When the Devil Dances

CHAPTER 10 Near Seed, GA, United States, Sol III 0623 EDT Sunday September 14, 2009 ad

Mosovich cursed bitterly. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”

“Yeah,” Mueller whispered. “Tell me about it.”

Oakey Mountain Road was a tiny thread paralleling the Rabun/Habersham county line. The line itself followed the ridges that the team was using to avoid detection, but the road, not all that far away at most points, was generally obscured by the thick forests of the hills. This was their first clear glimpse, paused on the mountains above Lake Seed, and it was horrifying; the narrow trail was crawling with Posleen.

“That’s a couple of brigades’ worth, Jake,” Mueller whispered.

“Yeah, and if they’re there, they’re going to be on Low Gap Road… They’re boxing us.”

“Jake, Posleen don’t do that,” Mueller protested, ignoring the evidence of his own eyes.

“Yeah, well, these Posleen do,” Mosovich answered. “Sister Mary, are we secure?”

“Yep,” she answered. “There’s a box over on the other side of Lake Rabun and I’ve put in a couple of new ones. We’re solid laser back to corps.”

“Wake somebody up. I want a human being, not a machine. I think this mission is a bust and we’re going to have to cut our way out.”

The officer rubbed his eyes sleepily and took the proffered headset from the communications tech. “Major Ryan, FSDO. Who is this?”

Ryan sometimes wondered if he wouldn’t have made a greater contribution to the war effort in the Ten Thousand, a posting that came automatically with the tiny “Six Hundred” embroidered on the right chest of his BDU uniform. However, a brief but memorable “counseling session” with the Chief of Staff of the Army Corps of Engineers had convinced him that there were better places for him, and for the Army.

The Ten Thousand generally depended on other units for their engineering support and their senior engineer was basically a liaison. Sergeant Leo, now suitably promoted to warrant rank, fulfilled the position perfectly. And it would be a dead end for a junior engineer who had realized he liked being an officer.

Thus had started a series of usually high profile, and always critical, assignments. The first had been as junior aide to the Commander of the Corps of Engineers and almost all the others had involved positions equally challenging and career advancing. Even this last, a redesign of the Rabun Gap defenses, was a high profile job. He was, technically, just the Assistant Corps Engineer, but in reality he was directing not only the brigade of engineers but all the divisional engineers in a complete rebuild of the valley’s defenses.

The defenses for Rabun Gap were extremely heavy, make no mistake. The gap was a relative low point in the eastern ranges with a major road passing through it, so the United States had spared no expense in preparing for the Posleen onslaught. The primary physical defense was a curtain wall that stretched across a narrow point south of the former Mountain City like a slightly smaller Hoover Dam. The wall stretched, on an only slightly less massive scale, up both of the steep slopes on either side running along a line of ridges up to to the east and west. The “long wall” was being worked on constantly and would soon exceed the Great Wall of China as the single most massive human construction on Earth.

However, beyond The Wall, and behind it for that matter, was a different story. Originally The Wall was intended to be the centerpiece of a defense structure that stretched down past Clayton and filled the entire Rabun Gap, which, technically, began behind the primary structure about two miles.

Early landings and different priorities had meant that much of the preparations had not been carried through. None of the defenses in front of the wall remained; succeeding waves of attempted assaults had swept them all away and there had been no replacement. Furthermore, the defenses behind The Wall that were supposed to extend in depth for miles, had either never been completed or, in many cases, had been obliterated by the corps units as they jostled for space.

On a tour that had finally included the relatively low-priority Rabun Gap region, the current commander of the Corps of Engineers had gotten one look at the defenses and nearly died of shock. Defenses three or four times this quality had been repeatedly gained and lost around Harrisburg and Roanoke so she knew damned well that these could be taken by a sufficiently determined Posleen assault.

She first considered calling in John Keene. The civilian engineer was another special trouble-shooter that the COE kept in reserve. But not only was he deeply and inventively involved in rebuilding the Roanoke defenses, the local corps commander was General Bernard of 29^th Infantry infamy.

It was by the order of General Bernard that the Posleen who had settled in to feast on the corpse of Fredericksburg in the first landing were induced, instead, to come swarming out and attack the forces gathering to their north and south. General Bernard, ignoring orders to the contrary, had ordered his division artillery to fire on a concentration of Posleen that had no apparent interest in continuing in a hostile manner. This had the effect, metaphorically, of poking a stick into a wasp nest, with similar results.

John Keene had successfully designed and implemented an engineering defense plan for Richmond to the south, literally at the last minute. The plan was implemented in opposition to the one suggested by General Bernard and had to be rushed through due to the poor tactical judgement of the general.

