The Autumn War Vol. 04: Succession

"SWAR teams," Hernandez clarified. "I've never seen so many deployed in one place before."

"They're landing behind enemy lines, the crazy bastards," Garcia muttered. "They must be after priority targets."

A mortar exploded nearby, causing the IFV to swerve in a bid to avoid it, Evan gripping the handholds of his seat in alarm as his harness dug into his shoulders. A stream of tracers painted trails above their heads, the Kestrel at the rear of the formation employing its point defense weapons to intercept more of the projectiles.

"They're shelling us right back!" Collins warned.

The Kodiak that was driving some twenty meters ahead of them abruptly erupted into a ball of emerald flames, losing most of its momentum in the space of a second as a powerful bolt of plasma melted through its prow, leaving a slagged hole just below the turret. Its blowout panels spewed flame as the ammunition cooked off, the impact making it throw one of its tracks, sending it jackknifing across the IFV's path.

"Hang on!" their driver growled over the radio, the IFV's wheels spinning in the loose soil as it corrected course. The burning hulk of the disabled tank rolled to a stop just in time, Evan feeling a powerful jolt as the IFV clipped it, a few of the external cameras going dark to create a blind spot. It had put itself directly in Sunny's path, and she was going too fast to stop. She vaulted over it, the burning chassis sagging under her weight as she pushed off the armor, her suit hanging in the air for a moment. She landed on the other side, stumbling for a moment before resuming her sprint, matching pace with the Puma.

Another of the Kodiaks returned fire on the offending tower, punching a HE round through its resin wall, cutting it across the middle as the sabot detonated. The top half of the tower began to list, then toppled into the trenches below, a secondary blast of sickly green scattering its fragments as its stores of ammunition exploded.

Similar exchanges were happening all the way along the line, hundreds of vehicles from dozens of companies coalescing on the Bug defenses. Evan could see two battalions flanking his own in the distance, their combined firepower hammering the fortifications. Despite over nine hours of continuous bombardment, there were enough surviving guns and Drones to put up a fight, streaks of green racing across the blasted terrain as mortars exploded around the vehicles.

The Kodiaks closed ranks as they neared the first row of trenches, the Crocodile engineering vehicles pulling ahead, lowering their anti-mine plows to clear a safe path. There were two of them leading the charge, their blades digging furrows in the earth as they approached the first row of defenses, like they were plowing a field. They encountered a long web of monofilament wires that was strung between poles that had been driven into the ground at intervals, the thin strands biting into the plows, scarring the thick metal as they were stretched to their breaking point.

They pushed through, a Kodiak taking out a nearby pillbox that was firing on them, the IFV falling into one of the two columns behind them. Now, there was only a couple of hundred meters of open ground standing between them and the first trench. The other companies in the battalion were doing the same, moving alongside them some distance to their left and right.

"Just monofilament wire?" Jade mused, glancing at the tattered strands as they drove through the breach. "Is that it? No more bogs, no mines?"

"Yeah, this doesn't feel right," Evan muttered as he glanced out at the cratered terrain apprehensively. "They've had so much time to prepare - why wouldn't they throw more obstacles at us? All of the earthworks are closer to the base of the hill."

The IFV lurched to a stop, the driver slamming on the brakes.

"What the hell?" Evan complained, reaching up to straighten his helmet. "Why'd we stop?"

There was an explosion from the front of the convoy, a shower of dirt and debris raining down on them, little fragments of stone impacting the IFV's roof like hail. A second followed, then another, the sound reminding him of firecrackers going off.

"Uh, guys?" Sunny said. Her suit turned, its many cameras fixing on the company off to their left, which had also ground to a halt. Gunfire echoed, flashes of explosions erupting down the length of the column. "Something's happening."

A few meters away from her, the ground began to stir, the movement drawing Evan's attention. There was something shifting beneath the soil, like a crab digging itself out of the sand, a small creature emerging into view. It was about the size of a dinner plate, crustacean-like in appearance, with a rounded body that was propelled along by eight segmented legs. It was covered in a dirt-colored carapace that matched the soil, fragments of earth still clinging to it. Rather than being perfectly disk-shaped, it was thicker towards the front, where it had a set of beady little eyes and jutting antennae that protruded from its shell. It cleaned its sensory equipment with a pair of feathery pedipalps like a cat cleaning its whiskers, setting its sights on Sunny.

