The Charlie company commander and first sergeant rushed to the scene in a futile attempt to regain the platoon position but they, in turn, were swept under by the flood. Two of the battalion’s terawatt lasers were in the mass, set to fire “right into the throats” of the Posleen, and they were lost as well. Thus, before the battle was joined, the crucial platoon and company commander of the battalion’s defense along with thirty percent of its heavy firepower was neutralized. All without one Posleen in sight.
Mike switched onto the Charlie net as it became jammed with screaming and cursing. He attempted to contact the Charlie Company CO, Captain Vero, since the platoon’s AIDs could be instructed to filter outgoing transmissions but the commander was stepping all over the net by shouting and cursing as loudly as his troopers. When Mike switched to the battalion command net, the RTO was overwhelmed with calls from Alpha, Weapons, Support and even Headquarters’ company commanders requesting orders or guidance. Alpha’s ground floor platoon, Third Herd was in danger of being overwhelmed as well. Mike heard Captain Wright request permission to move them to upper floors and be immediately denied by the RTO; it was obvious that he had not consulted Lieutenant Colonel Youngman.
Lieutenant Colonel Youngman and Major Norton were, meanwhile, conferring on the staff net. Major Norton’s AID had been ordered to hold all incoming calls. This was a technique that worked with RTOs but only worked with the very literal AIDs after they had been “broken in.” With an RTO, if he thought the call was really important, he’d pass it on. That was how you knew you had a good RTO. But an inexperienced AID was like a bad RTO. It took every order literally and had no sense of discretion. Until Major Norton countermanded the setting, if in the heat of battle he remembered, the company commanders could not contact their remaining link to the battalion commander when they were blocked by his RTO.
Captain Wright withdrew 3rd platoon without orders and placed them ready to resume their positions. Captain Vero finally calmed down and started to get those of his troops that he could withdrawn. About half of the Charlie platoon and most of Alpha had been withdrawn when the first Posleen Report came in. However, the lasers were left behind. The colonel and the S-3 were not even aware of the situation; they were totally cut off from communication outside their little world.
“Enemy in view” came the call on all command nets, the priority stepping on all other communications. Instantly every commander switched to feeds from the scouts.
Behind the flood of Indowy, like a hawk eating a snake, was an equally solid if more disciplined flood of leprous yellow centaurs. The front rank was trotting to keep up with the running Indowy, wielding their long palmate blades in either hand. They would hack down an Indowy and run to catch the next as the following rank lifted the body and passed it to the outside. Along the way the corpse would be gutted and dismembered until the rendered portions were stacked neatly against a wall. The force was a gigantic moving abattoir with the occasional snack nibbled along the way.
Behind this first block of about twelve thousand Posleen the remainder were broken into three streams. The center stream continued to follow the front group as backup, while the outside streams poured into the megascrapers.
The leaders, the God Kings, were clearly evident. They rode in their open saucer-shaped vehicles about two meters across with lasers or HVM launchers mounted on powered gimbals. According to orders the scout/snipers, one member of each three-man scout team, lifted their M-209 sniper rifles and, as a group, fired a low-velocity sniper round at a designated God King. Like a single string-cut marionette, ten God Kings fell. The whole mass checked for a split second and then responded.
The low-velocity rounds of the snipers left no more signature than a high-velocity rifle bullet; there should have been nothing to betray the position of the scouts. But previously unsuspected targeting systems automatically swiveled the vehicle-mounted weapons of the remaining God Kings and, as they locked on target, a storm of lasers and hypervelocity missiles swept back up range. In addition the subjects of the deceased reacted with hyperaggression, flailing the target points designated by the leader’s fire with a sleet of needle and rocket fire. In a series of eye-blinking detonations and searing laser strikes the locations of the scout teams were swept away in the storm of fire. Huge holes were blasted deep into the building under the concentrated fire of twenty vehicle-mounted weapons and twelve thousand hand weapons, and if the force-screens had any positive effect it was unappreciable. The scout platoon disappeared in an unnoticeable haze of blood.
There was a sound of retching on the staff circuit and Captain Vero was muttering “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” over and over on the command net. Other than that the nets were silent for a moment as the Posleen swept on unchecked. Their coordination suffered however; fewer of the Indowy bodies made it to the side and some of the front forces began trickling away into the buildings.
“Well,” said Lieutenant Colonel Youngman on the staff net, stepping on whoever was retching, “I stand corrected. The threat analysis was understated. Major Norton?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Get over to Saltren/Saltrev. Begin preparing fallback positions. I suspect we are not going to be in these positions for long. Ah, Lieutenant Eamons?” Unnoticed by the battalion commander, his AID switched him to the proper frequency.
“Yes, sir? Lieutenant Colonel Youngman?” the lieutenant was panting.
“Yes. I need you to set up cratering charges on Sisalav immediately.”
“I already did, sir and we’re mining the buildings now,” said the engineer officer in a sharp tone.
“Good initiative. It may save our butts. After that pull back to Saltren and start putting in all the concertina and mines you can lay your hands on.”
“Yes, sir.” Thank god he didn’t ask what kinds of mines. Like O’Neal thinks I can’t read a demolition program.
“Captain Brandon.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Youngman?” asked the company commander with a note of surprise.
“Yes. Prepare to cover the battalion’s withdrawal to Saltren and Saltrev. I intend to take the Posleen in a running ambush. Your unit is to dispose itself along the boulevard on both buildings and slow their advance. Then extract through the buildings and cross the avenues away from Sisalav.”
“Yes, sir. Sir, with all due respect, where the hell have you been? And where is Major Norton?”
“We’re both at the Forward TOC. Or we were, Major Norton is headed to Saltren to prepare the secondary positions.”
“Do you know that 1st of Charlie and Alpha 3rd were both overrun by the Indowy?” asked the company commander. The tone was one of fatigue and near despair.
“What?” asked the startled battalion commander.
“We haven’t been able to reach you for the last fifteen minutes. There is no one on the ground floors and we’ve lost three lasers so far. We are totally open on the ground on Qualtren.”
“Hold one.” The colonel left the net for a moment. “My RTO says he couldn’t get through to me either because he kept getting stepped on by Major Norton and myself.” The officer cursed quietly for a moment. “I hate these fucking suits,” he ended.
“Too late, sir. You need to contact Vero and Wright, ASAP. They’ve got some serious problems.”
“Too right. Uh, suit, connect me with all the company commanders. Are we live? Alpha Six, Charlie Six, Bravo Six. Stand by to engage the enemy. The building is being mined by the engineering platoon, you are authorized to provide assets as available. If necessary and on my command we will begin a fighting retreat to the same relative positions on the Sal Line. Bravo is to cover the retreat. Attempt to retake the heavy weapons positions as assets are available. There’s no time for questions just hit ’em low and hit ’em hard, that’s what we’re here for, Falcon Six, out.”