The corps to the north of Fredericksburg, however, through a combination of bad political decisions, poor training and an apparent computer hacking by renegade forces, was overrun almost to a man. This left only Engineer Officer Basic Course student Second Lieutenant William Ryan, fellow classmates and other engineer trainees pulled from Advanced Individual Training to harass and delay the Posleen. With a little help from the USS Missouri they had fought their way back to the Lincoln Memorial, where they basically got tired of running and held the basement until the ACS arrived to dig them out.

Which brought to the COE Commander’s mind Lieutenant Ryan, now Major Ryan, who would be the perfect party to put in an operational position. Especially if the major was put in place with a very quiet word to the prickly Bernard that if he didn’t give the major all the support he needed then get the hell out of the way, a certain court-martial board could be reconvened to “discuss” his failures in Virginia.

Thus Major Ryan found himself explaining to administrative units that they could either move their facilites back from the wall or to the other side of it and he really didn’t care which.

And pulling Field Grade Staff Duty Officer.

Jake winced. He didn’t know who this turkey was, but given that he was pulling staff duty in a nice dry headquarters it was pretty unlikely that he knew which end of a rifle a bullet came out of much less how vitally important getting fire to a cut off patrol was.

“Major, this is Sergeant Major Jake Mosovich, Fleet Strike Recon. And we’ve got us a situation here.”

Ryan tugged at the lock of hair that always seemed to dangle on his forehead and tried to remember why the name sounded familiar. “Go ahead, Sergeant Major, you have my full and undivided attention.”

Jake dialed up the magnification on the night vision system and sighed. “Sir, we are surrounded by Posleen. Our position is southeast of Lake Seed and the Posleen have apparently figured this out and are patrolling all the surrounding roads. Our objective was an overlook of Clarkesville, but at this point that is impossible. If we can cut our way out alive we’ll be lucky. Are you with me, sir?”

Ryan shivered and remembered the mingled shame and relief when his own platoon was permitted to leave the Occoquan defense. He knew, only too well, how Mosovich was feeling at the moment. Or maybe not: in Ryan’s case he had always had the option of retreating.

He glanced at the artillery availability board and blanched. The sergeant major was not going to like what he was about to tell him; it was likely that he wouldn’t believe it either.

“Sergeant Major, I’ve got some really shitty news. The fighting up north has had CONARC calling for available artillery from all over. We’ve lost both additional heavy artillery regiments in the area, the additional special arty we were supposed to get was diverted to Chattanooga and Asheville and half our corps arty is gone. We don’t have any of the heavy, special guns at all, except one SheVa and they don’t have any useful ammunition. And you’re out of range for anything else except one five-five. And half the one five-five is tasked to emergency protective fire. I can’t get that released without the corps commander’s permission.”

Ryan could hear the sergeant major swearing softly over the open circuit and something about it made the memory click. “Sergeant Major Mosovich? From Richmond?”

There was silence over the circuit for a moment. “Yeah, that’s me. Why do you know about that, sir?”

Ryan stroked his mustache. He had grown it as an affectation back when he thought he was a little too young to suddenly be a captain. Then, after a while, he noticed that people tended to avoid looking him in the eye. Oh, not the combat types, but around corps headquarters you didn’t run into many of them. But for the rest… they tended to look away. Some of them said he didn’t look like he was still in his twenties.

But he kept the mustache.

“I know Mr. Keene. Pretty well.” He’d studied under Keene’s tutelage in Chattanooga during the rebuild and they had become more than acquaintances; Keene was one of the ones who could look the young major in the eye. And Keene had some good stories about Richmond. Better than Ryan’s, which mostly ended “and then we ran away again” or “and then he died.”

“Better than Barwhon, Sergeant Major,” Ryan added, realizing now, how he could get the NCO to work with him. If they worked together rather than at cross-purposes, which would just happen if Mosovich assumed he was dealing with an arm-chair commando, they could, maybe, get the LRRP team out.

“Better than Barwhon but not as good as Occoquan,” the major added. “I had the Missouri on my side there.” Ryan paused again and clicked icons, reconfiguring data. “You now have everything I have the authority to release, Sergeant Major. I’m going to send a runner over to the corps commander with the request that he release the fast reaction forces, all but one batt. Some of these guys are probably asleep, so it will take waking them up. But in just a bit you’ll have the better part of two brigades of artillery at your beck and call.”

Mosovich smiled as his AID showed all the available artillery in the corps transferring to his control, but he suppressed his chuckle. “So that was you, sir. Yeah, I wish the Mo was in range. Or any of the railguns. But what we’ve got will have to do.”

Ryan pointed at the nearest senior NCO and towards the corps commander’s quarters. The headquarters was on a hillock in the middle of the Gap and had once housed the Rabun School. Now the dormitories were officers’ quarters and the headmaster’s home was the corps commander’s quarters. Generally, the commander did not prefer to be disturbed in the middle of the night, but one look at the major was enough to send the staff sergeant scampering. And he wasn’t going to return unless he had the release of the artillery.