It sprang into motion, racing across the ground on its spindly limbs, moving alarmingly quickly. Sunny drew back one of her suit's legs as it neared, kicking the thing like a soccer ball, sending the little crab tumbling through the air. When it was only a few paces away, it exploded like a grenade, showering the ground beneath it in fragments of white-hot shrapnel.

"We're in a minefield!" Sunny warned, her shoulder-mounted gun swiveling to track more targets as they began to unearth themselves. Dozens of the things dug themselves out of the dirt, starting to race towards the vehicles, Sunny's railgun causing them to detonate where her slugs found their mark. The blister on the IFV joined in, more vehicles along the column opening up, the living bombs surrounding them.

One of the creatures darted closer to the IFV behind Evan's, wriggling under its wheels like a spider trying to squeeze through a narrow gap. It exploded with a tangible thud, delivering enough explosive force to lift the Puma a few inches off the ground, two of its tires torn to shreds by the shrapnel. The crew piled out of their disabled vehicle, taking up position outside, using their rifles to help take out the swarming bomblets. They were exploding all around the convoy, creating an obscuring wall of smoke and debris, making it even more difficult to spot them in the chaos.

"God damn it, we have to get this convoy moving!" Simmons snapped. "It'll be death by a thousand cuts if we stay here!"

"One of the lead Crocodiles is disabled, sir!" the driver replied.

"It's a fucking mine-clearing vehicle, how is it disabled?" Simmons demanded.

"Looks like one of those little crab bombs crawled inside their tracks and fucked up one of their drive sprockets."

One of the Marines from the vehicle behind them paused to reload his XMR, Evan watching as a mine made a beeline for him. Before Evan could radio him a warning, the thing leapt into the air, extending its eight legs as it sailed towards him. It landed on his chest, its jointed limbs gripping him tightly, the Marine lurching as he struggled to tear it off. A moment later, it detonated, turning the man into strips of bloody meat and tattered fabric. The blast sprayed the nearby IFV with his blood, knocking two of his comrades off their feet.

Sunny moved to assist, her suit lumbering over to them as they struggled to drag one of their injured comrades back inside the troop bay, her shoulder gun spraying molten metal. Another of the mines jumped at her, and she swatted it out of the air with her shield, the creature bouncing off the ground before exploding a short distance away.

One of the Kodiaks peeled off from the column ahead of them, the blister mounted atop its turret firing down at the mines. Several of the things grouped up, seeming to coordinate, quickly rushing beneath the firing arc of the gun. They clustered inside its tracks like crabs in a rock crevice, dust billowing as they detonated, pieces of shattered wheels and fragments of track embedding themselves in the ground nearby. The Kodiak listed, more of the mines leaping up onto its hull, blasting off ceramic tiles and comms equipment. One of them jumped up onto the blister, exploding on contact, tearing the gun right off the turret.

"Get us moving!" Simmons ordered, slamming his fist on the hull. "Go around if you have to!"

The IFV lurched into motion, peeling away from the stalled convoy. More of the vehicles were doing the same, driving around the disabled tanks, the surviving Crocodile leading the way. It shot out a line charge from one of its launchers, the rocket spiraling out of view beyond the ash clouds, an explosion rippling along its length. There were several follow-up detonations, the charge presumably catching several of the mines in its blast radius.

The shadow of the Yagda loomed over them, the hulking repulsor firing the forward thrusters that were clustered around its skirt, shedding its momentum. It seemed to have no ability to brake - it could only apply thrust in the opposite direction that it was traveling, as though it was moving through a vacuum. It slid up alongside the convoy, careful not to actually float over any of the vehicles, the dust particles and small stones that floated weightlessly beneath its rounded underbelly suggesting that the same might happen to any tanks or personnel that strayed beneath it.

The sponsons that ringed its bulbous hull sprang to life, the ball turrets swiveling to track targets, their clusters of cameras and sensors fixing on the scurrying mines. The twin-linked railguns opened up, spewing streams of machinegun fire in every direction, covering every angle. There were four on each flank, one on the nose, and one mounted above the troop ramp at the rear. The withering fire saturated the surrounding area with molten tungsten, each fresh wave of mines erupting into small explosions as the turrets chewed them up.

