"It says... what the fuck?" Jefferson said.
"Jeffy, I seriously doubt that message reads 'what the fuck'. So what the fuck does it actually say?"
"Sorry, sarge," he said. "It says: 'Engage all main battle tanks within your zone immediately. Do not engage mobile guns. Primary targets are the MBTs."
"What the fuck?" Lon said.
"It must be a mistake," Horishito said. "It must be for Delta squad over on the avenue of advance."
"No," Jefferson said, "it is specifically made out to our squad and the other three squads on this perimeter."
Lon shook his head. "I hope they know what they're doing," he said. "All AT's, open up on the main battle tanks. Let's get it on."
They started with the closest tanks first since they would be the ones to put down the most accurate return fire. Three weapons flashed and three tanks exploded. At the same time, further away, three more tanks exploded as another squad two kilometers to their east opened up as well. The remaining tanks, alerted to the position of their tormentors by the flashes of the weapons, turned their turrets in their direction. They got off one more shot apiece before the eighty-millimeter shells came screaming in, showering the hillside with lethal shrapnel.
"Displace," Lon said calmly. "Move to position three."
They rolled down the hill just as the fire reached a furious intensity. Once at the bottom they trotted further into the hills and then worked their way westward, towards another two hills. They climbed them as quickly as possible and lay down on their stomachs.
"The guns are firing now," Lisa reported as she waited for her weapon to charge.
And indeed they were. All across the valley the long barrels were flashing, sending white streaks downrange toward the main line positions.
"Hope they got their heads down back at the line," Lon said. "Keep the fire up, guys. Two shots and then displace."
"Sarge," Horishito suddenly said. "Look to the west!"
Lon looked in that direction and saw a large dust cloud billowing up — the mark of a shitload of armored vehicles on the move. "Who in the hell is that?" he asked.
"There's another one!" Jefferson said. "From the other side of the valley!"
Lon looked and sure enough, more clouds of red dust were rising into the air from the other side.
"Reinforcements from the LZ?" Horishito asked.
"I don't know," Lon said. "I didn't think they had anything left to reinforce with. Jeffy, as soon as we displace after this next shot, send off a report on this to command."
"Right, sarge."
Lisa and the other two AT holders fired their shots, destroying three more WestHem tanks. They reloaded and then destroyed three more, displacing from the hill and moving to the next position. As they were climbing up Jefferson reported that a new message had come in.
"What is it?" Lon asked.
"'Martian main battle tanks in multi-battalion strength moving in on your position from the west and from the southwest to engage WestHem mobile guns. Continue to engage WestHem MBTs until Martian tanks get in range and then cease fire to avoid friendly casualties'."
"Martian MBTs?" Lisa asked. "That's what's making all that dust?"
"How in the fuck did they get out there?" Horishito asked.
"Son of a bitch," Lon said, suddenly understanding the strange progression of orders now. "Don't worry about how they got there. They're here. Get some fire on those WestHem tanks so they can do their job!"
Xenia stared intently at her gunnery screen, her hands on the twin laser cannon controls, her eyes looking at the terrain ahead, waiting for the first of the mobile guns to appear. They were moving at top speed for the terrain, more than ninety kilometers per hour and they were bouncing violently, their engine roaring. Both of her cannons were fully charged and ready to fire.
"Targets will be in range anytime," said Zen, who was monitoring the telemetry screen that was updated from the peepers circling overhead. "Special forces teams on the perimeter have been hitting the escort tanks and have taken out about half of them. They will disengage when we come into view. Xenia, hit the guns in our sector as soon as you see them but tanks will remain the primary target until they are all gone. Remember, the guns can't hurt us but the tanks can."
"Right, Zen," she said.
"Belinda, we drive full speed until we're right on top of them and then slow to a crawl. When they start to scatter we stick to our zone. Don't go chasing after the escapees. Someone else will get them. We stay put in our zone until its clear and then we go to whatever zone they assign us next."
"Right, Zen," she said.
"How's our fuel?" he asked.
"We're down to a third on hydrogen, a little more on O2."
"Okay, don't spare the fuel. Remember, they'll arrange for a way to get some out to us once the mission is over."
"Right."
They crested over a small rise in the land and suddenly the targets were there in front of them, hundreds of self-propelled artillery guns stretching from one end of the valley to the other, gather around in groups of four and eight.
"In range!" Zen yelled. "Light 'em up, X!"
"Fuckin' aye," she said, placing her targeting recticle on the first and squeezing the button. The gun exploded spectacularly, which much more force than a mere tank due to the higher volume of explosive shells contained within. She quickly panned to the right, covered another one, and sent it into oblivion.
"Nice shooting, X," Zen said. "Fire at will. Remember, get the tanks when you see them."
All around them the explosions began to flare as the other tanks opened fire as well. A tank suddenly appeared before them. It's laser flashed and there was an explosion somewhere behind them as a friendly tank went up.
"Target, tank," Zen yelled. "Ten o'clock! Six hundred meters."
"Got it," Xenia said, putting her recticle on it. Before she could fire, however, two other lasers from other tanks hit it at once, blowing its turret off.
"Never mind," Zen said. "Pop some more guns. I'm counting eleven of them in our sector."
She put her recticle on another target and fired. She then did it again.
By this time all artillery fire had stopped as the crews manning the guns and their commanders realized — perhaps a little belatedly — that somehow, some way, Martian tanks in overwhelming force were slamming into their formation and slaughtering them. They quickly folded up their guns and tried to make a run for it, scattering like ants whose anthill has been kicked over. There was no hope in running however. The guns could not hope to get away from front line tanks. They simply didn't have the speed.
The remaining WestHem tanks that had been assigned to guard duty were caught as off-guard as everyone else. They drove around in confusion for a few minutes, firing wildly at anything they could see, killing some of the Martian tanks — and their crews — but not nearly as many as they would have had they been organized in even the most rudimentary manner. They were blown up one by one and within three minutes they were all dead, leaving the rest of the mobile guns completely unprotected.
General Dakota Dickenson — commander of the WestHem forces in the Eden area of operation — at first thought the message his aide passed onto him was a particularly poor joke, that or some of the Martians hacking into their communications set and playing games.
"That's impossible!" he said. "There's no way the Martians could have gotten tanks into our rear area!"
"Sir," said Major Horshell, "I listened in on the transmission myself. Colonel Dallas of artillery command is out there in the middle of it in his APC. He sounded panicked, sir and he reports better than three hundred Martian tanks swept down on them from the west and are 'blowing the shit out of my guns'. He is requesting immediate tank support from the main advance."