“I’ll see if I can scrounge up anything else. Can you think of anything?”

“Just one, sir,” Mosovich added. “It might make sense to wake up Major Steverich in S-2. These guys are not acting like normal Posleen. Way too controlled, way too… something. They seem to be anticipating us in a way I don’t like one bit. Like they’re anticipating everything we do.”

“Or reading the mail?” Ryan asked. “You’re secure, right?” He checked the notation on the communicator. “Right.”

“Yes, sir,” Mosovich answered. “We’re using the laser system, I’m not even trusting ultra-wide band. But we’ve been losing sensors. That’s why we’re out here; because we’ve lost all our sensors on this side of the mountain. What have they been doing with them?”

Tulo’stenaloor looked over the shoulder of the God King and reined in his impatience. Goloswin had been almost impossible to find, and even harder to dig out of his comfortable rut on Doradan. From the point of view of the young hotheads that made up the majority of the Host, Kesentai like Goloswin were not much more than Kenstain. They may have fought well enough to get a few small possessions, a square of property and a factory or two. But then they quit, leaving the fighting to their betters. And they had odd… hobbies was not a Posleen word, but it fit.

In the case of Goloswin the hobby was… devices. He seemed to understand the Alldn’t equipment better than its long dead Alldn’t and Posleen designers. He could improve, another human word, “tweak” came to mind, a tenar so that it was faster, smoother and the sensors interacted even better with the guns. His sensor suites were a thing of legend and many well-to-do Kessentai waited years for one of his systems to be built and eventually catch up with them.

And one of them cost more in trade credits than a basic oolt, fully equipped.

But the technician’s real love was new discoveries, new devices to tinker with, such as the sensor box floating in the stasis field.

“These humans, so endlessly inventive.” The God King sighed. “Look. Not just a communicator, not just a relay and not just a sensor, but all three rolled into one. Crude in places; I think that some of these components undoubtedly came from something else. But quite, quite inventive.”

“And now a defense device,” Tulo’stenaloor pointed out. “The last one that we tried to take down blew up when it was moved.” The loss of an oolt’os and a Kessentai who was supervising was not worth commenting on.

“I need a sample of one of those,” Goloswin said. “I have an oolt’os who will probably be able to take one down successfully.”

“After this little problem is rectified,” Tulo’stenaloor said. “They are dependent for untraceable communication on these things. I would like to remove that link if I could.”

“Oh, it’s not untraceable,” Goloswin pointed out. He slid his talons through some glowing dots in the air and a new holofield opened and configured. It was a rough map of the region and Tulo’stenaloor realized that the “bright” areas were where the human sensors could see. And he realized immediately what he was looking at.

“You’re in the sensor net?” he breathed.

“Oh, yes,” Goloswin agreed. “Trivial exercise, quite trivial. The nice part is this.” He highlighted a field and four purple icons sprang to life on a ridgeline. “There are your pests. Now go take care of them and get me a sample of the new sensors. I look forward to examining this ‘boobytrap.’ And the next human you talk to, please ask it what a ‘booby’ is before you eat it.”

Mosovich looked at the map and got a sick feeling in his stomach. The fact was that, no matter how much artillery fire they got, they were in a box. There were only three places where crossing the Talullah River would be a reasonable proposition. As Mueller had pointed out, if they had SCUBA gear they could have crossed any of the lakes at any point. But without the gear they would be four obvious targets, out on the flat nowhere and open to fire from any passing patrol. And the crossing would not be quick. Even if they could “drownproof” Sister Mary and drag her across on a float. But otherwise it was a matter of choosing the bridges; crossing the streams would be nearly impossible and — between having to rig ropes to keep from being swept away and making their way across — sure to take too long as well.

However… these Posleen were acting like humans. They seemed to be thinking about the possible actions of their quarry and reacting in a reasonable manner. Which meant that they would be expecting the team to either cross the bridges or the lakes heading more or less directly towards the lines. They might or might not know that the latter would be virtually impossible.

If they could break through the lines to the west, then break contact, two very big ifs, they could make their way towards the lines around Tray Mountain. That was a wilderness area and the roads were few and far between, making it much better from their perspective.

But getting there would be a long damned walk with, apparently, damned little support. The artillery, though, what there was of it, would be able to cover them the whole way. The important point would be to make sure they didn’t get spotted by where the artillery was firing.

He chuckled silently. This was almost as bad as fighting humans.

