-rich environment, but with six fighters and eighteen drones remaining, that was about eight each. Piece of cake.

Rhys shot another Trangrod trying to get behind their lines, which didn't make sense given that the shuttle was killing everything that approached it. These were not entirely different, just the original model of a nightmare insect but with thrusters that enabled it to fly. The Om did not seem particularly innovative, but what they had was deadly enough. Rhys watched his tac-grid but didn't issue commands. He intended to let Kiania manage the overall battle with Jack in control on the ground. It was necessary, but he hated it; it was hard to step back and not give orders. However, he did keep a careful eye on the Binary. Mei/Bao was deadly, but he felt protective of them, and their scientific skills were perhaps more important than any of the other girls. Also, Jack did not have his command squad; they were back with Mika in case the Om made a move there. More Trangrods swept in from the right flank, so he took out his frustration on them. Rhys loved the rifle Thea had designed; it was like firing a cannon with the kick of a much smaller rifle; a thirty mm explosive round made great big holes in the Trangrods. He fired a long burst at one that made it to the ground and smiled in satisfaction as it came apart in numerous pieces. Their weapons had come a long way from their first encounter.

Charlie Squad was bearing the brunt of the attack for the moment, holding the center while the other squads maneuvered on each flank. Sargent Chadha had only one casualty so far, but he could tell the Trangrods were getting ready to attack. Fighting them outside, even in rough terrain like this, was infinitely better than being caught in the tunnels with Trangrods coming through the walls. Here they had the advantage. The new suicide rabbit drones were keeping the centipedes at bay, and if one did start to show itself, tac-grid plotted it and immediately assigned drones or missiles to take it out.

Tac-grid reported movement almost directly in front, calculated fire positions, and acquired an exact fix from section one. "Watch for incoming airborne, " Chandha warned his men. The ground in front of them was rugged in every sense of the word, and men would be out of sight of each other as they advanced through the terrain. It was dry desert, but rocky instead of sand dunes. The ground was broken into small valleys with steep sides soaring three hundred meters to a knife-edge top, with boulders the size of cars scattered randomly along the hillside. When they had fought In Afghanistan, they avoided terrain like this because there were too many opportunities for ambush. Luckily, powered armor, tiger drones that cleared potential ambush sites, and airborne drones providing an integrated feed into tac-grid completely changed the dynamics.

Sergeant Chandha worked his drone and himself into a better firing position, letting him see down into a valley where airborne sensors kept detecting movement. Bird drones swooped overhead and into the valley and ... abruptly stopped transmitting. Bingo, he thought to himself and highlighted the area on tac-grid. All sections, active hostile's this location, send in a few drones. Violet beams lashed out from deep within the valley, probably a tunnel mouth, followed by explosions targeting their positions. Sergeant Chandha ordered his first section to engage while the second section tried to advance through the steep hills from the left. Sensors spotted several roaches slipping out very low to the ground from the same vicinity. They were nimble, like their namesake, dashing from rock to rock, spreading out and moving like crazy ants. Missiles streaked in, targeting them, but they were already undercover and scurried rapidly immediately after the rockets exploded harmlessly.

Sergeant Chandra's arms computer gave him targeting information, and he risked exposing himself for a quick shot. He swung his rifle around the rocks to take the shot but was met with a hail of automatic fire, knocking his gun from his hand and severing his right arm at the elbow. The armor locked down on his arm, stopping the blood loss, and painkillers and stimulants flooded his system. Hit tiger drone immediately attacked, firing grenades into the roach and ripping it with its jaws, but the drone was quickly incinerated in a hail of explosive rounds. Chandha forced himself to scramble down from his position while holding his monoblade in his left hand. He at least could do some damage before he was killed, and he expected that any second now.

He leaped over a boulder and was hit again by enemy fire, but the rounds didn't penetrate his heavier back and chest armor; however, the impact knocked him down and probably saved his life from the violet beam that barely missed him. Two roaches followed him over the boulder, and Chandha turned to face them with only his monoblade. He could see death coming as two large weapons swung his way. Suddenly, cannon and chain-gun fire erupted behind him, and the roaches disintegrated with a blaze of bright light so bright he had to close his eyes. More gunfire erupted from the right as First Section took the remaining Trangrods under fire. Chandha ducked as explosions ripped through the surrounding rocks. "Take that, you mother fuckers!" Chandra heard as he levered himself up with one hand, trying to regain a sense of the fight. He sidestepped a destroyed Trangrod and risked a look around the side of the boulder where the firefight was still ongoing.