The gunfire created a perimeter safe enough that the crews of the damaged vehicles could get to cover. A couple of the IFVs stopped beside their damaged counterparts, Evan watching as the crew of the disabled Kodiak bailed out, one of them pausing to fire at the oncoming mines with his PDW as he stood on top of the turret. They didn't even bother to open the Puma's ramp, the three men hauling themselves up onto its roof using the bustle racks, then climbing into the vehicle through a hatch.

After covering the crew of the disabled IFV as they transferred to a new vehicle, Sunny began to run again, soon catching up with Evan's squad. Her shoulder-mounted railgun never stopped firing, swiveling to track targets independently, each hit causing another small puff of ash and gore.

With only one Crocodile, the company had to fall into a single column, but the living mines had lost the element of surprise now. With each vehicle using its blister to defend the convoy, they were having a harder time getting close, thirty-millimeter railguns and grenade launchers saturating the surrounding area. The Yagda kept pace, doing the lion's share of the work, its array of weapons designed for the purpose of protecting it from wave attacks.

"We got Bug mortars incoming!" the driver warned, everyone in the troop bay bracing themselves for the impact. The lesson that stalled convoys were vulnerable to ambush had been well-learned. The Bugs had been prepared to shell them when they were tied up dealing with the mines, knowing that they would stop to evacuate their damaged vehicles.

The shells never reached them. The two CIWS guns mounted on top of the Yagda swiveled into position, their targeting globes tracking something that the IFV's cameras could not yet see. The rotary barrels began to spin, spewing an unbroken stream of rounds into the air, glowing tracers drawing swirling patterns across the sky. Their rate of fire was so high that they sounded more like chainsaws than guns, the point-defense weapons intercepting the incoming shells, causing them to explode high above the ground.

Regaining their momentum, the company blasted through the smoke and out onto the open plain again, the first trench coming back into view. The Crocodile plowed through another monofilament fence, a mine exploding harmlessly against its thick armor, then it went barreling into the enemy fortifications. The Kodiaks funneled through the breach behind it, spreading out into a line, using their numerous weapons to suppress the Bugs in the trenches below. Most of their guns couldn't depress far enough to hit them, but their blisters had a firing arc, pouring tungsten into the defenders. The Drones were powerless to stop the tanks, the plasma from their rifles and pistols splashing harmlessly against their hulls, their grenades able to do little more than melt their paint. A few surviving pillboxes lay down more concentrated fire, but were quickly destroyed with plasma sabots, flames licking from their gun ports as the intense heat and resulting overpressure wave turned them into pressure cookers.

The IFVs followed, skidding to a stop behind the tanks. Evan unfastened his harness, lifting his XMR from its rack beside his seat, the rest of the squad gearing up as Simmons made his way to the troop ramp.

"Get ready!" he warned, gripping a handhold on the ceiling as the warning light above the ramp began to flash. "As soon as the ramp drops, we make a run for the trench!"

The squad lined up behind him, waiting for the ramp to hit the ground, then they piled out onto the cratered ash field. The sound of battle hit Evan like a hammer, his helmet automatically dulling it after a brief delay. The deafening chorus of gunfire filled the air, the surrounding vehicles firing unceasingly, pouring tungsten and explosives into the fortifications. As Evan rounded the IFV, following behind his companions, he saw the battlefield stretching into the distance.

The hill dominated the horizon now, close enough that he had to crane his neck to see its flat peak. It was still shrouded in smoke, more artillery and cannon fire hammering the mountainside, trying to take out whatever firing positions remained up there. As he turned to look back at the Yagda, the tank hovering a good two meters above the monofilament fence, he saw that its main cannon was elevating to aim at the cliffs.

"It's gonna fire again!" he exclaimed.

"They would have warned us if it was loading a nuclear payload," Simmons replied, leading them past one of the Kodiaks. "Keep moving!"