“There is a reason that fighting humans is so hard,” Orostan mused. “They apparently have been warring amongst themselves, and surviving at it, for their entire history. Their legion of dirty tricks comes from those millennia of experience. We Posleen, on the other hand, have either fought those with no experience of war, or fought the ornaldath. And the ornaldath has always lasted for such a short period of time, and been so chaotic, that little can be learned.”

“With humans, every day is ornaldath,” Cholosta’an muttered bitterly. “They… cheat.”

“Yes,” Orostan admitted in an amused tone. “But it is not ornaldath. They do not use the greatest weapons, much. Tulo’stenaloor’s… ‘intelligence’ people have learned that they have a great reluctance to use those that are not chemical, those that use fusion and antimatter for their propellants. So it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, ornaldath. Except when you corner them. And then, sometimes, they use those weapons. Rarely.”

“They are not cornered now?” Cholosta’an asked. “They are only a bit of one continent. The ones that are to the north have no materials to fight with and other than this remnant it is all tribes scattered in the mountains. Except for this remnant, they are broken. Isn’t that the point of gathering this host?”

“Don’t count the humans out until the last one is dead and you have hacked its body to bits and eaten it,” the oolt’ondai cautioned. “Many of them got off the planet before we landed and those ‘scattered tribes’ are still strong enough to be a challenge in many areas. We have taken the bulk of the planet for our lands, and the bulk of the human population for our feed, but their fleet rebuilds and rebuilds seemingly endlessly. And these humans, these ‘trapped abat’ are no joke. Every day they find new ways to confound us.”

As if on cue the sky began to scream.

“Splash out,” Mosovich said, listening to the firecracker rattle of ICM landing in the distance. The team had moved down the mountainside, using every bit of concealment, until it was within two hundred yards of Oakey Mountain Road. The biggest worry were the God Kings scattered among the normals. It was hard, in the heavy foliage, to spot the occasional passing saucer, but whenever one came in view the team went to ground and held their breath in anticipation. But, so far, so good.

Now, with the firing behind them, if the Posleen stayed true to their current form they should hurry towards the bridge in anticipation of the team’s movements.

And that did appear to be happening. The normals in view, almost immediately after the artillery began to land, began to stream to the north. With any luck in a few more minutes there would be enough of a reduction the team could consider trying the road.

They were on a ridgeline perpendicular to the road, bedded down in a thick stand of white pine saplings. At the point they would be crossing the road it went through a small saddle and there was a hilltop on the far side. There had been a house or small farm to the right of the saddle in bygone days, but now all there was, was another weed-covered field and the overgrown right-of-way. The open area was small, as well, no more than fifty meters including the torn up grassy track that had been Oakey Mountain Road.

On the far side of the hill that was their objective the ground fell off down a steep slope to the Soque River. Although that would normally be a tough crossing, the area was densely grown and there was small chance the horselike Posleen could keep up with the team in there. They would have to cross Highway 197, but unless the Posleen were patrolling everywhere, any movement over there should be slight. And, again, the ground should be overgrown enough to permit them to slip past any patrols.

From the crossing of the Soque they would swing west of Batesville. If they weren’t spotted on their crossing, corps would maintain harassing fire on the Posleen in regular spots near the Talullah. With luck, it would be some time before the Posleen commander discovered that they had slipped out of the trap. By that time they should be well outside the main search area.

If. With luck.

In a remarkably short time the masses of Posleen that had been in the area were gone. The road was empty and still in the pre-dawn night.

“Time to move out,” Mosovich whispered. Steep slope again. Time to slide.

“Well, at least it is falling on others,” Cholosta’an observed. The tenar’s sensors were set to replicate the activity on the far side of the mountain.

The town of Seed had often been described as not much more than a stop sign; it really it wasn’t even that. The “main” road was Oakey Mountain, a two lane winding bit of nothingness going from nowhere to nowhere in the hills. And there wasn’t even a stop sign on it, let alone a convenience store. The other road was Gap Road, a macadam track going over the mountains to Lake Seed.

And it was less now. Where before there had been a few houses now there were only weedy fields, scrub and the occasional shallow crater that indicated a home with a “Scorched Earth” home defense system.

Currently the fields were covered with the oolt’ondar of Orostan and the many additional newcomer oolt attached to it. This force had been primarily responsible for patrolling Low Gap Road. Orostan had ordered in road construction materials and the track over the mountains was in the process of being graded for the first time since the initial invasion. But most of his force was now consolidated at Seed in case the humans broke in another direction. As opposed to the forces over by the lake that were closing in, presumably closing in, on the human team. And it was clear that these latter were getting hammered.

“Yes,” Orostan said. “And Lardola is being conservative. Most of the loss has been among the new forces. And especially among those marked as the least favorable.”

“I’m glad I wasn’t marked as ‘unfavorable,’ ” the younger Kessentai commented sourly.

