Tenalasan looked to the north, waiting for the great tank, the “SheVa” to appear. It had so far cut through two groups that were supposed to stop it and was expected to come down the road at any moment. But so far there had been no shooting from the north, much less signs of the great beast.
The moon had set and the night would have been pitch black to humans. It was quite dark to the host as well, but their eyes expanded to drink in what light there was from the stars glittering overhead. The skies had cleared and the temperatures dropped, but as with most physical conditions that was of little interest to the Po’oslena’ar; they could survive temperatures that would kill an unprotected human.
Snow was bad not so much for the cold or the way it slowed them but because it meant little to forage. Away from their bases the Po’oslena’ar generally depended upon forage for food. They were designed for pure efficiency and could move for days on the food that a human would need for one. Eventually this caught up with them and they would have to feed, but in the meantime they would keep going.
His oolt had not properly fed in two days and it would probably be another day before he let them rummage in their food bags. They had been given a few scraps of flesh from the human thresh and more lately from the battles over the mountains, but it was not enough to build them back up. With luck the coming battle would go to them and then there would be much thresh upon which to feed.
But until then they must wait.
“I hate waiting,” Artenayard said. The younger Kessentai shifted his tenar from side to side idly and flapped his crest. “We should be moving out to find it.”
“We agreed to obey the estanaar,” Tenalasan replied. He had been in enough fights against the humans to appreciate waiting in ambush rather than throwing himself on their defenses. He didn’t like it, but it was better than dying.
“We should be moving with them,” the Kessentai snarled, gesturing at the solid line of Po’oslena’ar moving up the road. “They are taking the way to the riches! An untouched land is just over the mountains!”
“And if the SheVa reaches Franklin the entire advance will be cut off. So we wait.”
“Human ways!”
“Ways that work,” the older Kessentai replied. It was Artenayard’s first battle and so far it had consisted of lining up to pass through the Gap and then walking through the night. He would learn soon enough that humans were no joke to fight.
“It’s another ambush group,” Pruitt said, adjusting the angle of his gun.
“Yep, they’re learning,” Mitchell mused. “But they forgot something that less control would have given them.”
“What?”
“Flank security.”
The ground was starting to rumble and Bazzett leaned into his rifle as the first flight of 40mm went overhead. Since it was near its maximum range the spread was wider than normal but in a way that was good; it spread though half the Posleen force, throwing them quickly into disarray. A disarray to which the hastily dug-in infantry began to add.
“Who needs a Barrett?” he whispered as he zoomed in his scope on one God King that was just beginning to move and stroked the trigger.
Tenalasan backed his tenar and gestured to the east as Artenayard’s head exploded in yellow blood and brains.
“To the east!” he yelled, waving at his oolt’os as he began bonding Artenayard’s. “Attack to the east!”
“Pretty,” Mitchell said as the first monitor came in view of the Posleen. The force was splitting its fire between the SheVa and the troops on its flank, which was just fine by Mitchell. But that wouldn’t last long.
“Major LeBlanc, tell your troops to withdraw to their vehicles. Now.”
“Fall back!”
Bazzett looked over at the platoon sergeant and shook his head. “We’re good!”
“Orders!” the sergeant called. He was only an E-5 but he was the senior remaining NCO in the platoon. And the hard-core fucker was serious.
“What the fuck?” the specialist called, slithering out of his hole. The trees were being stripped of their branches by the fire pouring into the wood but most of it was, fortunately, going high. He slung his rifle and did a leopard crawl to the rear as fast as he could, noting other gray shadows in the trees. The Brads had pulled right into the edge of the wood, pushing over the saplings at the edge; the L-T must have been serious about pulling out.
“Into the Brads!” Wolf was running down the line slapping at stragglers. “Do NOT look towards the Posleen!”
“Colonel, we’re mostly loaded,” LeBlanc called dubiously. “And the Posties are coming hell bent for leather.”
“Works,” the colonel said. “Button up and prepare to move. Pruitt, fire.”
“Demon-shit!” Tenalasan shouted as the blast from the giant tank’s fire flipped scores of oolt’os and Kessentai through the air. But that was the least of his problems. Because this time the penetrator dug itself into Windy Gap Hill and blew the top off.
Besides the human buildings, the hill had been surmounted by Posleen, oolts that were trying to get reestablished after the fire from the snipers and MetalStorm packs and the reinforcing units just cresting the hill. All of them disappeared with the hilltop which now was dished out in a rather nice reverse hemisphere.
The majority of the granite at its heart was pulped to dust but the outer sections came off in the form of fast-moving rock, from gravel to boulders the size of cars, all of which lifted into the air and began flying in every direction.
As the silver-cored avalanche blasted outwards, Tenalasan flapped his crest in momentary wonder at human ingenuity in the field of killing.
“Quebec Eight-Six, move forward to finish off the survivors then sweep south.”
“Next stop, Franklin,” Pruitt said, loading another penetrator.
Glennis twisted the controls on her TC’s viewer and highlighted a group of Posleen that were still trying to move north on 28. It was pretty evident that the aliens hadn’t seen the tanks as they nosed out of the woodline and she preferred to keep it that way.
“Target, Posleen company.”
The battalion had moved through the remnants of the Posleen force then turned to the south, screening the SheVa and probing for resistance. There were still scattered forces both on the hills and moving up the road. But so far they hadn’t hit anything that managed to return fire, much less do damage. For once the humans had the Posleen off balance and that was just the way she liked it.
The gunner slewed the combo guns onto the target and fired a burst, turning most of the oolt into dog-meat. A few got off rounds in their general direction but the tank was still outside their range of accurate fire so all of their fire flew high or wide. Another burst finished those off and the unit rolled out of the thin covering of scrub and on towards Franklin.