The ten-meter-long cannon discharged over their heads, Evan feeling the loud crack in his bones. He glanced up just in time to see the sabot impact the mountainside, hitting a particularly stubborn gun emplacement that was firing down on a neighboring battalion. The payload might not be nuclear, but the amount of energy conveyed by the 740mm gun was the next best thing, the release of energy creating a blinding flash as it vaporized several tons of rock. The resulting blast carved a deep crater in the cliff, sending enough debris to bury a small town cascading down towards the ground like an avalanche.

Evan struggled to take his mind off the chaos that was erupting around him, focusing his attention on the trench ahead. All that he needed to think about now was the task at hand and keeping his squad safe. He piled into the ditch after his comrades, finding the construction exactly the same as the ones they had encountered on their way to the hill - dirt walls reinforced with resin. Parts of it had collapsed due to the shelling, craters biting chunks out of the network, and there were the blackened remnants of Drones wherever he looked. It was like stumbling upon some mass grave full of bodies that had been hastily torched in an attempt to hide evidence, the charred corpses lying in heaps in places, others strewn about in varying states of dismemberment. Some were more recent, slain by the gunfire from the company's vehicles, fresh ichor seeping from their wounds. It was almost unbelievable to think that there were any left alive after the amount of ordnance that had been dropped on the hill, but there was still gunfire in the distance, the odd stray plasma bolt sailing over the trenches.

"You know the drill!" Simmons said, shouldering his rifle. "We go trench by trench, bunker by bunker, and we clear them out!"

The two Borealans took point, the rest of the squad bringing up the rear. Evan felt the ground shake, heavy footsteps nearing, and he turned his head to see Sunny jogging over to them. She was a little too large to fit inside the trench, so she walked along beside it, her railgun firing off the odd burst of gunfire at targets in the distance.

"Now it's a party!" Hernandez chuckled.

Evan winced as he crunched the burnt carapaces of partially-buried Bugs beneath his boots, feeling the weakened chitin crack under his weight. Maybe it was his newfound closeness to Jade, but he found himself becoming more squeamish around the dead and injured insects. They made their way down the zigzagging trench, encountering only dead Drones, heading for one of the ruined bunkers. This one had been struck by multiple artillery shells, leaving little more than a vaguely circular husk, the entire roof caved in.

They reached what remained of the narrow entrance, Borzka and Tatzi leaping effortlessly over the ruined outer wall, swinging their long rifles around as they scanned the rubble inside the bunker's footprint for targets. Borzka moved over to the left, Evan filing through the doorway after Garcia and Brooks to see him aiming his weapon at a Drone. It was still alive, barely. The insect was sitting on the ground, leaning against the back wall, a hole large enough that Evan could have put his arm through it punched into its abdomen. With a shaking hand, it lifted a pistol made from molded resin, still resisting despite being at death's door. Borkza showed it no quarter, dumping two slugs into its chest, the creature going limp as its fluids splattered the dirt wall behind it.

The scout company's spotter drones were airborne, helping to pick out targets with their bird's eye view. Whatever they tagged was transmitted to the local ad-hoc network, appearing as red blips on Evan's HUD, making it exponentially more difficult for the Bugs to get the drop on them. They needed every tool at their disposal if they were going to even the odds against such a numerically superior force.

Evan briefly checked the display on his wrist, the spotters feeding him a detailed map of the surrounding area. Blue icons that denoted other squads from the battalion were piling into the trenches all along the front line, while sparse clusters of red moved to intercept them, more of them appearing as they came into range of the sensors. The Bugs were rallying their forces for a counter-attack.

Evan saw the Drones appear on his HUD as red outlines as they neared, visible through the walls of the trenches.

"Staggered formation!" Simmons yelled. Four of the Marines dropped, kneeling shoulder to shoulder, wide enough to just about fill the trench. Four more members of the team took up position behind them, the two Borealans included, aiming their rifles over their heads. "Wait for my command!"

They poised there, their fingers on their triggers, waiting for the cluster of red signals to round one of the twisting corners ahead of them. A moment later, a Drone stalked into view, turning its many eyes on them. It was wielding a pistol in one hand and a long blade in the other - a standard CQC loadout that they were all intimately familiar with by now. Even as it raised its sidearm, the weapon emitting a threatening glow, Simmons held off. He waited for four more of them to swarm around the corner, filling the trench, their mandibles clicking as they raced towards the squad.