“No, you weren’t,” the oolt’ondai agreed. “Or you’d probably be in there getting turned into thresh.” His communicator chimed and he touched one of the glowing dots, receiving the call.

“Orostan, this is Tulo. The humans appear to have tricked us; they are attempting to break to the west. Again, they are preparing to cross the road on the western side. The patrols over there have scattered and headed for the firing. Cut the humans off if you can get there in time, pursue them if not.” A holo map blossomed over the older Kessentai’s tenar showing the relative position of the human team and the Posleen force.

“Understood,” the oolt’ondai said. “I will do that immediately.”

“And,” the distant commander added with a hiss of humor, “I take it I don’t have to suggest that you use caution.”

“Agreed,” the oolt’ondai answered.

“I will take my oolt immediately, Oolt’ondai,” Cholosta’an said, starting to swing his tenar to the north.

“Softly, Kessentai,” Orostan said, flapping his crest in negation. “I did mention that you were not considered entirely expendable, right?” The oolt’ondai ran his finger down the readouts until he grunted in satisfaction. “Oldoman,” he said into his communicator. There was a moment’s pause, which evoked a snarl, but the communicator finally lit.

“What?” came a harsh answer.

“The humans have been seen trying to make it across the road. Go north and cut them off; I will follow with the rest of the force.”

“I go!” came the reply. “Enough of this waiting in the dark!”

“An expendable one?” Cholosta’an asked.

“Eminently,” Orostan agreed. “His oolt’os are on their last legs from hunger, not because he does not have the credits to afford it, but because he expects them to find food on their own. Terrible equipment, not a decent gene line in the group. Damned few usable skills and all replaceable. He’s not worth the air he and his oolt breathe.” For a group called ‘The People of the Ships’ it was the ultimate insult.

“And will we follow with the rest of the force?”

“Oh, definitely,” Orostan said, sending orders to his key subcommanders. “But carefully and slowly, the least worthy scouts out to the front. It is not worth losing a thousand oolt’os to catch one small group of humans, no matter how dangerous.”

“I don’t see that it’s worth this expenditure to cover one group of lurps,” the corps artillery commander complained.

It was inevitable that everyone would want to get their two cents in just as soon as they woke up. And with the corps commander fulminating in the pre-dawn hours the word had quickly woken his staff. Who had descended in full fury on one lonely major.

Who didn’t have an ounce of back-up.

“I don’t see that it’s worth the expenditure to keep you fed, Colonel.” Major Ryan was tired and getting just a bit cranky. And trying to follow the battle around Seed while surrounded by chateau generals was getting on his nerves.

“Enough of that,” General Bernard said. He was a big, florid commander who filled his BDU uniform like a bass drum. This also described the occasional military genius in history, but unfortunately that particular description, “military genius,” did not extend to General Bernard. He had been the Virginia National Guard commander prior to the invasion, what is called the Adjutant General. Upon the Federalization of all forces he had retained command of the 29^th Infantry Division up until the debacle that was generally called the Battle of Spottsylvania County. During the first landing individual units of the division had fought bravely and occasionally brilliantly. But the general had been shown to be completely out of his depth and when he ordered his division artillery, against standing orders, to initiate contact with the Posleen, it had contributed, markedly, to the ensuing massacres of the 9^th and 10^th Corps.

However, his political skills had stood him in good stead in the following war of blame-calling and finger-pointing. Certain prominent generals had gone down in flames, the President at the center of the controversy had, of course, died, but a few others, both deserving and undeserving of blame, had managed to survive. In Bernard’s case he had even prospered, pointing out that the general that ordered his relief was shortly thereafter soundly defeated by the Posleen. The fact that General Simosin was also the victim of a very deliberate and subtle hacking of his control net was missed in the debate. Indeed, the fact that the battle took place at the time and in the way that it did being at least partially the fault of General Bernard and his single rash and stupid order was missed in the debate. Thus he was reinstated and even, eventually, promoted. However, everyone who was “in the know” was aware that as a field commander he was incompetent at best and dangerous at worst. Thus his posting to the relatively low priority Rabun Gap Defense Zone. This was not a guy you were going to trust at Chattanooga or Roanoke or Harrisburg.

General Bernard was also aware of this thin ice. And thus he did not immediately hop to the defense of his artillery commander. “One of the things we are here to decide is how much support they need. And I released the FPF batteries.”

“We probably won’t need final protective fire right away, sir,” Colonel Jorgensen said. “They seem to be expending most of their attention on these lurps. But if they follow them all the way back to the lines, assuming they make it, then we might have problems.”

“The indications so far are that this group is sitting on its hands,” Colonel McDonald pointed out. The corps intelligence officer was well aware that those were, technically, “his” lurps out there. What was even more important was that if he lost them it was unlikely he’d get a new set with the same capabilities any time soon. He had some “home grown” teams, but they didn’t have the experience or the equipment of the long-service Special Operations types that had been transferred to Fleet Strike. Which would mean local patrols with standard equipment. Including regular radios. And since the Posleen seemed to be learning to track in on radios pretty quick, that would mean teams with not much in the way of communications ability.

So for a variety of reasons, not excepting the milk of human kindness and the interests of one soldier looking out for another, he didn’t intend to let these two jerks hang Mosovich out on a limb.

“We have plenty of movement in the sensor areas,” McDonald noted. “They’re getting ready to move out of the sensor coverage. But even if they do we can get good fire on the approaching forces. It’s only ammo; bullets not bodies, remember?”

“It’s only ammo to you, George,” Colonel Jorgensen said. “But it’s my boys and girls feeding the guns. It’s my cost for replacing tubes. I’ve got to explain the trunion damage and, for that matter, the ammunition expenditure. And we’ve got a globe sitting out there, planning who knows what. What happens when they come swarming at the wall? Where do we get the ammunition then?”

“Colonel, I’ve seen your ammo dumps,” Major Ryan said. “You’ve got enough ammo on hand for five days of continuous fire, especially with all the units we lost to Tenth Army. Five… days. Trust me, those defenses will not last five days if the Posleen come at us in force. Five hours will be about right. So you’ve got plenty of ammo on hand in that case.”

“I think we’ll give a better accounting of ourselves than that,” Bernard said. The wear and tear on the artillery would just mean he got new tubes sooner and this damned major would undoubtedly make some sort of a report of his “fighting spirit.” “But we do have a sufficiency on hand. Fire them up, Red. Take every call for fire, fire on every sensor target. Major Ryan has been on this from both ends; let him handle the interface and you give him all the support he asks for.”

“Thank you, sir,” Ryan said. “I have been on their end and I do know what it’s like.” He paused for a moment. “And I’ll admit this is way beyond my level, but I think you need to call Army and ask for your arty back, sir. I’ll double that through COE if you like. Those Posties aren’t acting right.”

“I concur on that analysis, sir,” Colonel McDonald said. “Just watching them on the sensors you can see they are staying way more coordinated. Look at this group over by Seed. Or the one that has been pinning down Low Gap Bridge and the 441 Bridge. Usually when you get shooting the Posties swarm towards the fighting. These guys are sitting the fighting out, holding key terrain. That, sir, in my professional estimation is a nightmare.”

General Bernard paused and rubbed his almost totally bald head. That was a horse of a different color. He’d protested having the artillery pulled away when it occurred. If he called Army now and complained about nebulous reports of a Posleen globe force that was acting “funny” then nothing happened it could be the final nail in his professional coffin. The Army still had institutional memory all the way back to the Civil War of officers who were too quick to take counsel of their fears.

“Colonel, I want a full intelligence analysis,” he answered. “Get a good count, or a good estimate. Detail all the ways they have been acting strangely and what the possible increase in combat effectiveness is from that. If it looks like a significantly increased threat, I’ll take that to Army. I’ll take it to CONARC if I have to. But I need more than ‘these Posties are acting funny.’ ”

“I wish we had a Mike Force,” McDonald said softly. “I hate just leaving the lurps to their own devices.”

“I’ve heard about Mosovich before,” Ryan said, tugging at his forelock. “He’s not a guy to go down easy.”

“I’m really getting too old for this shit,” Mosovich growled as they darted across the road.

“Not that again,” Mueller gasped. He’d given up trying to support one end of the Barrett and was carrying it on his own, along with his own weapons, equipment and ammunition, leaving the heavy ammunition pack to Nichols. Making it down the steep slope to the road had been… interesting. “You just got a rejuv; you’re under warranty for another century.”

“ ‘It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage,’ ” Jake answered. This field was thankfully untorn and he led the team across it at a lope towards the woodline. “I’m just getting really tired of trying to make it to woodlines before somebody starts shooting at me.”

“Try flying on the outside of a saucer into the middle of a Posleen swarm,” Nichols gasped, sweat pouring down his face.

“Well, it looks like we cheated death again,” Mueller answered, as they made it into the woods. This area, however, was a fairly open decidous slope, leaf covered but with little undergrowth. They were open to being spotted until they made it halfway up the hill where there was a large thicket of rhododendron. The slope was reasonably gentle and Nichols took the Barrett back.

“Thanks, man,” Nichols said in an embarrassed tone. “This is the first time in my life somebody’s had to hump some of my gear.”

Mueller just nodded. He and Nichols were of similar build, heavy, stocky bodies with a lot of muscle on a heavy-boned frame. But he overtopped Nichols by almost eight inches. “Don’t sweat it,” Mueller said and looked over his shoulder. “Oh, shit.”

To the southeast there was a small valley that was surmounted by another saddle slightly higher than the one they had just crossed. It was out of sight of the one the humans had used and the road ran through it, bent to the left to pass down the valley then up through “their” saddle.

Another Posleen force was coming over the far hill, but this was no patrol. At its head was a God King saucer and although it was clear the humans hadn’t been spotted yet, the saucer was headed straight for “their” hill.

They had left a laser retransmitter on the far hill, but there was no time for Sister Mary to hunt for it with an antenna. “Fire Control,” Mosovich snapped into his UWB transmitter. “Fire concentration Juliet Four. Say again, Juliet Four. Now. Now. Now.” The ultra-wide band system was difficult to detect, difficult to find and difficult to jam. That didn’t mean the Posleen couldn’t do all three, just that short transmissions were, generally, safe. However, if they had to depend on it the Posleen would eventually localize and destroy them.

But the operative word was “eventually.” Right here and right now it was the only way to call for fire. And if they didn’t get some metal on target, and jack quick, that was all they would have wrote for Mama Mosovich’s son.

The God King was a good four hundred meters away and there was only one. The sensors of the saucers had been shown to be able to “see” humans at that range, but could not “discriminate” them if they were not firing. If the Posleen company had been headed down the hill the team would simply have dropped and hoped they weren’t spotted. But it was clear from the movement of the force that it knew where the humans were and was headed over there to wipe them out.

Given that fact, there was only one thing to do; get the God King and hope they survived. The problem was that once they opened fire, despite their flash-suppressed weapons, if the God King was still up the sensors would point right to their position. So the God King had to be taken out, first, and the God King had to be taken out with the first shot.

Nichols flipped out the bipod of the Barrett and dropped to his stomach. He was heaving from the exertions of the last few hours, but he figured he could catch his breath for one decent shot. That was why they taught the technique at sniper school and he was starting to hyperventilate even as he was dropping. His heart was racing so it was a good thing the shot was only a few measly hundred yards; if it was over a thousand, and he had made shots like that, the shot had to be taken between heartbeats.

He took four more deep breaths, let the last one out in a long blow and leaned into the rifle.

Orostan shook his head as the data-link from Oldoman’s tenar went dead. “Not even maneuvering; what a stupid abat.”

The majority of his force was headed down Oakey Mountain road towards the last reported position of the human team. A few oolt had been left behind in case the humans slipped by, but the better part of six thousand Posleen were on the road with Orostan and his picked Kessentai near the front. At the front, however, were a few more of the more “expendable” oolt.

Who were trying to run through a rain of steel. The majority of the artillery available to Mosovich had not been pointed at the Rabun Lake area. The fire down there was from one battery of 155, trying to draw the attention of the Posleen off of the real moves of the team. The rest of the artillery, nearly two brigades, had been prelaid for support along their actual line of march. Some of it was set on the actual target that he had called for fire on, while the other tubes were set to fire on additional possible target points.

At his brief call for fire, the guns that were already set up simply pressed the firing button and went into reload. The other guns, those set on other Target Reference Points, were required to swing from their initial azimuth and elevation to reengage. But the system was fully automated for such a tiny adjustment and within fifteen seconds they had fired.

The time of flight was nearly forty seconds, so the Posleen force was given time to flay their surroundings for upwards of a minute before the first rounds began to impact. And then, forty seconds later, fifteen more batteries rained down.

After that it got bad.

“Their artillery is killing us,” Cholosta’an muttered. “As usual.” The God King swept his tenar back and forth as they went down the road towards the distant thunder of artillery. The habit had stood him in good stead in the face of human snipers and, because he never assumed that there were none around, he had survived when many of his age-mates did not.

“Hmmm,” Orostan said noncomittally. “It is killing some of us. But we have them definitely localized,” he added, tapping at the hologram in front of him. “They are transmitting now. Two bursts of communication have come from this hill. As soon as we crest the ridge they will be in view.”

“Yes,” Cholosta’an noted. “But so will we, Oolt’ondai. And I note that you are not maneuvering.”

“So I’m not,” Orostan said, flapping his crest in agitation at his own stupidity as the symbol for another Kessentai dropped off the hologram. “But they are quickly retreating up the hill. They should soon be out of sight and the artillery will abate. And we will soon be in position to pursue them closely; they will not be able to adjust their artillery then.”

“Are we going to try to cut them off?” Cholosta’an wondered. “Where do you think they are going?”

“I think we can directly pursue them,” Orostan commented. “The hill on this side is not heavily wooded. Once we get through this artillery we can charge the slope. Humans are slower than we are; we should be able to run them to ground.”

“That sounds… easy, Oolt’ondai,” the younger Kessentai noted, suddenly remembering that Orostan had never actually faced humans. “But are you only going to send those who are expendable into the artillery? Or are you going to run through it?”

Orostan paused momentarily in thought. “That’s not a bad question,” he admitted, looking at the three dimensional schematic. “I think, all things considered, that we’ll send the majority of the force through the notch, because that is the only route that will accept it. But you and I will swing to the east of the road, out of the main artillery fire.” He tapped the map, which gave a good view of the immediate area. “There is a hilltop here to the east. It’s still across the valley from the humans, but it will give us a view of their approximate position without going through the main fire.” He paused again as the next oolt entered the hammering artillery. The data-link of the Kessentai stayed up, but the condition marker of the unit indicated that it was, more or less, shattered with better than forty percent casualties. “And I’ll probably send a few more units around as well.”

“Sergeant Major, this is Major Ryan.”

Mosovich didn’t reply; he knew the UWB was detectable, but he could listen just fine. As long as the Posties didn’t start jamming.

“You’re leaving the edge of the sensor zone, so we won’t know where you are. But we’ve got a good read on the Posleen and there’s damn near five thousand of them on your tail. I’ve called for some obscurement and I’ll adjust fire to follow you up the hill, but you’d better scram. Good luck.”

Mosovich glanced at the far saddle and nodded to himself. A salvo of variable time rounds was coming in at the moment and the air was filled with black puffballs. The beauty of the scene belied the shrapnel that he knew was flying downward from the red-cored explosions. A rank of Posleen was shattered under the line of fire even as he watched.

But even as the line of Posleen went down another God King stumbled out of the fire and then another. It was definitely time to leave.

Nichols peered through the scope and hammered out another round. The big rifle pushed his stocky body back at least four inches, but he quickly brought the weapon back into battery and started searching for another target. It had long been determined that the artillery messed with the sensors the God Kings used to find snipers so the shots were not as supercritical as the first had been. But every round helped and the team was laying down fire right alongside.

Mosovich swore softly as he picked out another target in the gathering light. Their position was not as concealed as he would have liked. And, despite the artillery, some of the normals were surviving the gauntlet in the gap to spray the hillside with fire. None of it was aimed — they couldn’t see where the team was firing from — but as soon as the sun came up that happy circumstance would surely change.

Mosovich, however, could see the normals fairly clearly. The Land Warrior system was proving its worth again, giving him the capability to easily direct and redirect fire on the targets in the gap, enhancing the team’s vision and permitting them to communicate clearly. Shoot, move and communicate was what war at all levels was about. But it was especially critical at the level of the small team and the suits were a real boon.

They weren’t perfect though. Advanced research on them had more or less been halted at the start of the war and even with the Galactic power systems they were fairly heavy. They also did not have GalTech clarity levels in low light; there was a particular problem with depth perception that seemed insoluble without the Galactic ability to make continuous micro-sensors.

But what they did, they did very well. Mosovich picked out another target, bringing the aiming bead onto the target and squeezing the trigger of the Advanced Infantry Weapon. The system used a series of sensors in the suit and the weapon to determine the accuracy of the shot and whether any inaccuracy was the fault of the weapon or the operator. If any inaccuracy was an environmental input, whether a temperature change in the barrel or a shift in the wind, the system automatically compensated on the next shot. If it was the fault of the operator it simply sulked in electronic silence. In this case it determined that the 7.62 round would miss its target point by less than three centimeters in the four hundred meters of flight. Since this was well within its margin of error, it made no adjustments.

Mosovich knew, intellectually, what was going on, but he wasn’t really worried. The system had proven to be better “straight out of the box” than he had had any inkling would be possible and he had come to depend upon the accuracy of the system. It occasionally “threw” shots, but it enhanced his own already expert marksmanship to stellar levels. Especially in this half-light, half-dark.

Nonetheless, there were already several hundred Posleen forming up out of the artillery box and the system revealed a seemingly unending stream coming up the road from Seed. There was also a smaller group trying to probe around to their right. As soon as it came into view, he’d have to split his artillery and some of the God Kings were bound to get through.

All in all, it was an unpalatable situation.

“We’re going to have to move out,” he yelled. “Nichols, I need you to stay in place until we move up the slope. Then we’ll take over potting the God Kings and you can move. I’ll call for fire on that group coming around the hilltop from there. Clear?”

“Gotcha, smaj,” the sniper said. In a different unit the person being left behind might consider that they were being sacrificed. But Nichols knew that if that was really Mosovich’s intent, he would say “Nichols, I’m going to use you like a cheap pawn.”

“Mueller, Sister, move it,” Mosovich snapped, throwing himself to his feet and turning to scramble up the slope. “Time to didee.”